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The Hedi Chronicles
While the world mourned Giorgio Armani, Hedi Slimane took to Instagram to warn Celine against reusing anything he created while he was its creative director. Clearly, it was an overreaction to the work of Michael Rider. It also made him look a little out of touch with industry realities.
On some level, though, it’s understandable that Slimane, left, wanted to protect his work so closely: As he has proudly admitted, it doesn’t change. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W Magazine
September 8, 2025
This past weekend,
Hedi Slimane posted a note on his personal Instagram account that said, in the most careful and passive-aggressive French, that the visual language he created during his tenure as creative director of Celine was
his and his
alone. Slimane, who left Celine nearly a year ago and has since been replaced by
Michael Rider, added that he hoped the LVMH-owned house would “brilliantly reinvent its advertising campaigns as well as its corporate image” so that it could “promote a new chapter … free from any borrowing or any insistent reference to my photographic style, including my advertising campaigns and films for Celine.”
It was a petty, funny, silly veiled threat, delivered at an inopportune moment. Just days earlier,
Giorgio Armani had passed away. And while industry insiders were bemused by Slimane’s annoyance, his timing betrayed a profound lack of tact—Slimane and every other designer of his generation owe a great deal of gratitude to Mr. Armani. Many have hoped (and speculated) that Slimane might one day succeed him. The least Slimane could do was let the industry sit shiva before kicking up a public and egomaniacal fuss.
On some level, though, it’s understandable that Slimane wanted to protect his work so closely: As he has proudly admitted, it doesn’t change. There are no surprises with Slimane—not in his designs, not in his photographs, and not in the types of characters who intrigue him. He is a designer who is incapable of evolution, and I mean that in the best possible way.
I.P. Theories
That characteristic helps to explain his behavior—at least a little. When Slimane left Celine, I was told by several people that he “took” all the imagery he created off the LVMH company drives, and that his legendary lawyer,
Léon del Forno, had negotiated that the company could not use the images upon his departure. At the time, I dismissed this as a facile explanation of a far more complex situation and decided not to report on it further. But this Instagram spat made me wonder if there was at least some truth to it. (Del Forno declined to comment when I reached out about this detail; a representative for LVMH did not respond to a request for comment.)
If it is indeed true, it’s also sort of a shame. Naturally, I can understand why Slimane would want to own his intellectual property: Authors own their books, singers fight for their publishing catalogs, and
Ryan Coogler negotiated the rights to own
Sinners after 25 years. But it’s also true that he wasn’t working for the house of Slimane, and financing his own vision or its substantial infrastructure and marketing overhead. He was working for Celine, a brand that had many designers before him and will have many designers after him. Of course, his contributions added another dimension to the house and were unmistakably one of the reasons why Rider’s homage-filled debut collection has garnered so much praise. (After Rider’s first show, Slimane
also took to Instagram, posting images of ring stacks he conceived for Celine that looked similar to the way Rider dressed his model’s hands.) I understand the desire to be protective, but there’s an argument to be made that the work isn’t his to protect. There’s no one in the world who would say Rider is
copying Slimane but Slimane himself.
Anyway, it’s sort of a hoot, but also sort of a dated way of operating, and it indicates that Slimane has no current plan for what’s to come next. Now I’m also doubtful that LVMH would back a future Slimane line similar to what they did with
Phoebe Philo, his predecessor at Celine. Plus, as the reinventions of Philo and
Alessandro Michele have proven, it’s now harder than ever to break through, even when you have an incredibly devoted fan base. And much of Slimane’s core team has moved on, most recently
Peter Utz, the beloved V.I.P. and events director, who retreated from Los Angeles back to Paris to work for
Jonathan Anderson at Dior.
There is certainly a large group of people who
would love Slimane to design Armani someday; both men treat consistency like a religion. But one has to wonder: Are we
all too old for this sh*t?
