(Paris) A page is turning in the luxury world: designer Hedi Slimane is leaving his position as artistic director of the house Celine, where he joined in January 2018, reigniting speculation about his future and that of Chanel.
Alongside Tom Ford, John Galliano, Simon Porte Jacquemus and Carine Roitfeld, her name is among those returning to succeed Virginie Viard, heir to Karl Lagerfeld, since she left the artistic direction of the house in June.
Rumors of Slimane’s departure, aged 56, were rife, but were only confirmed on Wednesday, just after the close of Paris Fashion Week.
He will be replaced from the start of 2025 by the designer Michael Rider, who worked for Balenciaga and… Celine, with Phoebe Philo.
Under the “artistic and creative direction of Hedi Slimane, Celine has experienced exceptional growth,” praised LVMH, to which the label belongs, in a press release.
The designer, one of the most influential and mysterious of his generation, has “made it possible to redraw the codes” of the brand “while reaffirming its feminine and Parisian roots”, continues the luxury group. He also developed haute perfumery and men’s clothing.
Nothing surprising for the man who imposed his favorite silhouette – tight pants and narrow black jacket – in the world of fashion and beyond, revolutionizing men’s wardrobe by adapting it to young partygoers.
Some specialists even speak of a before and after Slimane. As for Karl Lagerfeld, he boasted of having lost 40 kg in the 2000s to be able to wear the designer’s skimpy suits.
“Silver Hands”
This son of a Tunisian accountant and an Italian seamstress, born in Paris and having studied at the École du Louvre, was the first designer of men’s collections to receive in 2002 the prize from the Council of American Fashion Designers, the more sought after.
Sometimes nicknamed “Hedi Scissorhands”, he was artistic director of Dior Homme from 2000 to 2007, then of Saint Laurent from 2012 to 2016. Between this date and his arrival at Celine, he devoted himself to photography , his other passion.
In the French house, he succeeded the British Phoebe Philo who had forged, over the last ten years, the very strong identity of the brand, with her sport-chic, romantic and refined touch.
He tried to shake up this bourgeois look by infusing it with a rock feel, which was initially poorly received by the Anglo-Saxon press.
His first show for Celine in 2018, Nocturnal newspaper of Parisian youthtook place at Les Invalides in a space transformed into a nightclub. In the spotlight, short black dresses and ankle boots.
Night World
“I worked a lot on black effects (…), lacquered, satin, glossy, coppery as opposed to dullness,” the designer emphasized in an extremely rare interview with Figarowhere he explained that he invented his famous silhouette because as a teenager, he “floated in everything”.
After this first poorly understood fashion show, he was inspired by bourgeois elegance and the codes of “theupper class to better divert them.”
Following a mixed fashion show in February 2020, with a romantic allure, Celine left the official Parisian fashion calendar, deeming it “obsolete”.
Hedi Slimane then presents his men’s and women’s collections at his own pace, through films shot in Nice or in castles.
In February 2023, he made a sensational return to the catwalks by taking over the Palace where Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Serge Gainsbourg and Mick Jagger spent wild nights. “It is a place dear to Hedi Slimane that he frequented from the age of 16, which sparked his future as a fashion designer and where he celebrated his 50th birthday in July 2018,” according to the show notes.