Hedi Slimane leaves Celine, replaced by Michael Rider

The long-awaited news came the day after the end of Paris Fashion Week. Hedi Slimane leaves Celine. The luxury house of LVMH announces in a brief press release the departure of its emblematic artistic director, confirming the rumors which have been circulating for weeks and would soon see him appointed to Chanel. A little later in the day, Michael Rider was announced as the new artistic director of Celine effective January 2025.

Under the artistic and creative direction of Hedi Slimane since January 2018, “Celine has experienced exceptional growth and established itself as an essential French fashion house. Hedi Slimane’s holistic vision, his high standards and his rigor, have enabled to redesign Celine’s codes while reaffirming its feminine and Parisian roots”, declares the brand in its note.

And to recall that Hedi Slimane “has also remarkably enriched the territories of expression of the house with the masculine silhouette, couture and haute perfumery”. “The extraordinary path traveled together over the last seven years makes Celine a house with formidable foundations for the future,” concludes the label, which to replace it called on the American Michael Rider. He knows the house well, since he worked for around ten years between 2008 and 2018, as creative director of ready-to-wear under the direction of Phoebe Philo.

A graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island, the stylist previously worked at Balenciaga, from 2004 to 2008, as a senior designer under the aegis of Nicolas Ghesquière. When Phoebe Philo left Celine to give way to Hedi Slimane, Michael Rider transferred to New York to take over as creative director of the Polo Ralph Lauren line. Position from which he resigned a few months ago.

In seven years, Hedi Slimane has completely overhauled Celine, repositioning it in the very high end with the launch of a “haute perfumery” collection and a line of “haute leather goods”, the artisanal know-how ranging from matched with his creative vision. The group does not publish the results of the label, which is managed by Séverine Merle. According to some sources, turnover increased from 500 million euros in 2017 to a figure between 2.5 and 3 billion today.

If with his sexy rock style the designer suffered strong criticism during his first shows, he was able to rectify the situation and fulfill his contract. The Parisian boho chic spirit that he infused into the collections has managed to seduce buyers once again, while rejuvenating the clientele with pieces that are both easy and desirable, such as jeans.

The designer notably reworked the visual identity of the brand from top to bottom, from the logo to the name, depriving Celine of her accent, including social networks and advertising campaigns most often shot directly by him. He also redesigned the layout of the stores, while openings increased, as did hiring. Above all, he broadened the offering by launching, beyond accessories, Celine’s very first men’s line, which immediately attracted retailers, delighted to find the menswear by Hedi Slimane, his always strong point.

After Dior, then Saint Laurent, the designer closes the Celine chapter. With his latest collection for the brand, that of spring-summer 2025 unveiled a few days ago, Hedi Slimane did not fail to revive speculation on his potential arrival on rue Cambon, via numerous nods to the universe of Chanel like tweed suits, white and black and several sparkling details. A hypothesis that was already making headlines before her arrival at Celine.

Chanel parted ways last June with its creative director Virginie Viard, and on Tuesday she presented a collection produced by her in-house studio. During the show, Bruno Pavlovsky, president of the Fashion and Crafts division and of Chanel SAS, the group’s subsidiary in France, avoided the question about the future artistic director of the house. But a name should soon come out of the hat and Hedi Slimane, who, at Dior Homme as well as at Saint Laurent and Celine, knew how to meet a large audience, while making sales explode, displays the right profile.

Before Celine, the stylist successfully revitalized Saint Laurent via a radical revolution, sparking, upon his arrival in March 2012 at the head of the creative direction of the label owned by Kering, an almost hysterical expectation, after a interlude of a few years devoted to photography, his other passion. Before, he led menswear at Dior from 2000 to 2007. He gave men’s fashion a real boost at the time, imposing an androgynous spirit with slender, very close-fitting silhouettes, which became his signature.

Known for his strong temperament, the fashion genius could nevertheless have difficulty imposing his method, which consists of closely controlling all aspects of a brand, in a group of the size of Chanel, as long as he takes charge, without delegating anything to anyone. Furthermore, until now he has applied a single recipe, focused on his very personal vision, which remains very identifiable and linked to his own image.