Learning this morning that Hedi Slimane is officially leaving Celine, a colleague asked me crazy: “Do you think they’re going to put the accent back on the e?” » The rebranding of the French house founded in 1945 was one of the great feats of arms of Hedi Slimane, a creator as virtuoso as he is silent, who succeeded with Celine (without an accent, therefore) in the nevertheless perilous mission of succeeding the English Phoebe Philo, the first priestess of minimalism who became the absolute heroine of fashion in the early 2000s. Today, the man has the silhouette of an eternal adolescent, always fascinated by the creative currents of Anglo youth -Saxon, leaves.
This is not a surprise, as the rumor was so tenacious of friction, despite the phenomenal success of the brand, whose bags, shoes and belts have become over the years the absolute reference for fashionable girls. Because Celine, without an accent, is a brand that is really popular. Its iconic clasp, inspired by the architecture of Place de l’Etoile, is a signature that can be found on the streets of Paris as well as those of New York, London, Seoul and Abu Dhabi. The bourgeois look of the Celine woman, the Ozempic chic of her male alter ego are also embodied in haute perfumery, objects, and boutique furniture. A total vision of the brand carried by campaigns photographed by Hedi Slimane himself, a total creator who, after six years, decided to say goodbye to the house, and, therefore, to the LVMH group to which it belongs.
The fashion transfer window remains highly feverish
This is not the first time that Hedi Slimane has bowed out within the world’s number one luxury group (his departure from Dior, in 2007, after years of such thunderous success that Karl Lagerfeld himself had decided to lose weight to wear his clothes, had already had the effect of a bomb in the fashion world While rumors are rife about a hypothetical arrival of Slimane at Chanel, which for its part maintains the mystery over Virginie’s succession. Viard with an art of secrecy worthy of a Swiss banker, Celine took the lead A little before 4 p.m., the house announced the arrival at the head of the studio of Michael Rider, the American until now. work at Polo Ralph Lauren His name had already circulated last spring: here is a confirmed rumor.
But the fashion transfer window remains highly feverish. While betting is heating up on the rue Cambon side (Hedi Slimane being, like Simon Porte Jacquemus, at the top of the list of fashion bookmakers), Haider Ackermann like Pier Paolo Piccioli are also on the market. This is no longer the case for the Italian Alessandro Michele who has just joined Valentino. The rapid succession at Celine should not calm the transfer window… As for the accent on the “e”, we will see if Michael Rider – who worked at Céline with Phoebe Philo, as well as at Balenciaga – will now belong to him to resurrect him or not.
