Celine F/W 2024.25 Paris

[Scotty]

Oh, this would make a fabulous Chanel collection.

 

[plentyofhorns]

This is the most singular womenswear collection that he has done, it's no-nonsense, well-curated and done impeccably.
The nod to the 60's quintessence of Pierre Cardin and Cristobal Balenciaga was executed fresh and still has that sharp Hedi-isms.

With Celine Beauty launching this fall, LVMH seems to be determined to Out-Chanel, Chanel! I think this is a good compromise for Hedi, If both his Leathergoods, Beauty and Fragrance are doing well then he'll have more autonomy for the brand. He's not going anywhere, especially with this kind of control and freedom. He never got to this point with Kering and I think Celine is the new LVMH darling replacing Givenchy and probably going to surpass Fendi.

It’s definitely their darling in terms of ad spend. CELINE is all over nyc and my instagram ads.

 

[Kimihiro]

He never got to this point with Kering and I think Celine is the new LVMH darling replacing Givenchy and probably going to surpass Fendi.

They’re bigger than Fendi and Givenchy since the pandemic. They’re the third largest LVMH fashion brand. Reports suggest they’re closing in at almost 3 billion now.

It’s definitely their darling in terms of ad spend. CELINE is all over nyc and my instagram ads.

Yes they’re EVERYWHERE. Like in every decent global city. They were everywhere in Tokyo last time I was there. Same with NYC. Most of their storefronts have been updated and they’re aggressively expanding. One modest Asian country went from zero to three stores in 2 years.

 

[NoInvite]

Reports suggest they’re closing in at almost 3 billion now.

I bet he uses less budget than the other houses too. No shows, no big celebrity campaigns. The suits must be happy.

 

[Kimihiro]

I bet he uses less budget than the other houses too. No shows, no big celebrity campaigns. The suits must be happy.

What piques my interest is exactly this. Most fashion houses invest on their social media presence and influencers. While Celine has some, it’s not to the extent that even smaller houses employ. No huge red carpet operation, not much huge celebrities on shows except the regulation kpop ones. There are placements in media but not much outside east Asia. Their online presence isn’t that interactive. Their choice of “friends” are more niche and insular. That’s compared to brands their size like Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.

Physically though it’s more than a campaign, it borders assault. Huge posters everywhere. Billboards. Albeit without much pop-ups and flashy installations like how Dior hijacked holidays last year. It’s nice that something that physical can still have a pull.

As much as they don’t spend much on those things—shows, celebs, (and photographers and stylists because Hedi) I think their ad spend and those stores offset the savings. Marble is expensive.

 

[mrbelgravia]

They’re bigger than Fendi and Givenchy since the pandemic. They’re the third largest LVMH fashion brand. Reports suggest they’re closing in at almost 3 billion now.



Yes they’re EVERYWHERE. Like in every decent global city. They were everywhere in Tokyo last time I was there. Same with NYC. Most of their storefronts have been updated and they’re aggressively expanding. One modest Asian country went from zero to three stores in 2 years.

Bigger than FENDI ? Show me the numbers

 

[MulletProof]

How is he always either 3 or 10 years behind (double straps in mary janes.. very Carel 2022, he might as well try limited edition Sambas lol.. the makeup line in an extra saturated market everyone’s quickly losing interest in).. never enough years to enter nostalgia, nor just a tiny bit to make something trendy superior.. it’s all a little ‘uncle finds out about offset’. I guess he is Karl Lagerfeld reincarnated.

 

[Lola701]

What piques my interest is exactly this. Most fashion houses invest on their social media presence and influencers. While Celine has some, it’s not to the extent that even smaller houses employ. No huge red carpet operation, not much huge celebrities on shows except the regulation kpop ones. There are placements in media but not much outside east Asia. Their online presence isn’t that interactive. Their choice of “friends” are more niche and insular. That’s compared to brands their size like Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.

Physically though it’s more than a campaign, it borders assault. Huge posters everywhere. Billboards. Albeit without much pop-ups and flashy installations like how Dior hijacked holidays last year. It’s nice that something that physical can still have a pull.

As much as they don’t spend much on those things—shows, celebs, (and photographers and stylists because Hedi) I think their ad spend and those stores offset the savings. Marble is expensive.

But you also have to remember that the base Hedi build up on is slightly different to Balenciaga and YSL.
Séverine Merle has managed to maintain to exclusivity of the brand by having a quite exclusive distribution even though they are more open than during Phoebe’s time.
So despite the huge amount of products they have, the distribution is controlled and the feeling exclusivity is maintained.

YSL is restructuring their business and in a way they have to spend even more in marketing. Balenciaga went from total exclusivity under Nicolas to almost a mass market luxury operation in a decade. On top of the scandal, I’m not sure they will be able to recover from the number of stuff they have put out on the market.

I think Hedi’s vision for Celine is so strong now that they are able to sell the brand like it is, a bit like Chanel by Virginie. I don’t think a good collection has any impact or what so ever in the perception or the spending of customers…For now.

