Of all of the designers who stepped off the style wheel throughout the pandemic-induced present hiatus, Hedi Slimane of Celine is likely one of the only a few who has not returned to the same-old-same-old runway system. As an alternative he affords up his collections when and the way he desires.
His final dwell girls’s present was a part of a dual-gender extravaganza on the Wiltern theater in Los Angeles in December 2022. Then nothing — till this week, virtually a 12 months later, when Mr. Slimane lastly launched its sequel: a video, posted on-line and filmed within the hovering primary studying room of the Bibliothèque Nationale, the French nationwide library, in Paris.
The setting, it turned out, was successfully a really fancy architectural metaphor for what Mr. Slimane has been doing with the model. He’s constructing a wardrobe library: one which can be utilized by a wide range of girls, even when Mr. Slimane insists on displaying it on anemic wanting waifs. It’s one which has little to do with seasons and extra to do with the story you wish to inform at any given time. Are available in, calm down, take out the look you need for the day. The video could have been entitled “Tomboy,” but it surely included an assortment of genres.
Possibly, for instance, you’re feeling black and white existential androgyny — there’s a swimsuit for that. Possibly Nineteen Nineties grunge, within the type of sweats or athletic shorts and tank tops beneath bouclé jackets or lacy little slip attire with beanie hats and boots.
Possibly you’re feeling extra of a BCBG minimal vibe, in blazers and flared denims and striped button-ups. Or maybe a romance, in a protracted, lacy black robe. Possibly it’s a fake fur chubby or a La Princesse minidress bristling with gilded porcupine quills. Possibly you need the Cliffs Notes model, by way of equipment: darkish shades, a series bag, jolie madame pumps, large shearling boots on the lam from Courchevel.
None of this was significantly new, however that’s a part of the purpose. It doesn’t actually matter that Mr. Slimane hasn’t had a girls’s present for a 12 months as a result of every new assortment merely picks up the place the final one left off. It’s like a serial writ in garments or a reminder that it’s not a lot our tales that change, however the best way they’re informed and the context. We’re all characters in our personal fiction. May as effectively have the instruments to decorate for it.
