Hedi Slimane - Designer

[ghostwriter10549]

The Phoebe devotes will find themselves at some point but what Im really worried is for future of Celine as a brand. The way that Hedi and the team are approaching this transition is already problematic, Im not felling that good things are coming.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Very interesting article, and I know exactly how they feel ... it was how I felt when Alber Elbaz was fired from Lanvin, but there was virtually no transition period like there is now at Celine.

The fact that Alber still isn't working and that nothing has filled that void makes me think the panic is justified. The situation with Phoebe is a bit different though ... she'll be back, but to create what? Celine was radically different from what she'd done before.

 

[Lola701]

I don’t consider myself as a Philophile even if I have a lot of Celine in my wardrobe but I think that part of style is mixing and exploration. 10 years of Celine means that they are styles, silhouettes, garnments to discover and to make our own. What I will miss is a sense of comfort in going into one store and be able to find everything that I needed. It happened when Nicolas left Balenciaga. Suddenly you’re a bit lost...

Céline much like Balenciaga didn’t felt like a luxury brand but like a real eclectic fashion brand.

I still buy Balenciaga by NG nowadays and i’m sure i’ll buy Celine by Philo in the next few years to come.

It’s so weird to see the brands that those women are buying. They are totally in the same aesthetic as Celine. It’s actually the contrary for me...

I’m really curious on what Hedi will do. I don’t even see him rebranding the whole affair as Celine is already minimal, chic and timeless. His early work could be more in tune with the current idea of Celine but i can’t see him totally reinvent himself in such a short amount of time.

 

[Fashionstuff]

VERY interesting article from BoF.


Source: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/who-will-dress-the-philophiles

Sincerely, i'm surprized to read that Alyson wears Céline. At this point congrats to Alyson Cafiero to be quoted in BoF!

I don’t consider myself as a Philophile even if I have a lot of Celine in my wardrobe but I think that part of style is mixing and exploration. 10 years of Celine means that they are styles, silhouettes, garnments to discover and to make our own. What I will miss is a sense of comfort in going into one store and be able to find everything that I needed. It happened when Nicolas left Balenciaga. Suddenly you’re a bit lost...

Céline much like Balenciaga didn’t felt like a luxury brand but like a real eclectic fashion brand.

I still buy Balenciaga by NG nowadays and i’m sure i’ll buy Celine by Philo in the next few years to come.

It’s so weird to see the brands that those women are buying. They are totally in the same aesthetic as Celine. It’s actually the contrary for me...

I’m really curious on what Hedi will do. I don’t even see him rebranding the whole affair as Celine is already minimal, chic and timeless. His early work could be more in tune with the current idea of Celine but i can’t see him totally reinvent himself in such a short amount of time.

I'm not a Phoebe's Céline fan because it is not mine. I want see what Hedi will do with Céline but i'm still in love with Alessandro's Gucci and i like Demna's Balenciaga.

 

[LostInNJ]

“Céline is just a name,” she says. “What I like is not Céline, it’s what she creates.”

For me, this is the takeaway here, and probably what should be the the thought process people keep when Hedi's new direction is unveiled.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ But did she like Chloe? Enough to buy and wear it, I mean?

 

[Aurimas]

I do not understand why they did not appoint Hedi at Dior Homme. It is obvious that both Dior Homme's and Hedi's fans would be more happy. Celine's fans would be less worried too. It looks like they are trying reinvent the square wheel too hard and that 'out of great science they went out of mind'...

 

[Lola701]

^^
They did not appointed Hedi at DH simply because Hedi wants the whole thing: Mens & Womenswear, Couture, Perfume...etc.
He left DH in 2007 exactly for that reason. He wanted the whole house but Mr Arnault’s plans were different. Arnault wanted to back him in the launch of his own brand but he wasn’t interested and left.
Céline is perfect right now because he can finally execute his vision as he has always wanted. Hedi could have done Givenchy as long as he got total control.

It’s time for DH to move on.

 

[Aurimas]

^^
They did not appointed Hedi at DH simply because Hedi wants the whole thing: Mens & Womenswear, Couture, Perfume...etc.
He left DH in 2007 exactly for that reason. He wanted the whole house but Mr Arnault’s plans were different. Arnault wanted to back him in the launch of his own brand but he wasn’t interested and left.
Céline is perfect right now because he can finally execute his vision as he has always wanted. Hedi could have done Givenchy as long as he got total control.

It’s time for DH to move on.

Thanks for the explanation but I do not think that Celine is perfect for Hedi. One thing is his vision, the other thing is his capabilities and Celine's and Dior Homme customers expectations. He already had womenswear at Saint Laurent and most us here will agree that he is not famous as womenswear designer. Even his menswear at Saint Laurent was not as good as at Dior Homme. I guess this is what happens when you try to focus on too much. High quantity often leads to low quality... Perfumes? There are qualified perfumers for that. But maybe he should also try to design nuclear reactors if he thinks he can do menswear, womenswear, haute couture and perfumes at the same time.

To me it looks more like some crazy managerial experiment to see how far these brands can be pushed with different designers. I really hope they will play with this too far that these brands and the whole group will get destroyed.

 

[Lola701]

^^
Actually, Hedi does beautiful perfumes! Perfumes at Dior Homme became really tacky once he left. I mean, he did Bois d'Argent and Dior Homme and launched a whole collection of exclusive cologne for men.

Look at Dior men perfumes nowadays.

Hedi just want a famous name attached to his vision. What he has proven is that he can sell and that people will always respond to his vision. I loved the overall aesthetic of Dior Homme because it felt modern. Saint Laurent was a mess but he knows how to sell his vision.

