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"The who-what-where fashion rumor mill has been running on overdrive for a year now&amp;amp;#8212;ever since John Galliano was ousted from his perch at Christian Dior last winter&amp;amp;#8212;and this week, it&amp;#x27;s reached an all-time frenzy. Amidst the biannual brouhaha of European collections (everyone&amp;#x27;s in Milan right now, then onto Paris later this week), news broke that Raf Simons would leave his creative director post at Jil Sander on Monday. Today, even wilder reports have surfaced&amp;amp;#8212;that Hedi Slimane, who, after revolutionizing the menswear scene as the director at Dior Homme in the early-2000s took a sabbatical to go live in Hollywood and pursue other creative works, is back in the game. Agence France Press (AFP) reported this afternoon that Slimane has inked a deal to take the reins at Yves Saint Laurent once now-creative director Stefano Pilati&amp;#x27;s contract expires next month. The news agency writes:&amp;quot;The contract has been signed by both sides,&amp;quot; one fashion insider said. &amp;quot;He is becoming the new director at Yves Saint Laurent.&amp;quot; Other sources said the appointment was to be officially announced in the coming week. Paris Fashion Week runs from February 28 to March 7. A spokesman for the PPR group, which owns YSL, declined to comment.The report was quickly followed by a story in industry paper WWD, which noted:If the move is confirmed, Slimane would replace Stefano Pilati who was rumoured late last year to be planning to part ways with the brand. In September, YSL issued a statement denying Pilati was leaving, reacting to speculation he could be replaced by Raf Simons, designer at Jil Sander. Jil Sander said on Thursday that Belgian Simons would leave the fashion house at the end of February. On Friday, the brand&amp;#x27;s German eponymous founder confirmed that she was returning to the label she created 40 years ago.Compounded with this are the recent spate of rumors that place Raf Simons squarely in line to succeed Galliano at Dior&amp;amp;#8212;a report in a December issue of WWD stated:A deal with Simons, 43, has yet to be concluded, and sources cautioned that several key details must be worked out. Chief among them would be a start date, given that Simons, creative director at Jil Sander since 2005, would have to unravel his contract with that Milan-based house, which is understood to have been extended recently for an unknown duration.Now that Simons is finished and done with Jil Sander, there seems to be little standing in between him and the Dior helm. What do you think about all this? It&amp;#x27;s all quite exciting, really&amp;amp;#8212;these are three formidable talents who&amp;#x27;ve done great, revolutionary things in the fashion industry. Hedi Slimane will, surely, be welcomed back into the fashion industry with open arms&amp;amp;#8212;I mean, the man is, like, the definition and embodiment of cool&amp;amp;#8212;and anything Raf does, people will watch (and want). The only thing is&amp;amp;#8212;where does this leave Stefano Pilati? After being dogged for years by vicious rumors of a never-materialized imminent departure from YSL, is this really it for Pilati? Where will he go next? No matter what, he&amp;#x27;s sure to land on his feet. THE BACKSTORY... &amp;amp;#183; Rumormongering: Raf Simons to take the reins at Dior? &amp;amp;#183; Raf Simons is leaving Jil Sander! &amp;amp;#183; Rumors of designer shuffling at YSL and Chanel"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/dressed/2012/02/report-hedi-slimane-to-helm-yv>