He studied Art History at the École du Louvre and completed a tailor apprenticeship at a men's designer house.

[8] From 1992 to 1995 he assisted fashion consultant and press agent Jean-Jacques Picart on the centenary of the project "monogram canvas[10]" of Louis Vuitton.

Picart introduced Slimane to Pierre Bergé, who was searching for a men's wear designer for Yves Saint Laurent.

[6][8] One report describes his designs' sex appeal as, "not based on over-the-top embellishment ... rather, it comes from the same honest principles that have always driven fashion: cut, proportion and silhouette.

[17] Although he never designed a womenswear collection, he dressed female celebrities including Madonna and Nicole Kidman during his tenure at Dior.

[18] He also created stagewear for groups such as The Libertines, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, and The Kills, and artists such as Mick Jagger, Beck, and Jack White.

[19][20][21][22] Slimane commissioned original soundtracks for his runway shows for Dior Homme, created by artists such as Beck, Readymade FC (Jean-Philippe Verdin), and bands such as Phoenix, The Rakes, and Razorlight.

[27] In July 2020, Hedi Slimane presented his men's spring-summer 2021 collection in a video shot at the Castelet circuit in France[28][29] during confinement.

[37] In April 2021, Hedi Slimane presented his Fall-Winter 2021 women's collection in a video shot at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

[40] Published notes accompanying the show quote him as saying, "[I] wanted to pay tribute to the institution and remember this moment in [my] menswear reform.

[53][54][42] He also opened boutiques dedicated to this new Haute Parfumerie collection, first on Rue Saint Honoré,[55] then at Le Bon Marché in Paris,[56] as well as Harrods in London.

[64] In April 2024, Hedi Slimane created Zouzou, the latest fragrance of his Haute Parfumerie collection for Celine.

While 9 of these perfumes are for the day (Parade, Saint-Germain-Des-Prés, Cologne Française, La Peau Nue, Zouzou, Rimbaud, Bois Dormant and Eau de Californie), the others are designed for the night (Reptile, Black Tie and Nightclubbing).

Celine Beauty includes the lipstick "Rouge Triomphe" (released in autumn 2024), the first shade in a collection of fifteen announced in January 2025.

[75][76][77] Immediately after leaving Yves Saint Laurent, Slimane moved to Berlin, whereupon the invitation by curator Klaus Biesenbach, he took up a residency at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art between 2000 and 2002.

London Birth of a Cult, released by Steidl in 2005, described the daily life of a young, unknown British rock star Pete Doherty.

[80][81] In 2011, he curated "Myths and Legends of Los Angeles" a group show of Californian artists, including John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Chris Burden, Sterling Ruby, Mark Hagen, and Patrick Hill at Almine Rech Gallery in Paris and Brussels.

His own work was shown in 2011 at the MOCA, where Slimane presented a photographic installation that showcased an archive of images from his California period.

Commissioned for the 2011 debut issue of Garage, a magazine created by Dasha Zhukova, Slimane designed one of the three versions of the publication's covers.