Scene setting: An enormous mechanical version of the Celine Triomphe logo – first used by the Parisian maison in 1973 in an ode to the Arc de Triomphe, and reintroduced by Hedi Slimane – stood at the head of the runway at Les Invalides. Since taking the helm of the house, Slimane has been bringing a rock and roll rebellion to the bourgeois codes associated with the maison. So, as the show began, the huge illuminated logo began rotating to an original soundtrack devised by French-born guitarist and songwriter Sofia Bolt, and the first model appeared to slide fluidly onto the stage via a horizontal moving walkway.
Mood board: This was a collection of Slimane signatures. Women, part Right Bank bourgeoise, part LA cool girl, clad in sixties and seventies-centric fur coats, culottes, ruffled blouses, sparkly dresses and platforms. Men sucked into phenomenally skinny cords and sporting brocade officer coats, leather jackets and Cuban heel boots. Slimane has particularly excelled in red-carpet style (Brie Larson, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o) all recently sporting sparkling Celine designs, and a series of dresses were particularly powerful, including a high necked dress with swirling beaded foliage and another in light red hues, densely beaded and with a huge pussy bow blouse.
Team work: Never shy of an artist collaboration, Slimane teamed up with the Fondation César on a series of gold vermeil jewellery pieces, which nodded to his 1959 ‘Direct Compressions,’ a series of small scale sculptures initially made from soldered metal, piping and license plates, which evolved into his larger, more idiosyncratic sculptures formed from car parts. These jewellery pieces, featuring a retractable hook, have also been conceived as small sculptures, and the objet will be presented in a pine box, stamped with César’s signature. §
