Photo: Getty Imges/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
After a season of fashion shows marked by widespread speculation about designers jumping from major label to major label, Celine is the first to announce a big change. The LVMH brand’s creative, artistic, and image director, the skinny-suit king, Hedi Slimane, is officially out after seven years with the label, which more than doubled in revenue under his tenure and expanded into menswear, fragrance, and beauty. (Analysts estimate the brand brings in more than $2.5 billion in annual sales.)
On Wednesday, Celine also announced that Slimane’s successor is Michael Rider, an American designer whose exit from Polo Ralph Lauren back in May was widely seen to mean he was next in line at Celine. Rider was the design director of ready-to-wear at Celine for a decade under Phoebe Philo. He will begin his new job as Celine’s artistic director based in Paris in the new year.
Celine
On Sunday, Slimane released his final collection for Celine in a picturesque video, his preferred format since the pandemic. The collection, which continued his recent focus on 1960s silhouettes and featured prim, short skirt suits, struck many critics and viewers as Chanel-coded. Could Slimane be headed to Chanel? Rumors that he was leaving Celine started even before Virginie Viard stepped down from the top job at Chanel in June, but Slimane’s name has since been in the mix as a potential successor since then.
“Slimane is an obvious choice, and I think he’d be a good one,” wrote Cathy Horyn in June. “He knows how to unpack a historical brand, as he did with Saint Laurent, and at the same time avoid the dull history bits.”
Slimane is a famously demanding hire, one of the few luxury designers who insists on controlling everything from the advertisement campaigns to the clothes. When he took over Kering’s Saint Laurent, he relocated the design studio to Los Angeles and dropped “Yves” from the brand’s name. At Celine, he also redid the logo and did away with most of the remnants of its influential Phoebe Philo era. His first collections drew backlash from many critics, given how jarring the shift was from Philo’s understated silhouettes to his micro-miniskirts and leather jackets. But the furor faded and Slimane’s more recent collections, which have taken inspiration from Gen-Z influencers and the 1970s French bourgeoisie uniforms, have proved more popular with both critics and shoppers.
Slimane’s exit adds to the intrigue around the top designer jobs at the moment. Besides the big opening at Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Alberta Ferretti are looking for new designers. And job changes have been rumored to be coming to Gucci, Dior, Fendi, and Margiela, giving the whole industry a palpable sense of uncertainty.
Photo: Getty Imges/Getty Images for CELINEPhoto: Getty Imges/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Getty Imges/WWD via Getty ImagesPhoto: Getty Imges/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Getty Imges/Getty Images
