Hedi Slimane to leave Celine after seven years; Michael Rider named as successor
Hedi Slimane will leave Celine after a seven-year tenure as artistic, creative and image director across fashion, beauty and lifestyle at the French couture house, with Michael Rider – an alumnus of Phoebe Philo’s Celine – named as his successor
Update: In a further release from Celine this afternoon, Michael Rider has been named as Hedi Slimane’s successor. He has an impressive CV: beginning his career at Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière, Rider went on to spend a decade working with Phoebe Philo during her tenure at Celine and was most recently creative director of Polo Ralph Lauren.
'I am delighted to welcome Michael back to Celine, a maison that he knows intimately,' says said Severine Merle, CEO of Celine. 'Michael’s vision, creative talent, together with his genuine nature and strong connection to Celine’s heritage make him a natural choice to continue to build a long-lasting success for the maison.' He will begin at the house in early 2025, and will oversee all collections, including womenswear, menswear and couture.
After months of speculation, Hedi Slimane has confirmed he is leaving Celine, the house announced today (2 October 2024). Coming days after revealing his S/S 2025 womenswear collection via a short film, it marks the end of a seven-year tenure in which the designer has reshaped the house with his singular vision, which combines subcultural influences with the heights of Parisian savoir-faire.
‘Under his creative and artistic direction, Celine has experienced exceptional growth and established itself as an iconic French couture house,’ said Celine in a statement. ‘The extraordinary journey taken together over the last seven years has made Celine a house with a formidable foundation for the future.’
Hedi Slimane to leave Celine after seven years as artistic, creative and image director for the French couture house
To herald his arrival at the house in 2018 after the departure of Phoebe Philo, he dropped the acute accent – ‘é’ – from the first ‘e’ in Celine. His tenure has seen the designer achieve both commercial and critical success, establishing a comprehensive Celine wardrobe for men and women that spans clothing, accessories, haute parfumerie and, most recently, beauty, which launched in Harrods earlier this month with a single red lipstick.
Initially showing Celine collections as part of Paris Fashion Week, Slimane has since favoured either off-schedule shows – like a blockbuster A/W 2023 show held in Los Angeles titled ‘The Age of Indieness’, or collection films, which he directs. In keeping with this approach, he also photographs all of the brand’s campaigns.
His collections for the house – which favour riffs on archetypal garments over avant-garde statement – have drawn on Celine’s golden era in the 1960s and 1970s, whereby it was adopted as the uniform of the Parisian bourgeoisie (think: tweed jackets, silk carré scarves, horsebit motifs), though infused with Slimane’s love of rock and roll. Recently, he has drawn inspiration from the indie and electro scenes of the 2000s, when the designer rose to fame during his tenures at Dior Homme and later Saint Laurent. Music has been an intrinsic part of his runway shows, on which he has collaborated with figures from LCD Soundsystem to Suicide.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
He also revived the house’s Triomphe logo, which is said to be based on the railings which surround Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and was introduced in the 1970s (so the story goes, house founder Céline Vipiana’s car broke down at the landmark, prompting her to notice the decorative flourish). It now adorns many of Slimane’s designs for the house, including the clasp of the ‘Triomphe’ handbag, sunglasses, jewellery, and Celine’s signature monogrammed canvas. In the brand’s HQ in Paris, they even distribute Triomphe-shaped candy and mints.
The move will of course prompt speculation as to where the designer is heading next – he has been one of the front runners in the conversation as to who will take over Chanel after the departure of Virginie Viard – though as yet the designer has not hinted at his next move.
Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
-
Gardens & Villas offers the unexpected through ‘deconstructed’ desert living in California
Gardens & Villas, a home in Las Quintas, California, brings contemporary luxury to its desert setting through a collaboration between architects Andrew McClure and Christopher McLean
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Daniel Obasi discusses Lagos’ Amah members’ club, where vocation and wonder can meet
Amah, a new members’ club founded by photographer, art director and stylist Daniel Obasi, is a creative co-working space and meeting point for Lagos’ creative class
By Mazzi Odu Published
-
A closer look at Loewe’s delirious, erotically-charged collaboration with artist Richard Hawkins
‘Modern life has become a collage,’ said Jonathan Anderson after his A/W 2024 menswear show, which featured Los Angeles-based artist Richard Hawkins’ collages across sweaters and bags
By Jack Moss Published
-
Hedi Slimane’s latest Celine collection is an homage to the leading ladies of 1960s France: watch the film
Inspired by listening to The Velvet Underground and Nico while re-reading Françoise Sagan, Hedi Slimane pays ode to legendary French it-girls like Sagan, Françoise Hardy and Juliette Gréco with a collection rooted in the liberatory spirit of the 1960s
By Jack Moss Published
-
A guide to the best fashion stores London has to offer
As London Fashion Week arrives in the British capital today (13 September 2024), Wallpaper* picks the must-visit London fashion stores – from big-name boutiques and classic department stores to the best in vintage, alongside the sleek and experimental
By Jack Moss Published
-
Hedi Slimane takes Celine to Norfolk for ‘Anglomania’ menswear collection: watch the film
Inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Bright Young Things’, Hedi Slimane’s latest Celine menswear collection is captured by the designer in a romantic short film set at the Palladian Holkham Hall on England’s Norfolk coastline
By Jack Moss Published
-
Why solid soap is the most pleasurable object to bathe with
Solid soap provides a tactile bathing experience like no other. Hannah Tindle explores why in the September 2024 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, with soaps by Chanel, Celine, Diptyque, and more, photographed by Sophie Gladstone
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
’What is the life of a woman?’: Nadège Vanhée on a decade of womenswear at Hermès
For the past ten years, Nadège Vanhée, head of womenswear at Hermès, has steered the French maison on a quietly rebellious path, exploring notions of contemplation, liberation and sensuality. Speaking to fashion features editor Jack Moss, she unpacks her evolution
By Jack Moss Published
-
Wallpaper* September 2024, The Style Issue, is on newsstands now: discover the looks of the season
Wallpaper* September 2024, The Style Issue, heralds sensual dressing for the season ahead. Hear from Dior’s Kim Jones, Hermès’ Nadège Vanhée, and tour Karl Lagerfeld’s bookshop
By Bill Prince Published
-
Celine Beauté by Hedi Slimane arrives in Harrods with an ‘effortless’ red lipstick
Hedi Slimane’s Celine Beauté line pre-launches this month in Harrods with its ‘Rouge Triomphe’ lipstick
By Hannah Tindle Last updated
-
‘I feel like a new designer’: inside the renaissance of Tory Burch
Tory Burch sits down with Jack Moss to talk about her creative rebirth, which prizes the experimental and the unexpected, and has seen her garner a new generation of trend-hungry devotees
By Jack Moss Published