Michael Rider - Designer, Creative Director of Celine

[PPPT]

This is Hedi anchor (2021)

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

I secretly love the new sneakers because of the logo and they remind me of my Loewe sneakers and other vintage models

 

[Lola701]

The studio is on it 🫡

They won’t introduce his products until his first show. So, we won’t see his final vision until maybe 1full year.

 

[Nimsay]

kinda late…. Dolce has been doing this for two seasons now. I just got LV Homme version of this.

 

[PDFSD]

puck.news/the-celine-leak​

The Celine Leak​

News and notes on the Celine F/W 2025 menswear leak and what it portends for Michael Rider’s debut.

June 2, 2025

Here’s the latest you need to know:

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But Will It Be Celine or Céline?​

Images of some of Celine’s Fall/Winter 2025 menswear collection leaked onto the internet last week. I don’t know if there’s a usable link to share, but let me describe what I’m seeing:
standard, in-between designer fare, with turtlenecks layered under button-ups; preppy widish-shoulder blazers; pop-collar coats; relaxed jeans and trousers.
In short, far less exacting than Hedi Slimane, but not totally divorced from him, either.

As for whether this hints at what’s to come from Michael Rider in July…? Perhaps, although I suspect he will deliver a far more realized vision than what many anticipate.

Rider, of course, worked for Phoebe Philo for years at Céline, and was one of the designers in the running to replace her before Bernard Arnault decided on the Hedi strategy. He then went to work for Ralph Lauren, where he successfully revived Polo with the support and blessing of Lauren himself. (This is not a company where change is easy to accomplish.)

Now, he’s returning to a brand that is twice as big as when he left, and which required hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to reposition.
Rider’s challenge is also considerable for other, more nuanced reasons.
In short, he needs to serve as a uniting force by creating something that looks nothing like Hedi, and nothing like Phoebe, but honors the bourgeois spirit of the brand.

In the process, he also needs to avoid alienating the Hedi customer—as Hedi, of course, did to many Phoebe customers when he took over.

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[jeanclaude]

In short, he needs to serve as a uniting force by creating something that looks nothing like Hedi, and nothing like Phoebe, but honors the bourgeois spirit of the brand.

In the process, he also needs to avoid alienating the Hedi customer—as Hedi, of course, did to many Phoebe customers when he took over.

---

He´s pretty fuc.ked...!

 

[Kimihiro]

The Hedi menswear customer is gone anyways. Even at Saint Laurent many fled after Hedi left so it’s fine to try new things out. Womenswear is the bigger challenge, on how they could retain the customers.

 

[Lola701]

The Hedi menswear customer is gone anyways. Even at Saint Laurent many fled after Hedi left so it’s fine to try new things out. Womenswear is the bigger challenge, on how they could retain the customers.

I think his biggest challenge is the menswear actually. Because while very few women are actually faithful to designers, a lot of women are faithful to brands. And Celine is a very separates-driven brand. If it’s well styled and the vision is clear, women will follow. And there are bags for the mass.

Menswear is a lot more tough because the proposition has to be strong because men are generally faithful to designers or to an aesthetic. I think Celine is moved past the Hedi customer anyway because they are selling a lot of merch but to actually win a menswear customer, his proposition will have to be very strong.
Because they can sell the permanent collection forever. They did at at Dior Homme and Saint Laurent. For jeans, coats and shirts that are timeless, the customer may come back endlessly but they needs a good pair of shoes, a bag too in menswear. Something that Hedi missed at Celine Homme.

 

[tourbillions]

i dont think there was a hedi's celine man to begin with. Even if its his strength, he didn't focus enough on menswear at celine. And the little he proposed was too juvenile and the distribution was too limited. Unfortunately hedi's celine man isn't any different from the philipp plein men, weaing their black logo to shirts around. and probably in balenciaga sneakers

 

[hamburgers]

^I think that’s a consequence of how LVMH today makes sure the brand comes before the designer much more so than Kering or even old LVMH. Heidi’s DH and SL men had back to back hit runway items like the GATs, Wyatt, teddy jacket, etc while Celine men’s focused on pushing logo Tshirts, sweatpants, hats etc. despite more polished and directional runway collections. You can say a similar thing about the women’s but add in the triomphe leather goods.

So for me I think Rider’s biggest challenge will be maintaining the brand so that the Celine logo, triomphe, and monogram stay fashionable or become classics and not just a fad of the early 2020’s. I saw someone buy a nano luggage in store recently and it sent me into an existential crisis about the passage of time.

 

[HigthaVandah]

My SA says prices are increasing tomorrow.....

 

[tricotineacetat]

i dont think there was a hedi's celine man to begin with. Even if its his strength, he didn't focus enough on menswear at celine. And the little he proposed was too juvenile and the distribution was too limited. Unfortunately hedi's celine man isn't any different from the philipp plein men, weaing their black logo to shirts around. and probably in balenciaga sneakers

I would argue they did not put a lot of effort into marketing the runway collections enough, probably as a consequence to Celine becoming a lifestyle brand, where runway only plays a small part in the grander picture.

Truth be told - Saint Laurent and Dior also had tacky product you kind of had to ignore but that added little weight, as the runway played a key role of identity.

