Hedi Slimane + Phoenix.(MUSES)

While palling around with Phoenix on Manhattan's Lower East Side, designer Hedi Slimane could easily be mistaken for a member of the band. He speaks with the same Parisian accent, gets all their inside jokes, and has the rocker look. Slimane has a lanky frame, an intriguing pout, and above everything else, all the right clothes. He is wearing his own designs--from his black wool cutaway tailcoat and skinny jeans to the long scarf around his neck--just like the majority of the rock world. From Jagger and Bowie to tile Strokes and the Killers and lesser-known bands like the Rakes, everyone, it seems, wants to be seen in Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane. And the guys in Phoenix are no different, except that as fellow Parisian artists and residents of ultrahip St. Germain, they count the revered designer among their closest friends.

After meeting through a mutual friend while vacationing in Spain, Slimane and the guys in Phoenix became fast friends. While completing his first book of music photography, Stage, Slimane would visit Phoenix in the studio where they were recording their second album. "He would always bring his camera when visiting us," says front man Thomas Mars. "At the end of the ...