EDITO

by Nathalie Azoulai

Hedi Slimane just released his new ad campaign for Saint Laurent. Among the views, one shows an androgynous model that could be both a boy or a girl. Once again, Hedi wants us to wonder and to keep our eyes mesmerized by his deceiving picture. The longest you stare, the longest the brand will haunt your mind. Of course. But aware audiences always struggle to escape from ad strategies and look for other ways out. Such as references. Remember beautiful Betty by German painter Gerhard Richter. Richter doesn't play with sex riddles but all the same he stages the untellable mystery of a face, the clue being the same bouffant blond strands at the back of the head, staring at you like two blindfolds to undo.

 Gerhard Richter

 Hedi Slimane