I think in hindsight we can say Hedi delivered what LVMH asked for and more so than at Saint Laurent will it be important to stick to a significant part of the template, which is all the art direction, the brand identity, the Triomphe logo and the perfumes.

 

[Nimsay]

again. Hedi left celine. Celine didnt leave Hedi. They’re moving on from the Hedi customer bc Hedi made them.

Celine is back to the 3rd tier fashion label that it always was.

Again. Dior Homme has been dead for 15 years. LVMH knows what happens when Hedi leaves.

 

[HigthaVandah]

So what was Celine hoping to gain long-term, business wise, given this wasn't LVMH's first walk in the park with Hedi? To establish a men's side under the blanket of Hedi's credibility, knowing/being resigned to the fact that menswear will probably degrade to mostly merch even on the runway after Hedi? To present a unified image while they pour money into expanding their presence in Asia, etc., so they can have a larger baseline reach for their merch and bland sportswear after Hedi? To have Hedi establish a mythical heritage complete with branding touchpoints that future teams can reference for decades?

 

[Lola701]

I would argue they did not put a lot of effort into marketing the runway collections enough, probably as a consequence to Celine becoming a lifestyle brand, where runway only plays a small part in the grander picture.

At the same time, Hedi had control over everything so it made difficult to « push » marketing harder than they were when he was responsible for the collections, their presentations, the visuals and things like that.

At the same time, kudos to him because he left the brand at a healthy place and in a way created a frame for Rider.

Anthony Vaccarello struggled at Saint Laurent because Saint Laurent was essentially rock. Celine is very much bourgeois. It’s a style that I think is maybe more approachable from a stylistic stand point if you don’t share the same sensibilities.

In a way, when I look at the lookbook, I don’t find it horrendous. Let’s be honest, a lot of Hedi fans can’t fit his clothes or don’t necessarily look as good as they thinks. I saw so many men already in the Saint Laurent days, wearing short jackets, skinny jeans they had no business wearing in order to follow that aesthetic.

 

[KilltheLook]

At the same time, Hedi had control over everything so it made difficult to « push » marketing harder than they were when he was responsible for the collections, their presentations, the visuals and things like that.

At the same time, kudos to him because he left the brand at a healthy place and in a way created a frame for Rider.

Anthony Vaccarello struggled at Saint Laurent because Saint Laurent was essentially rock. Celine is very much bourgeois. It’s a style that I think is maybe more approachable from a stylistic stand point if you don’t share the same sensibilities.

In a way, when I look at the lookbook, I don’t find it horrendous. Let’s be honest, a lot of Hedi fans can’t fit his clothes or don’t necessarily look as good as they thinks. I saw so many men already in the Saint Laurent days, wearing short jackets, skinny jeans they had no business wearing in order to follow that aesthetic.

I totally agree on your last part here about Hedi's fans who are not dressing for their bodies. I still vividly remember a middle age man wearing his skinny black jeans and Leather jacket look with his gut spilling out on top of the belt at the Saint Laurent store. It was quite a scene.

Back from the current version of Celine, a high-level director told me they are actually thrilled they can market the runaway collections in a proper way now that he's gone. Toward the end of his career, Hedi refused to do proper runway shows and it really hurt their sales. Hedi has a strong vision, but a brand at the Celine caliber needs to market the hell out of a collection to sell the merchs (with logos or not).

 

[Nimsay]

They did everything they could to get Hedi back. Anything else is just PR spin.

When he was appointed, the story was that he left Dior Homme because he didn’t have enough control, and Celine was the answer to that. It was always framed like Celine was Hedi’s house, fully his to shape.

And honestly, it made perfect sense. Celine was a small French brand with no real customer base and no strong image. That made it the only house LVMH could hand over to Hedi without restrictions. They eased Phoebe out, waved off her followers, and cleared the runway for him.

So when the director tried to brush it off, it comes off as pure cope. Without Hedi, they don’t have a campaign, let alone a message. Let’s be real. Whenever we’ve hired our second choice, it’s only because our first said no.

 

[tricotineacetat]

At the same time, Hedi had control over everything so it made difficult to « push » marketing harder than they were when he was responsible for the collections, their presentations, the visuals and things like that.

At the same time, kudos to him because he left the brand at a healthy place and in a way created a frame for Rider.

Anthony Vaccarello struggled at Saint Laurent because Saint Laurent was essentially rock. Celine is very much bourgeois. It’s a style that I think is maybe more approachable from a stylistic stand point if you don’t share the same sensibilities.

In a way, when I look at the lookbook, I don’t find it horrendous. Let’s be honest, a lot of Hedi fans can’t fit his clothes or don’t necessarily look as good as they thinks. I saw so many men already in the Saint Laurent days, wearing short jackets, skinny jeans they had no business wearing in order to follow that aesthetic.

We won’t know who‘s to be held accountable for that but it‘s clear to me that creating a bigger universe around the Celine brand would naturally take quite a bit attention away from the time and shelf life of runway-specific product, in favor of things that can cater to a clientele that is not necessarily well known to the style of Hedi Slimane.

That being said, I think if anything we could see the clothes in Celine loosening up a bit in terms of the cut and it‘s looked good on the majority of his older clients. Hedi always had this reputation of cutting clothes for unrealistic body types which doesn‘t align with my own experiences working with his Dior in retail for years.