The issue for Hedi for me will always be the longevity. Sure his aesthetic is consistent but he has never stayed at a house for more than 7 years. His various in and out of fashion have allowed his aesthetic to have a kind a novelty factor each time.

Can this proposition last 15 years?

Bigger than FENDI ? Show me the numbers

You won’t get the numbers as LVMH doesn’t break down the numbers by brands (unless when Bernard Arnault is particularly proud of the success of the brand) but it’s easy to analyse the financial reports and to understand what is going on considering the lastest decisions made by LVMH.
The brands are always mentioned by order of importance. Fendi used to be the unofficial 3rd brand for LVMH (because Dior for a longtime wasn’t integrated in the group) but in the last 5 years, Celine and Loewe have had amazing growth.
And when the news came that the development of Fendi, Marc Jacobs and other brands will be handle separately from Celine and Loewe, which will be handle by Michael Burke, ex-Ceo of Louis Vuitton. It tells you everything about the importance of Fendi nowadays in LVMH portfolio.
The brand is not growing as much as it did…

 

[Kimihiro]

But you also have to remember that the base Hedi build up on is slightly different to Balenciaga and YSL.
Séverine Merle has managed to maintain to exclusivity of the brand by having a quite exclusive distribution even though they are more open than during Phoebe’s time.
So despite the huge amount of products they have, the distribution is controlled and the feeling exclusivity is maintained.

YSL is restructuring their business and in a way they have to spend even more in marketing. Balenciaga went from total exclusivity under Nicolas to almost a mass market luxury operation in a decade. On top of the scandal, I’m not sure they will be able to recover from the number of stuff they have put out on the market.

I think Hedi’s vision for Celine is so strong now that they are able to sell the brand like it is, a bit like Chanel by Virginie. I don’t think a good collection has any impact or what so ever in the perception or the spending of customers…For now.

The issue for Hedi for me will always be the longevity. Sure his aesthetic is consistent but he has never stayed at a house for more than 7 years. His various in and out of fashion have allowed his aesthetic to have a kind a novelty factor each time.

Can this proposition last 15 years?


You won’t get the numbers as LVMH doesn’t break down the numbers by brands (unless when Bernard Arnault is particularly proud of the success of the brand) but it’s easy to analyse the financial reports and to understand what is going on considering the lastest decisions made by LVMH.
The brands are always mentioned by order of importance. Fendi used to be the unofficial 3rd brand for LVMH (because Dior for a longtime wasn’t integrated in the group) but in the last 5 years, Celine and Loewe have had amazing growth.
And when the news came that the development of Fendi, Marc Jacobs and other brands will be handle separately from Celine and Loewe, which will be handle by Michael Burke, ex-Ceo of Louis Vuitton. It tells you everything about the importance of Fendi nowadays in LVMH portfolio.
The brand is not growing as much as it did…

That’s true, Lola. It just still baffles me how a brand who has a tighter control in distribution and communication against those two manage to pull it off, in a Chanel-like fashion as you’ve said. I’ve never seen a brand pull that off at this mid-level, not megabrand scale. I feel like at some point you have to go all out mass. I concur it’s really Hedi’s vision pulling it all together.

With regards to his style, I was a little bit concerned since last year because I felt like it peaked and backed himself in a corner (returned to more indie) but here we are with this collection, just a little tweak and it’s fresh again. We’ll see what happens. I’m still not satisfied with the bags. This is where Beauté comes in.

Re Celine being the 3rd brand, I enjoy looking at those LVMH reports and look at the pecking order. The adjectives used. It’s been LV>Dior>Celine>Loewe. All “excellent performance”. Singling out the designers. Then we come to Fendi, just talking about store openings and such. Nothing about how it performs. At least not as bad as Givenchy disappearing from the slides.

 

[Deleted member 141309]

After all the years the majority of the discussion still remains the same, Hedi being Hedi causing either happiness or frustration, but that will never change. However, at this point, despite being similar to all his previous work, if one looks at his Dior, SLP and Celine from afar, they do have differences and quite a lot of them, they just all look similar as his aesthetic is way too strong and takes over every time.

I must say it is not a bad thing. It may be said he is stuck in the past, but anything I have from his Dior or SLP or Celine does the best job - it all goes together perfectly well, looks great, and, most importantly, even after more than a decade of use holds very strong. I must say there are very little top-tier brands with comparable quality, and for more clandestine and traditional enjoyers of luxury fashion like me it is the primary reason. I’d say only Hermes and Loewe can compare, because the stitching, the button attachment, the zipper sturdiness are all of extremely high quality, especially compared to Balenciaga or some of Prada.

The business figures would be great to know, but the strategy is, to a surprise of nobody, working great, because it goes to the roots of luxury. I may not find Celine as easy to buy as a lot of others, but now with the explosion of brands, fashion and retail in the mass it brings the luxury appeal and this has always been the case, basic consumer behaviour psychology. I am certain the same will be left to the beauty products as it was done to the perfumes, don’t think we will see it at the nearby Sephora, which was a mistake of Hermes when they made their perfumes too accessible. Terre d’Hermes makes me want to cry and does not turn me on anymore.

