Hedi Slimane - Designer

[GivenchyAddict]

I love buying Celine even though I have now bought everything I wanted from the brand so far.

The shows and campaigns are something on their own because in stores, things are different. Timeless, very luxurious and with amazing pieces. Way less repulsive for people who are not into Hedi’s youth rock imagery.

 

[yslforever]

Shhh you're not allowed to say that kind of stuff here. It goes against the narrative that people here are so desperately trying to push. You're going to trigger so many people with your words. The correct narrative you're supposed to regurgitate here is that Hedi's Celine is a huge flop and that nobody will want to buy his Celine when Anthony's Saint Laurent does everything better. You're supposed to say that there is 100% no way Hedi is able to pull those numbers because me and all of my fashion friends hate Hedi.

Hedi is the perfectionnist here and he pushed it to quality control and consumer experience. Saint-Laurent quality is not perfect.
I agree that for womens, Vacarello might offer more fashion, but I am buying menswear, and Vacarello doesn't have precise views on menswear. Even the actual SL shops and website haven't really moved from the Hedi era. It's sometimes confusing.

 

[Drusilla_]

Hedi does Hedi at every brand he's been at, and clearly it resonates with customers and has a strong point of view, so I'm fine with it really.

Yeah he's not the most original or innovative, but something's working, and if we sense a decline, I honestly think it has more to do with fashion in general having gone downhill in the social media age. Just my $.02.

 

[volft]

Hedi does Hedi at every brand he's been at, and clearly it resonates with customers and has a strong point of view, so I'm fine with it really.

Hedi acknowledges this and compares himself to a director and singer:

The couturier, not to be confused with a stylist, prints his personality, his commitment and his identifiable style, provided, ideally, that he has them. This does not prevent him, like a director whose style is recognised, from having a script, what you call the pedigree of the house.

“I like to pursue organically one single idea. How many styles can you have?” he says. “Singers—there’s a tessitura to each one: The first second you hear the voice. So: How to progress without being repetitive? That’s a question I find very interesting.”

Bonus quotes:

I constantly use my own vocabulary, and the sense of repetition of the same signs, and semiotic, the permanence of a silhouette, or proportions, and overall representation. I always believed in repetition, pursuing endlessly the same idea. You cannot own more than one identified style and you need to evolve within the same codes. I transform and borrow constantly from my past collections, what I believe to be making sense or relevant today.

You can only be one thing and only want to be one thing or remembered for one thing … you can only be lucky enough to have one style, a style of your own that becomes a caricature of you, your own ‘sound. I’m probably synonymous [with] punk rock and indieness in fashion, beside being known for my androgynous models. I have been precisely this in fashion for more than 20 years. This is the caricature I gladly own.

So it is definitely 100% deliberate and very intentional on Hedi's part.

 

[Drusilla_]

^I actually like that he owns it - he's self-aware, which is a big plus. Also keeping it up for twenty years is no mean feat, considering he's managed to appeal to youth across two generations now.

 

[volft]

^I actually like that he owns it - he's self-aware, which is a big plus. Also keeping it up for twenty years is no mean feat, considering he's managed to appeal to youth across two generations now.

Found another rare gem:

Do you see the Solitaire collection as a new start or a continuation of what you were doing at Saint Laurent?
It was a new start. [He pauses]. It was both of them. OK. In some, a projection of a certain ideas of masculinity it certainly was a continuation because that particular side of what I’m doing, I’m not going to change my man between seasons or even if I go from a house to another. Or if I was doing my own line, you pursue a certain philosophy in that manner, I suppose, I don’t know. Then you have the history of the house that’s completely different, in that sense when I arrived at Dior, I just tried to figure out what was the particular temps and esprit of this particular house, which is very different from Saint Laurent. Which had some consequences on the fashion, so there was a continuity in a certain almost politic part of it on menswear, then there was the way I was doing clothes also. You know the way everything is built here, my atelier is a different atelier to the one I had at Saint Laurent.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

I love buying Celine even though I have now bought everything I wanted from the brand so far.

The shows and campaigns are something on their own because in stores, things are different. Timeless, very luxurious and with amazing pieces. Way less repulsive for people who are not into Hedi’s youth rock imagery.

That's what I have found when I've visited the stores!

 

[Frederic01]

Celine’s Next Men’s Show Will Be at Le Palace
The legendary Paris nightclub was famously frequented by the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent.

NIGHT MOVES: Hedi Slimane, who was super early in showing his fall-winter 2023 women’s collection for Celine last Dec. 8 in Los Angeles, is fashionably late with his men’s fall effort.

The show is scheduled to take place at famed Paris nightclub Le Palace on Friday, almost three weeks after the European men’s shows wound up.

Often described as the Studio 54 of Paris, Le Palace is a meaningful place for Slimane, who frequented it starting from age 16. The French designer claims the venue “triggered his future as a couturier,” according to Celine.

It’s also where Slimane celebrated his 50th birthday in 2018.

To be sure, Le Palace has attracted a glittering array of famous fashion designers, headlined by Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Kenzo Takada, along with the likes of Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Serge Gainsbourg and Prince.

Celine noted that Le Palace was originally built in the 17th century as a theatre and dancehall. It was converted to a discotheque in 1978 when it was taken over by nightlife impresario Fabrice Emaer.

Emaer conscripted architect Patrick Berger to revamp the Art Deco interior with neon chandeliers.

According to WWD reports, Le Palace was so popular during the disco era that it sometimes took revelers one hour to get from the red velvet balconies to the dance floor.

Slimane has a penchant for legendary entertainment venues, having staged fashion shows at the Hollywood Palladium and the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Celine’s men’s show coincides with New York Fashion Week, whose official dates are Feb. 10 to 15.

