PARIS — It seems the demise of the star designer has been greatly exaggerated: This year’s round of designer musical chairs in the fashion industry saw the comeback of two heavy hitters, with Hedi Slimane and Riccardo Tisci showing their debut collections in September for Celine and Burberry, respectively.
Indeed, it was a year of major reshuffles at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which in addition to Slimane appointed Kim Jones as head of men’s wear at Christian Dior; Virgil Abloh as men’s wear designer at Louis Vuitton; and Kris Van Assche as creative director of Berluti.
In naming Slimane to succeed Phoebe Philo at Celine, LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault signaled his outsize ambitions for the French brand, founded in 1945. Speaking after the group reported record results for 2017, the luxury titan said revenues at Celine were close to 1 billion euros, and he expected the “global superstar” to significantly boost sales.
“The objective with him is to reach at least 2 billion to 3 billion euros, and perhaps more, within five years,” Arnault said at the press conference in January. “Everything is in place for this brand to achieve quite exceptional growth.”
The stakes were also high for
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