Francois-Henri Pinault has backed Hedi Slimane's debut collection.
The CEO and chairman of PPR - who owns Yves Saint Laurent - is fully behind Hedi's Spring/Summer 2013 Saint Laurent clothing line and has praised the designer on his first show for the French fashion brand.
Francois-Henri said: "Hedi Slimane did a remarkable job. I liked last Monday's fashion show (01.10.12) very much - the Saint Laurent collection exceeded my expectations.
"The house needed both a renovation and a return to its roots and, with Hedi, we have started down that road.
"I totally stand by the house of Yves Saint Laurent and the decisions made by its teams or its artistic director, and I didn't appreciate that some people tried to use me by linking my name to chatter about invitations or the seating of this or that person."
The businessman also revealed that interest from buyers and retailers was positive earlier on, and despite the ready-to-wear show not exceeding critics' expectations it served a commercial success.
He added to WWD: "The initial sales trend that we're seeing at the showroom since the fashion show is very encouraging."
The ongoing feud between Hedi and fashion critic Cathy Horyn - which came about after a negative review by the writer in 2004 - heated up in the build-up to the designer's debut as the writer was not invited to the Paris show earlier this year so wrote a review based on only digital photos.
Cathy said the collection "lacked fashion spirit", with Hedi calling her a "schoolyard bully" in response via an open letter on twitter.
She insisted the name-calling was "silly nonsense," but the designer hit back at "Catty Horyn", calling her "an embarrassment".
