Hedi Slimane Sheds Light on Celine's Biggest Changes Following His Appointment
The creative director opens up about the removal of the fashion house’s accent.
Days ahead of Celine‘s highly anticipated runway presentation, Hedi Slimane was interviewed by the French newspaper Le Figaro. This interview’s release comes swiftly following the fashion house’s unveiling of the luxe art book invitation. In the rare conversation, the creative director speaks candidly about his bold decision to drop the accent from Celine, in addition to separating his design work from Phoebe Philo.
Later in the feature, Slimane speaks about the perception he has of Celine, and even defines what style means to him. Towards the end of the interview, he breaks down his thoughts on Instagram and social media, providing insight on the fast-paced, omnipresent app. He surprisingly shared that he really likes Instagram for its “engagement” and what it can do for “artistic projects.”
On dropping the accent from Celine:
“This is actually not about marking my territory at all. All the basics must be carefully considered without losing sight of the long-term. It’s a question of priorities. That’s simply orthodoxy. Putting language elements rooted in the original history of the house, its foundations, in order to come back to an architectural and graphic alignment that is essential to the project. … The major houses are alive. They must evolve and find the essence of what they truly are. Everything but indifference. We don’t shake things up to be subtle. When there’s no debate, it means there’s no opinion, which brings us to blind conformity.”
On how he visualizes Celine under his direction:
“I’ve always been really sensitive regarding this high quality notion, this savoir-faire that is related to the house. In this context, the idea of playing with the bourgeoisie codes is rather interesting. Moreover, at Celine, the weight of the past is not as heavy as it is at Dior or Saint Laurent. We can break free of it more easily. Celine is a vision of Paris, a way of being worn… I don’t want to lock it up in something. There’s no constraint, no model that is linked to a very important legacy. It’s more of a French idea than a cloakroom. Starting from here, we can coin a vocabulary. What’s important is always now.”
On how the fashion house will differ from Phoebe Philo’s creative direction:
“Our respective styles are identifiable and very different. Our vision is naturally distinct. Besides, we don’t enter a fashion house to imitate our predecessor, much less to take over the essence of their work, their codes and elements of language. The goal is not to go the opposite way of their work either. It would be a misinterpretation. Respect means preserving the integrity of each individual, recognising the things that belong to another person with honesty and discernment. It also means starting a new chapter. We arrive then with our own stories, our own culture, a personal semantic that is different from the ones of houses in which we create. We have to be ourselves, without any stance, against all odds.”
Head over to Business of Fashion to read the entire translated interview.