The sad thing about Celine is that they have completely changed the landscape of the brand in order to please him.
Because of him, the next designer will have to do menswear, womenswear and perfumes. The Couture thing is basically redcarpet exclusive dressing.

I think that he would have been better at Givenchy.

But he is a very committed designer. I don't worry about the quality of the products but i'm worry about the quality of the designs.

 

[eugenius]

The only part of this that is remotely of interest to me is the menswear. On one hand, Celine's never had a menswear line, so, really, anybody can come in and do as he/she/they please, without having to worry about all that codes-of-the-house crap. But on the other hand, it is Hedi, who can't seem to shake that rockstar look that he had at the 2nd half of his tenure @ DH and continued into YSL.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Thanks for the explanation but I do not think that Celine is perfect for Hedi. One thing is his vision, the other thing is his capabilities and Celine's and Dior Homme customers expectations. He already had womenswear at Saint Laurent and most us here will agree that he is not famous as womenswear designer. Even his menswear at Saint Laurent was not as good as at Dior Homme. I guess this is what happens when you try to focus on too much. High quantity often leads to low quality... Perfumes? There are qualified perfumers for that. But maybe he should also try to design nuclear reactors if he thinks he can do menswear, womenswear, haute couture and perfumes at the same time.

To me it looks more like some crazy managerial experiment to see how far these brands can be pushed with different designers. I really hope they will play with this too far that these brands and the whole group will get destroyed.

Please no nuclear reactor The rest is bad enough.

 

[tricotineacetat]

The sad thing about Celine is that they have completely changed the landscape of the brand in order to please him.
Because of him, the next designer will have to do menswear, womenswear and perfumes. The Couture thing is basically redcarpet exclusive dressing.

I think that he would have been better at Givenchy.

Agreed on that, plus I do think it can turn out a poisoned chalice for him to have taken over from Phoebe Philo at Céline, keeping in mind that the brand did not need a 180 degree re-invention from the foundation laid out by her - Dare I even say, she laid out one of the most impressive brand revivals of the last 10-15 years.

One thing is for certain - For Hedi to turn Céline into a Saint Laurent 2.0 would be a dangerous gamble, keeping in mind that a good percentage of Saint Laurent customers will probably continue to stay there under Antony Vaccarello's increasingly confident tenure.

 

[Morphe]

One word. Laughable.

 

[LostInNJ]

Agreed on that, plus I do think it can turn out a poisoned chalice for him to have taken over from Phoebe Philo at Céline, keeping in mind that the brand did not need a 180 degree re-invention from the foundation laid out by her - Dare I even say, she laid out one of the most impressive brand revivals of the last 10-15 years.

One thing is for certain - For Hedi to turn Céline into a Saint Laurent 2.0 would be a dangerous gamble, keeping in mind that a good percentage of Saint Laurent customers will probably continue to stay there under Antony Vaccarello's increasingly confident tenure.

I wonder tho, if Céline had hired from within and continued on the same path as Phoebe, would the brand remain as successful, numbers wise and critically. These big conglomerates aren't looking to "settle." Even reading some of the reviews here (which I take with a grain of salt more often than not) of the first Céline collection post Phoebe, it doesn't sound like anyone would live up to doing Phoebe's version of the brand, but her. I think it would be quite a stressful position to be in, because the comparison would be there to the predecessor.

Ultimately, I think people tend to be quite loyal to designers, as opposed to brands these days. Due to the fact that brands can change direction quite frequently. Fans of Hedi will be curious to see what he is doing at Céline and I have no doubt that they will follow him there.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ A lot of brands make it quite difficult to be loyal to them these days.

I think there are plenty of examples of a follow-on designer making clothes that are of interest to those who've been wearing the brand for years. I thought Rafe did quite a nice job at Jil Sander, for example.

 

[vetements]

^ A lot of brands make it quite difficult to be loyal to them these days.

I think there are plenty of examples of a follow-on designer making clothes that are of interest to those who've been wearing the brand for years. I thought Rafe did quite a nice job at Jil Sander, for example.

Think Raf at Jil Sander is about all.

Sometimes, you get someone designing similar yet not well received..
I personally didnt like JPG after Margiela at Hermes, but loved what Lemaire and Nadege Vanhee Cybulski is doing.

The same goes for those designers named that have designs similar to what Philo is doing, they are somewhat same yet different..
Guess some designers are simply hard to be replaced

 

[dodencebt]

Ultimately, I think people tend to be quite loyal to designers, as opposed to brands these days. Due to the fact that brands can change direction quite frequently. Fans of Hedi will be curious to see what he is doing at Céline and I have no doubt that they will follow him there.

This one hit the nail on the head for me.

And as much as I'd hate for Céline to turn into a Hedi playhouse, I one hundred percent believe the brand would have gone downhill if a designer with a similar-but-not-quite-there design aesthetic to Phoebe's was hired. No one wants to buy watered down versions of someone else's legacy.

 

[Pricciao]

Please no nuclear reactor The rest is bad enough.

F*uck off. Hedi for president 2020!!
Nuclear weapons too!

 

[LostInNJ]

This one hit the nail on the head for me.

And as much as I'd hate for Céline to turn into a Hedi playhouse, I one hundred percent believe the brand would have gone downhill if a designer with a similar-but-not-quite-there design aesthetic to Phoebe's was hired. No one wants to buy watered down versions of someone else's legacy.

It happened to Alessandra Facchinetti...twice. Sacked at Gucci and again at Valentino. Even the first paragraph of the review of her Fall 2005 collection for the house said it all...