The celebrities were their in the beginning, Hedi launched his rule over Celine with Lady Gaga carrying his first bag in NYC and it was all over fashion media back then, but unlike others he knows when to stop before it cheapens the brand too much. Generic and boring models that nobody will remember was the smartest way to go - what stands out are the products and the logo, not Kim, Beatrice Dalle or Jamie Dornan. It is all to basics and the path of least resistance, which is all more beneficial as the brands are struggling to outperform each other in who invites the most exciting celebrity or dresses Beyawnce more extravagantly.

It is what damages the brand often for the hardcore, precise consumers that are adamant about the image. Too many people I don’t find tasteful or associate with appear with the brand and it brings down the appeal. Celine keeps it so careful and generic that one does not care too much as it does not stand out, it is hard to remember a link to anything rather than Hedi, who is one of very little designers-celebrities that we have left who comes from their design work and not being a bait for horny people like Jacquemus.

 

[ecnerretneerg]

This simply looked like a more refined version of Sabato’s terrible Gucci collection. The girlies’ legs are gonna be freezing next fall.

Also, I always assumed Hedi would take over Chanel after Karl. This collection definitely solidified that

 

[Grets]

I was wondering and looking at the Givenchy/Audrey references if LVMH would Kim Jones him and insert him at Givenchy. But the ambitious beauty launch has me thinking otherwise.

 

[CholoChic]

lovely collection, so simple and perfect,
i wanna dress in celine

 

[lookatme]

I always thought Hedi was the best choice to take over Chanel after Karl, in a lot of ways because my favorite period of Chanel is when Karl slimmed down and went full on Slimane...the whole Irina Lazareanu period..chef's kiss. Fall/Winter 2006 Couture + RTW are probably my favorite Chanel collections. Now it seems like everyone else agrees!

But for the time being, I have no issue with him at Celine. In fact, I quite like him here. I know it's controversial, but in retrospect, I actually like what he's doing for Celine more than what Phoebe did. There are great moments and looks in Phoebe's tenure, but looking back, a lot of it is very nouveau riche corny in a way...it doesn't help that the industry still cannot move beyond copying the look she established at this house...the horse is dead...please, leave that rotting corpse alone!

Anyway - the conversation around Hedi is always the same. And I will always defend him on the grounds that his clothes are always truly luxuroius. He cares deeply about savoir faire. You can see it in the jackets here especially...you can just tell there's so much hidden work between the self and lining. That's what a client deserves when they're shopping designer.

Straightforward? Absolutely. Unimaginative? Arguably. Expensive looking? 100%.

What I also think is great about Hedi is that he is interested in creating a style for women and men to actually wear - it's like what @Lola701 talks about...it's important for a designer to be deeply interested in DRESSING people...and that doesn't mean exclusively "wearable"...I'd argue that someone like Galliano, even at his most outlandish, is as much concerned about actually dressing people as Hedi is. So many newer designers aren't thinking in those terms...they're handicapped by only thinking about the image of their designs and only in the context of the runway, at the expense of thinking about the feeling of their clothes out in the world and in people's closets and on their bodies.

 

[Creative]

Love it! I think it’s his best collection. Reminds me of Balenciaga 2006, the BCBG version of it. I could live in this show.

 

[lhhbl]

This is Ancora but more put together

 

[liberty33r1b]

definitely best Celine collection from him so far

 

[LadyJunon]

I really enjoyed this collection, it was a nice shift away from the usual "moody indie groupie" archetype that he usually portrays. There's an obvious link to Cardin and Courrèges, but it still follows the vein of Hedi's Celine.

Hedi has done a really good job with Celine, growing the brand's revenue from 400 million to 3 billion in only 6 years. The combination of a really wide range of practical, desirable products, a consistently straightforward, but luxurious image and a small marketing and PR spend really helped with Celine's astronomical growth. With the upcoming launch of their beauty line to serve a plethora of rabid Kpop fans, they could easily reach 5 billion in a couple couple of year.

 

[Lola701]

I always thought Hedi was the best choice to take over Chanel after Karl, in a lot of ways because my favorite period of Chanel is when Karl slimmed down and went full on Slimane...the whole Irina Lazareanu period..chef's kiss. Fall/Winter 2006 Couture + RTW are probably my favorite Chanel collections. Now it seems like everyone else agrees!

I guess I’m the only one who disagree…
The Haute Couture FW2006 collection is also my favorite Haute Couture collection of all time but the idea of Hedi Slimane at Chanel would as depressing as Virginie for me.

I love Hedi and his principles but the greatness about that collection was how Karl was able to infuse the spirit of the clothes he wore, swinging London, the streets (jeans turned into boots) and his obsessions.

Considering the limits of Slimane’s repertoire and my desire to see a more forward vision on Chanel, I would pass on Slimane.

He would never do Chanel anyway. LVMH has spoiled him at this point lol

 

[Nimsay]

Hedi will be like Karl - in that he will stay at Celine prob until he retires or passes.