WWD

 

[yslforever]

WWD

Oh god the insane memories there !!!
That’s what Vaccarello at SL should have done long time ago

 

[yslforever]

Oh god the insane memories there !!!
That’s what Vaccarello at SL should have done long time ago

For the records, Fabrice Emaer gave Claude Montana his first fashion job there; he was in charge of designing the barmen and barmaids uniforms; red with huge gold epaulets. Montana sew them himself at home. Kenzo Takada had the funniest jokes ever, funnier that Christian Louboutin. Issey Miyake, an Hiroshima survivor, was the purest and kindest man to ever grace the fashion world. All the rest were 200% into cocaine, Karl excepted. Jacques de Baschaere a total perv, Thaddeus a complete idiot. And so many other stories. I really hope Slimane knows what he’s doing at the Palace because I’ll be scrutinizing and judging SO hard.

 

[jeanclaude]

Love the venue, decadent and sophisticated.
I just hope he does not show his usual stuff; and he creates something elevated to be a match for the place.

 

[Lola701]

I bet it’s going to be super glam, super nostalgic and I hope decadent.
Le Palace is like the easiest theme a bit as it’s a way to do party clothes and venture slightly into costumes…

I’m excited! And I have high hopes for the soundtrack…

That being said, while I know that Christian Louboutin used to go out at 14, I have always associated Hedi Slimane and his clique with Les Bains Douches. That was his generation so it’s interesting for him to reference the generation before. They were less crazy tho I must admit.

La Femme Celine is definitely not « Le Palace ». More Castel or chez Régine…

I really hope Slimane knows what he’s doing at the Palace because I’ll be scrutinizing and judging SO hard.

He is Hedi Slimane doing something very French that will appeal to the French crowd. He will be judged like he has always been…In France at least.

 

[volft]

I almost feel like the only way to fairly judge Hedi's shows is to judge it based on if it feels real and believable. Is he able to sell his illusion convincingly and make the story alluring. He should be judged according to the standards he has set for himself and his design philosophy. If one wants to be fair, Hedi should not be judged based on arbitrary criteria.

 

[Lola701]

I almost feel like the only way to fairly judge Hedi's shows is to judge it based on if it feels real and believable. Is he able to sell his illusion convincingly and make the story alluring. He should be judged according to the standards he has set for himself and his design philosophy. If one wants to be fair, Hedi should not be judged based on arbitrary criteria.

The judgement of Hedi’s work cannot be linear.
And the commercial should not exclude him from criticism.
It’s no secret for example that I love his menswear and I’m beyond perplexed regarding his proposition in womenswear…despite aknowledging the fact that there are some great timeless pieces in stores.

Everybody is judge to the standards they have set for themselves. The reason a lot of people enjoy Armani and Ralph Lauren are based on their own standards.

I totally understand Hedi’s vision in making clothes. In womenswear he is still lazy tho.

You can however always see the genius he has in menswear. That grey suit with a boxy cut, tuxedo collar work with a salmon shirt and the animalier boots still lives rent free in my head.

 

[volft]

Everybody is judge to the standards they have set for themselves.

I think I can understand both sides, and it makes me feel conflicted. It sounds good in theory, but it leads to things like "I don't like Rothko's work because there are no pink elephants in it." Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it just feels silly. There's a fundamental lack of understanding of what they're even critiquing, which leads to a very uninformed opinion. But perhaps one can argue that freedom to critique is more important than the quality of the critique, and how accepting that not every opinion has actual value is the price they gladly pay for freedom.

It is just unsettling how delusional that person above is because they genuinely think their opinion of Rothko's work has value, or else they wouldn't have gone out of their way to share it with others.

 

[yslforever]

I almost feel like the only way to fairly judge Hedi's shows is to judge it based on if it feels real and believable. Is he able to sell his illusion convincingly and make the story alluring. He should be judged according to the standards he has set for himself and his design philosophy. If one wants to be fair, Hedi should not be judged based on arbitrary criteria.

Fashion is by definition unfair though, and the Palace was definitely a fashion and social moment, with such a fantastic rich history of creativity and wilderness (I am practically sure I was conceived there ). Hedi knew full well all that when he chose the location. I am definitely raising my expectations because he chose to climb a fashion Everest. He can put it though, menswear is his forte, and I am definitely expecting an exceptional show.

 

[Lola701]

^^
I’m expecting a mix between his 2015 Parisian menswear collection for YSL with the flamboyance of his last womenswear collection for YSL. They were very Palace, very Jacno, Taxi Girl…etc.

 

[tricotineacetat]

He did the last FW'22 collection already in this venue, albeit in video format.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the men's looks shown in LA were a part of this collection or if it's headed elsewhere in terms of the look. That being said, I really enjoyed the 'Boydoll' collection (even if the title, just as 'The Age of Indieness' and many before, have been cringe-worthy, to say the least) - With a lot of pieces emphasizing an intricate 'roundedness' in the sleeve and dropped shoulders that I come to expect from a designer who considers himself a 'couturier' (by which standards I expect a bit more than yet another sequinned tux jacket...) - Finally a fashion proposition that moved his repertoire a bit forward from what we've come to expect from him in the seasons past!

 

[Lola701]

He did the last FW'22 collection already in this venue, albeit in video format.

It was l’Olympia…However Alessandro Michele presented a collection at Le Palace. The show where Jane Birkin sang.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

Also I know a lot of people dislike what he did with the fragrances because of their projection/longevity or lack thereof, but after wearing them pretty much almost exclusively for the past several months, I kind of prefer it to the way other fragrances wear? I wore one of my Penhaligon's fragrances yesterday for the first time in forever and felt kind of overpowered by its strength and how long it lasted. Kind of digging the idea of the more intimate scents. But then again they're like 400 f*cking dollars