Experts predict that under a Rider leadership, the nearly 80-year-old brand will find itself back in the days of understated elegance.
Seems like the game of musical chairs in the fashion industry is far from over. From Chanel to Lanvin, changes in the upper echelons of revered labels have been stuff of headlines these past several months. And now we can add Celine to the list as it bids Hedi Slimane goodbye after a seven-year tenure as creative director. Taking his place is former Polo Ralph Lauren designer Michael Rider.
On October 1, LVMH confirmed that the 56-year-old French designer would be departing Celine, saying in a statement to WWD: “Under his creative and artistic direction, Celine has experienced exceptional growth and established itself as an iconic French couture house.”
A mere few hours after the announcement, Celine revealed that Rider would fill in the role vacated by Slimane. The American designer is no stranger to the luxury label. He previously worked at Celine for a full decade as a ready-to-wear design director under former creative director Phoebe Philo. Before that, the Brown University alumnus designed for Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière’s leadership.
“I am delighted to welcome Michael back to Celine, a maison that he knows intimately. Michael’s vision, creative talent, together with his genuine nature and strong connection to Celine’s heritage, make him a natural choice to continue to build a long-lasting success for the maison,” said Severine Merle, CEO of Celine, as quoted in The New York Times.
Rider’s appointment makes him one of the very few American designers leading brands owned by LVMH, the world’s largest luxury company. He follows in the footsteps of Michael Kors, who oversaw design at Celine from 1997 to 2004.
As creative director at Polo Ralph Lauren, Rider was credited with resurrecting the preppy aesthetic, subtly blending the brand’s classic all-American heritage with a modern twist. Under his leadership, experts are expecting for him to inject his “quiet yet powerful vision” into the label. An article on Dazed predicts that with Rider at the helm, Celine is likely going back to the understated elegance it became known for under Philo, but with a fresh perspective that acknowledges fashion’s ever evolving landscape.
Rider will officially become the nearly 80-year-old French brand’s creative director early next year. As he eases into his new role, he is expected to strike a balance between his predecessor’s next-gen interpretation of the House with the growing nostalgia for Philo’s days—all while injecting his own style into a well-loved label. With his deep understanding of the brand’s DNA, combined with his reputation for making heritage cool again, it looks like he’s up to this gargantuan task.
As for Slimane, the native Parisian has always been credited for bringing fresh life and new growth to the label since he joined in 2018, following a successful tenure as Saint Laurent’s creative director. During his stint as Celine’s top designer, he helped take the brand from annual sales of slightly less than 1 billion euros to around 2.5 billion euros.
Compared with stablemates Dior and Louis Vuitton, which both have commanding portfolios, Celine takes pride in its enduring popularity among celebrities despite being a “smaller” brand. With Slimane at the helm, the House’s recent campaigns included Gen-Z celebrities like Kaia Gerber and Lisa of Blackpink.
Slimane is known for transforming Celine from being a brand known for Philo’s minimalist aesthetic and modern femininity to one that is edgier and more raucous—very much like Slimane himself who is known to be “mercurial and a provocateur,” as he was described in The New York Times. In fact, he immediately made his mark on the brand by changing its name from ‘Céline’ with its signature accent to just ‘Celine.’
His debut collection for spring 2019 made a clear statement: he wiped clean the brand’s social media accounts, introduced a men’s line for the first time in the brand’s history, and had slender models sashay down the runway garbed in his trademark shiny tailoring and sparkling babydoll dresses, adorned with hardware and leather.
Slimane’s singular narrative—one that is defined by blacks, whites, and elongated silhouettes— will always be part of Celine’s storied history.
So where to next for Monsieur Slimane? Industry experts predict after looking at his last few collections for Celine that he is heading to Chanel, which is currently without a top designer after Virginie Viard’s exit last June.
