Celine presented its latest collection a week after Paris Fashion Week officially ended and without an actual show, but with the spirit of founder Céline Vipiana and Twiggy present everywhere.
Instead of a runway show, Céline designer Hedi Slimane debuted the collection online, via Celine.com, Instagram and YouTube. Starting with images of the exterior of the famous arch, before the action moved inside. No, although inside the arch, but in four completely different buildings. Savvy Parisians might recognize the highlights as the Salle Pleyel philharmonic concert hall and the Musée Bourdelle, the museum-workshop of early 20th-century sculptor Antoine Bourdelle.
A lot of fashion ideas from the 60s, with fresh, concise and cheerful clothes. Many monochrome suits, made with short bolero jackets and miniskirts with front pockets, made in black, white and chocolate, and in wool and leather.
Little black surgical-cut dresses or silver dresses with big, billowing eye-catching bows; Skirts always cut to mid-thigh. Everything was very short, including the party coats in black leather or houndstooth.
In 1971, founder Vipiana's car broke down at the Arc de Tiomphe, giving her time to admire the monument's chain links and later incorporate them into Céline's historic emblem.
Slimane, whom LVMH appointed to lead Céline in 2018, updated that emblem into a version of the inverted C logo that he called Triumph. She appeared in this virtual show about visored pillbox hats; gold buttons; retro sunglasses; belt buckles and a great new series of bags.
Overall, there was a sense of very sexy stewardesses emerging from a time capsule (most of the looks anchored in soldier or space-age boots) juxtaposed against Bourdelle's enormous, heroic statures. Patent leather handbags with gold chains slung over the shoulders in a graphic collection, enhanced by the Art Deco mosaic floor of the Salle Pleyel. Adding a slight whiff to William Klein's 1966 cult fashion film Who are you Polly Maggoo?
The entire cast dressed Twiggy-style: with dark eyeliner, a white waterline, and clumped bottom lashes with mascara. Almost as if Twiggy's French granddaughters had become elegant yé-yé singers in pearls. Dressed in embroidered white cocktails, gold dresses or bright jade tank tops, finished with this season's key material, faux fur made from sheepskin. Each one goes to meet her Latin lover.
Previously, this fashion film culminated with touches of haute couture thanks to sculpted and puffed silk gazar dresses finished with crystals and rhinestones.
The action returns to the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most emblematic buildings in France, beneath which every year the President of France lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Where Hedi ended up with his own makeover: placing the inverted C logo on the roof of the arch. Nothing terribly revolutionary, but he's still the coolest wardrobe of any major French house this season.
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