It’s been almost 7 months since Hedi Slimane left Celine, with Michael Rider taking his place, and as excited as we are for Rider’s debut in July, we can’t help but reminisce on the good ol’ Hedi days. From completely flipping previous designer Phoebe Philo’s minimalistic, elegant aesthetic on its head to controversially taking the accent off Celine’s ‘e’, his tenure had all the drama we’ve been missing.
Hedi Slimane joined Celine in 2019 after taking a three-year break from his time at Saint Laurent and, like anything he does, it was controversial. Hedi’s work is kind of like Marmite: you either loved it or you hated it and it’s easy to see why. He’s refined his aesthetic so much - to the point where he’s able to bring his signature look to any fashion house he ends up in, no matter what it looked like before.
If you look into it deeper, though, Hedi’s work at Celine was pretty different to his previous work. He leaned strongly into the ‘70s aesthetic, introducing more wide and flared jeans (yep, the Kendrick Super Bowl ones) with brighter colours and a Parisian touch as a compromise to the Celine DNA. Don’t get it twisted tho, the black leather and skinny jeans never left the chat.
Even though some OG Phoebe Celine fans weren’t sold on his changes, the numbers don’t lie. Hedi more than doubled revenue during his time there, rising to €2.6 billion in 2023 which made it LVMH’s third biggest fashion brand, overtaking Fendi and sitting behind Dior and Louis Vuitton. Say what you want about him but you can’t deny the man can sell and the people love it.
It takes a certain confidence (and balls) to make a brand with such a rich heritage like Celine your own and Hedi did just that. As much as it p*ssed some people off, we can’t help but commend him for it. From his signature designs to his incredible world building (that brought us his amazing fragrances), many designers strive to have a look as recognisable as Hedi Slimane, and it’s not hard to see why. Featured image via ©
More on Culted
See: OPIA, the winners of the IoDF Creators Fund, talk disrupting fashion
See: Meet Ella Douglas, the winner of our design project with Bentley and Central Saint Martins
