ZED’S DEAD Hedi, Mask

Sparks flew last spring when Hedi Slimane, the slimline designer at Dior Homme responsible for making wealthy men worldwide look like they’d accidentally shrunken their tailored pinstripes in the dryer, had the audacity to decline a line under the umbrella of luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, citing “creative differences.”

Since then, rumors have scuttled around that the DJing scissor wizard is at work on his own label, to emerge at some point in the future. But he’s been keeping his creative juices flowing by following the lead of Karl Lagerfeld and taking up a camera. And in case you’ve been yearning for a taste of Hedi’s point of view, he debuted images from his personal photo diary this week on his website.

There are the inevitable shots of underfed teens partying like the MisShapes were still cool; the grainy black-and-white images of angsty hipsters doing what angsty hipsters do; and the usual high-fashion images of peeps in gimp masks, hoods, and blindfolds. Perhaps a hint as to Slimane’s inspiration for his nascent collection?