Hedi Slimane’s latest menswear collection for Celine is a Hollywood epic
Hedi Slimane presents his Winter 2024 menswear collection for Celine in a cinematic short film directed by the designer in California’s Mojave Desert – featuring helicopters, cowboys, and a motorcade of Cadillacs
A phalanx of Celine-branded helicopters and a motorcade of black Cadillacs; soaring shots of the undulating mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert; cowboys on braying horses; miles-long stretches of Californian open road – with his latest Celine menswear collection, presented in a short film released today, Hedi Slimane embraces the cinematic for a Hollywood epic in the designer’s singular style.
It begins with a jukebox – delivered by helicopter and replete with the same Celine branding – which when flipped on plays not one of Slimane’s usual rock and roll muses (recent collection films and shows from the designer have featured soundtracks from LCD Soundsystem, The Libertines and Alan Vega), but Hector Berlioz’s 1830-composed ‘Symphonie Fantastique’.
Celine Winter 2024 menswear: ‘Symphonie Fantastique’
Purportedly inspired by an obsessive, consuming relationship between the French musician and English actress Harriet Smithson, the dream-like epic is a feverish hallucination – one of opium poisoning, satanic witches and murder – which in 1969 was declared by Leonard Bernstein as ’the first psychedelic symphony’, created over a century before the birth of the acid-fuelled 1960s movement.
‘Now I’m sure that any of you who has ever had a crush on someone who didn't return your feeling will understand that passionate melody perfectly,’ said Bernstein, who recently was the subject of Academy Award-nominated film Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper in the titular role. ‘You can easily see how a lovesick musician could become obsessed by it. And if you understand that, you're ready to hear the symphony.’ Slimane discovered the work at age 11, and became instantly ’passionate’ about Berlioz, the house describes.
It provides a suitably dramatic backdrop for a collection that mines Slimane’s most enduring signatures: the narrow riff on the tuxedo, shrunken leather jackets and trousers, and flourishes of rock-and-roll showmanship, from pussy-bow neckties to fabrics that glimmer across their surface. An evolution comes in the play on proportion that runs through the tailoring: blazers are elongated or nipped in the body, or shortened in the lapel, recalling 1960s silhouettes (other jackets see the lapel done away with entirely, in what the house describes as a ‘frock coat’). Bernstein, meanwhile, seems to hover over the collection in roll-neck sweaters and billowing capes, which are instilled with the drama of the concert hall.
Elsewhere, a series of pieces from the house’s couture arm capture Slimane’s ongoing fascination with Parisian savoir-faire – whether crystal-adorned overcoats which refract the Mojave Desert’s light, or tailoring decorated with thousands of sequins. Each is shown on Slimane’s make-shift catwalks: a vast stretch of open road which runs through the desert like an airport runway.
California, and Los Angeles – the latter shown in glimpses of its downtown skyline at the end of the film – has long been something of a second home for Slimane, who lived in the city before relocating to the south of France at the beginning of his tenure at Celine. His fascination with the city’s heady blend of rock and roll subculture and nostalgic, Hollywood glamour has long pervaded his collections at Celine and at Saint Laurent and Dior Homme prior. In December of 2022, he hosted his Winter 2023 collection with a high-wattage show The Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, a historic movie palace-turned-music venue which has hosted the likes of Prince, Iggy Pop and Sonic Youth.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Discover Celine’s Winter 2024 womenswear collection, which was presented this past March in a Hedi Slimane-directed film, here.
Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
-
Tour the new Four Seasons Osaka, where time stands still
Set within a 49-storey tower, Four Seasons Osaka takes the traditional ryokan experience to new heights
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
How guest editor Marcio Kogan, during a visit to the movies, ‘discovered that something else exists in the world, real poetry’
Marcio Kogan is a guest editor of Wallpaper* October 2024. In his dedicated section, we discover how the world of cinema’s loss was architecture’s gain when a feature film failed but a dream space creator rose from the ashes
By Rainbow Nelson Published
-
Discover Tempe à Pailla, a lesser-known Eileen Gray gem nestled in the French Riviera
Tempe à Pailla is a modernist villa in the French Riviera brimming with history, originally designed by architect Eileen Gray and extended by late British painter Graham Sutherland
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Why solid soap is the most pleasurable object to bathe with
Solid soap provides a tactile bathing experience like no other. Hannah Tindle explores why in the September 2024 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, with soaps by Chanel, Celine, Diptyque, and more, photographed by Sophie Gladstone
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Wallpaper* September 2024, The Style Issue, is on newsstands now: discover the looks of the season
Wallpaper* September 2024, The Style Issue, heralds sensual dressing for the season ahead. Hear from Dior’s Kim Jones, Hermès’ Nadège Vanhée, and tour Karl Lagerfeld’s bookshop
By Bill Prince Published
-
Hedi Slimane captures Ever Anderson on film wearing Celine’s ‘effortless’ red lipstick
Ever Anderson is the star of the first Celine Beauté campaign, which marks the pre-launch of its new ‘Rouge Triomphe’ lipstick
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Celine’s pilates collection makes for a deeply luxurious workout
Hedi Slimane’s pilates collection for Celine contains all your workout essentials, reimagined in the designer’s singular style – from leather kettlebells and weights to a Triomphe reformer machine
By Jack Moss Published
-
Pre-Fall 2024’s defining looks combine sharp silhouettes with a soft touch
A play on texture defines the Pre-Fall 2024 collections, seeing clean lines and pin-sharp tailoring meet soft-to-the-touch fabrics. Here, photographer Mattia Parodi captures the season’s best looks
By Jack Moss Published
-
Utilitarian men’s fashion that will elevate your everyday
From Prada to Margaret Howell, utilitarian and workwear-inspired men’s fashion gets an upgrade for S/S 2024
By Jack Moss Published
-
Celine teases a new beauty line, the first in its 78-year history
Celine Beauté is coming, with lipstick, mascara, eyeliner, and more, designed by Hedi Slimane
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Hedi Slimane’s latest Celine collection is rooted in the house’s 1960s heyday
Hedi Slimane’s Celine A/W 2024 womenswear collection recalls the abbreviated silhouettes of the house’s 1960s heyday, revealed today via a short film that also launches the house’s first-ever cosmetic line, Celine Beauté
By Jack Moss Published