Hedi Slimane is teetering on the edge of “living legend” status in fashion, but his history as a designer is antithetical as can be to the tenure of the similarly revered and widely adored Phoebe Philo at Céline.
Given this, it’s no wonder in the days since LVMH revealed, first with WWD, that Slimane would be taking over Céline from Philo after she’d been nearly a decade at the creative helm, that speculation has been rife as to what shoppers and fans of the brand can expect.
Philo not only infused Céline with prestige, marketability and pushed it toward 1 billion euros in sales after a relatively fallow period following Michael Kors’ 2004 departure, she gave the house an entirely new aesthetic not focused on a male ideal of womanly beauty — always luxe and design-forward, but accessible, comfortable and very wearable, nary a stiletto in sight.
The latter of these descriptors is not something Slimane is known for — be it men’s wear or women’s wear, which he took his first and commercially successful shot at when he returned to Yves Saint Laurent in 2013 for a three-year stint.
That could change. Slimane is known for his ability to blow up a brand
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