Celine F/W 2023.24 Los Angeles

[george5]

twitter.com/BinkleyOnStyle

 

[LadyJunon]

Please correct the year, I'm begging you.

 

[Overindulgence]

I was lucky enough to attend this event. A lot of it still looked rather Kate Moss circa 2000s - I was shocked by the amount of skinny jeans though (and wide brim hats)...but he's still a supporter of it and still going hard on the indie sleaze look. The White Stripes song on loop was redundant. Overall, it was Hedi Slimane by the books - I wonder if it will be one of his final collections for the Celine or not (it didn't feel grand enough to be so tbh).

 

[Kimihiro]

I was lucky enough to attend this event. A lot of it still looked Kate Moss circa 2000s - I was shocked by the amount of skinny jeans though (and wide brim hats)...but he's still a supporter of it and still going hard on the indie sleaze look. The White Stripes song on loop was redundant.

How were the clothes though?

 

[LadyJunon]

 

[tricotineacetat]

Unless you're really into that particular aesthetic, it surprises me that the term 'brand fatigue' hasn't been applied to Hedi Slimane's work at Saint Laurent and Celine, since most of the collections blend into one another rather seamlessly and you could thus replicate the look from existing pieces you might already have, if you were a devoted fan - How many Cuban heeled boots, smoking jackets and beaded chasseur jackets does it take till the paying customer grows tired?

 

[Overindulgence]

How were the clothes though?

To me, it looked like a culmination of all of the Celine womenswear collections (from 2019 to present day) into one. Skinny jeans, knee high boots, mini dresses, sequin dresses and jackets, skinny scarves, big sunglasses, faux fur jackets.

 

[LadyJunon]

Unless you're really into that particular aesthetic, it surprises me that the term 'brand fatigue' hasn't been applied to Hedi Slimane's work at Saint Laurent and Celine, since most of the collections blend into one another rather seamlessly and you could thus replicate the look from existing pieces you might already have, if you were a devoted fan - How many Cuban heeled boots, smoking jackets and beaded chasseur jackets does it take till the paying customer grows tired?

I think that's because Hedi's clothes fit better into more conventional tastes than Michele's and Demna's ever will. Armani, MGC, Viard and "the Hermès b*tch" have that strength too.

My question is: How does he not bore himself to death with what he's doing at Celine?

P.S.: I've taken the shot of the finale for my profile picture.

 

[Kimihiro]

My question is: How does he not bore himself to death with what he's doing at Celine?

I guess money and full creative control does the trick. Even the music is tiresome. But the perk of doing what you like and getting paid for it is good. He gets to do the stores, the photography and styling so all is well. Even the shows. He has plenty to do than offer new propositions.

Take away the rock styling, stage pieces and the shows and his clothes, separated are something that really anyone could wear without looking stupid, any time. They’re all staples, albeit boring, regurgitated ones. Like a shot of botox, reliable.

 

[Frederic01]

CLAUDE ROUDIL IG

 

[Frederic01]

CLAUDE ROUDIL IG

 

[Frederic01]

GETTY IMAGES

 

[Frederic01]

The dresses in the finale was very deja-vu with the finale of his Saint Laurent Spring Summer 2016 womenswear collection...

 

[disco54]

It is so dated , boring and sad.

 

[yslforever]

I think that's because Hedi's clothes fit better into more conventional tastes than Michele's and Demna's ever will. Armani, MGC, Viard and "the Hermès b*tch" have that strength too.

My question is: How does he not bore himself to death with what he's doing at Celine?

P.S.: I've taken the shot of the finale for my profile picture.

I think that after Phoebe Philo, the LVMH brief for Celine was "enough of fashion, we are going full luxury brand". Hedi probably agreed with that brief too, with the added bonus of having full control of all aspects. So basically fashion is secondary to luxury at Celine, they are aiming to become Hermès-Chanel lite. So they have no desire to revolutionize fashion or even their own clothes every seasons. Imho, the exception being the menswear: Hedi is allowing himself more creativity there, and I see women buying both the rock menswear and the bourgeois womenswear.

 

[volft]

It is easy to blindly criticize when you're ignorant, so I will present some of Hedi's counter arguments on this topic for discussion:

“I like to pursue organically one single idea. How many styles can you have?” he says. “Singers—there’s a tessitura to each one: The first second you hear the voice. So: How to progress without being repetitive? That’s a question I find very interesting.”

I constantly use my own vocabulary, and the sense of repetition of the same signs, and semiotic, the permanence of a silhouette, or proportions, and overall representation. I always believed in repetition, pursuing endlessly the same idea. You cannot own more than one identified style and you need to evolve within the same codes. I transform and borrow constantly from my past collections, what I believe to be making sense or relevant today.

The couturier, not to be confused with a stylist, prints his personality, his commitment and his identifiable style, provided, ideally, that he has them. This does not prevent him, like a director whose style is recognised, from having a script, what you call the pedigree of the house.

Here's a "journalist" defending Alessandro's Gucci for being criticized for being one note. What she brings up can be directly used to understand Hedi as well.
I Will Miss Alessandro Michele’s Freaky, Geeky Gucci

The truth is most designers — even the ones who are very successful — just make good clothes that people want to buy because they seem relevant.

And even the ones who did change fashion didn’t really do it more than once. Having figured out their special thing, they pretty much stuck to it, season after season. (Hello, Armani jacket. How are you, Birkin bag?) That’s part of what convinced consumers that such items are worth investing in: their sheer longevity.

But now, it seems, that’s no longer enough. It’s not that Mr. Michele was making bad stuff; he was just making the same stuff, and that was no longer exciting stuff.

Perhaps it was inevitable. The chances of any designer producing two major fashion-changing ideas in one career are very small. Hedi Slimane, for one, has been doing Hedi Slimane no matter what brand’s name (Dior Homme, Saint Laurent, Celine) is over the door. Tom Ford’s Tom Ford isn’t very different from Tom Ford’s Gucci. John Galliano has switched gears at Maison Margiela from his Dior and Galliano days, true, trading his high romance and historicism for eclectic haute recycling, but as of yet, and good as it is, it hasn’t had the same impact.

But whether change should be demanded in the first place is a different question. Maybe refining the big idea, owning the big idea for posterity, rather than ceding it entirely, should be enough. At a certain point, endless disruption and reinvention becomes as tiresome as the same old, same old. And continual growth on a finite planet is a chimera that should be sent back to the fantasyland from which it arose.

Indeed, coming in the wake of the COP27 climate conference, and yet more public commitments to sustainability from all sides of the fashion industry, the Gucci switcheroo seems particularly ironic. After all, what usually happens when a brand opts for change at the top? Out with the old! If no longer to the dumpster or the incinerator, at least to the sale racks. More stuff, flooding the stores. Sustainability implies commitment to an idea of a brand, not just to biodegradable materials. It implies a long-term relationship, which has its own implicit value.

 

[kasper!]

I want Parisian chic, not LA trashy chic. Merci.

 

[Lola701]

Vanessa Bruno FW 2007…
I can appreciate the quality of Celine by Slimane in stores but not on the Runway.

Very obnoxious styling and proposition. It’s one thing to have an aesthetic but it’s also great to refresh it sometimes.

The menswear is better. I love his suits for men. Less surprised on the casual wear.

The only reason that thread will be interesting will be for volft. I’m happy he is back…

 

[george5]

aeworld.com

 

[Kerg]

Honestly, this is a quite good collection, very commercial, and Hedi SELLS (and a lot (+ 65% compared to Phoebe)).
And still no CondéNast in the audience, obviously ! Go Hedi !