Au Revoir Hedi: Celine announces Slimane’s departure after seven years at the helm of the brand

Open­ing Image Irv­ing Penn for VOGUE, May 2001
Words Leelou Reboh

2024 seems to be the year of change among the most renowned fash­ion hous­es. After Bur­ton at McQueen and Pic­ci­oli at Valenti­no, it is now Slimane’s turn to make his exit from Celine after his sev­en years tenure as Cre­ative Direc­tor of the French fash­ion label. Leav­ing a lega­cy of time­less ele­gance and unmis­tak­able prep­pi­ness behind him, Sli­mane will be remem­bered as one of the pio­neers of the brand, tak­ing Celine’s cre­ative iden­ti­ty to new, untouch­able heights. In cel­e­bra­tion of the designer’s mas­tery, OVERDUE looks back on some of the best Celine moments signed Hedi Slimane.

Autumn/Winter 2018

How could one for­get about Slimane’s first col­lec­tion at Celine? The designer’s inten­tions for the brand became clear as soon as the mod­els were seen wear­ing the gar­ments, mark­ing a stark depar­ture from his pre­de­ces­sor Phoebe Philo’s cre­ative direc­tion. The sil­hou­ettes were clean and refined, care­ful­ly tai­lored to ensure their time­less­ness. The col­lec­tion fea­tured a vast array of coats, rang­ing from clas­sic trench­es to leather car coats gath­ered at the shoul­ders, to more play­ful pieces like a bouclé win­ter coat. In this peri­od of tran­si­tion from Philo’s estab­lished aes­thet­ic, Sli­mane opt­ed to piv­ot towards more neu­tral tones, yet kept up with the pre­vi­ous col­lec­tions’ play­ful­ness by intro­duc­ing asym­met­ri­cal lines to oth­er­wise clas­sic pieces. Knots were tied across patch­work silk dress­es, and brooches were used to gath­er the back of a sweater or the front of a midi-length knit­ted dress. Look­ing back on this col­lec­tion, it might feel miles away from what Sli­mane show­cased for his last sea­son at Celine. How­ev­er, this clas­sic yet struc­tur­al approach for Spring/Summer 2018 con­sti­tut­ed con­sti­tut­ed inte­gral ground­work from him to build his vision upon.

Spring/Summer 2020

The sum­mer of 2020, Hedi Sli­mane intro­duced boho to the wardrobe of his Celine girls. Far from his pre­vi­ous work for the label, Spring/Summer 2020 was the sea­son of roman­tic sev­en­ties sil­hou­ettes, funky pars­ley print, and dou­ble den­im. With the casu­al looks and smudged eye make-up, Sli­mane gave his pre­vi­ous­ly very put-togeth­er designs a messy chic flare. Accents of leather and fur punc­tu­at­ed the cat­walk, and pro­gres­sive­ly estab­lished that the Celine girl had out­grown Slimane’s straight lines and sleek looks. The inde­pen­dence she gained through­out the sea­sons made her more met­ro­pol­i­tan than ever, and the design­er gave her the per­fect uni­form for her to roam around the chaot­i­cal­ly busy streets of Paris. Sli­mane seam­less­ly tran­si­tioned back and forth from day­wear to night­wear, like the bustling lifestyle the Celine girl was now lead­ing in the French cap­i­tal. The line between days and nights might’ve blurred, but not once did she lose her infal­li­ble chic­ness. She taught us all a les­son in style, prov­ing that all you need­ed in your wardrobe was a sta­ple pair of boots, good den­im, and a show-stop­ping gold­en dress to make a fash­ion­able impression. 

Autumn/Winter 2023

It is through his Autumn/Winter 2023 col­lec­tion that Sli­mane explored the poten­tial of the Celine par­ty girl. Although he’d already giv­en us a pre­view of what she might wear on a night out in his Spring/Summer 2020 col­lec­tion, she reach­es full bloom this sea­son. She mar­ries prep­py with edge, com­bin­ing capes with leather leg­gings, and tweed suits with bik­er boots. As for each sea­son, Sli­mane mould­ed her to be the epit­o­me of the French girl: effort­less­ly cool. This sea­son espe­cial­ly, she doesn’t seem to be try­ing. Each and every piece she owns is a head turn, and the design­er cap­i­talis­es on the desir­abil­i­ty of this per­sona he care­ful­ly craft­ed over the years. The Celine girl is more than a sym­bol for the house, she’s a true influ­ence with­in fash­ion. She’s the It-Girl, adorned in fur and sequins. Sli­mane also intro­duces male mod­els to his wom­enswear cat­walk for the first time, demon­strat­ing that cloth­ing knows no gen­der, so long as it makes you look good. This col­lec­tion feels like a turn­ing point for the French fash­ion house: her edgy style, almost as though mutu­al­ly influ­enced with her con­tem­po­raries at Saint Lau­rent under Antho­ny Vacarello’s direc­tion, has reached its pin­na­cle, and she is ready to move on. Slimane’s cre­ative vision goes on to change dras­ti­cal­ly for much more clas­sic sil­hou­ettes, echo­ing the Fash­ion House’s orig­i­nal prep­py girl aesthetic.

Spring/Summer 2025

Sli­mane obvi­ous­ly couldn’t go out with­out a bang, and his last col­lec­tion for Celine, Spring/Summer 2025, is the cul­mi­na­tion of his years at the label’s helm of design. Titled ‘Un été français’, the col­lec­tion per­fect­ly encap­su­lates the vision the design­er has been build­ing over the years. Sli­mane reminds us that the Celine girls are, before any­thing else, inher­ent­ly chic. All ban­deau-ed and banged up, they wan­der around the French coun­try­side in their par­ty gowns, exper­i­ment­ing with frilled neck­lines, or opt­ing for a sequin baby­doll dress to dress up the part. Find­ing refuge in the paint­ings dec­o­rat­ing the walls of their hol­i­day homes, their idea of com­fort trans­lates to refined sum­mer cash­mere ensem­bles — fit­ted blaz­ers paired with just-above-the-knee pleat­ed skirts — acces­sorised with silk hand­ker­chiefs tied in a bow, or let­ting ruf­fled col­lars flow through the but­toned jack­ets. Behind her con­fi­dent allure, the Celine girl hides an unat­tain­able fragili­ty reflect­ed through the del­i­cate nature of the crafts­man­ship of the gar­ment she adorns. For Spring/Summer 2025, Sli­mane grants us a peep into this vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty as a part­ing gift before with­draw­ing him­self from the nar­ra­tive, allow­ing the Celine girl to grow into a woman with­out him.

Michael Rid­er has now been passed the reins of Celine, hav­ing worked as senior design­er at the brand under Phoebe Phi­lo for a decade before being appoint­ed as Cre­ative Direc­tor of Ralph Lau­ren. His inti­mate knowl­edge of the House­’s val­ues makes him the per­fect can­di­date to uphold the lega­cy estab­lished by Slimane.