THE NEW CELINE

Since his departure from Saint Laurent in 2016, Hedi Slimane has kept many guessing over his next move in fashion. In January 2018, they had their answer when Slimane was named artistic, creative and image director of the new CELINE. Not only has he taken over the creative helm from Phoebe Philo, he is also set to expand offerings to menswear, couture and fragrances.

People expected the 50-year-old French enfant terrible to stay faithful to his rock chic waifs in skinny silhouettes, and they weren’t wrong.

A pair of drummers in the ceremonial uniforms of the Garde Républicaine heralded the new CELINE before mirrored walls parted to reveal Slimane’s first look of the Paris La Nuit collection: a polka-dot minidress with an outsize bow on the bust, worn with biker boots and topped off with the Parisian Bibi Hat, a nod to the night he spent at legendary nightclub Le Palace and Les Bains Douche.

There were “dancing dresses” worn under jackets with sharp shoulders or bold sleeves, but girls also wore his signature skinny suit and biker jumpsuit.

For the boys: “novö”-style jackets in a rectangular silhouette paired with horizontal-striped slim ties, inspired by the jeunes gens modernes movement, and hanging two-pleat trousers, Celine-collar shirts and suits that evoked French contemporary “cold wave” music.

“A designer is someone who expresses himself authentically through what he feels. Each has his way to tell about his time. My perception of fashion has always been influenced by a certain classicism and the legacy of couture, the spirit of Paris, where I was born and where I grew up, day and night,” he said.