CELINE

Indie Spring-Summer 2023 Saint-Tropez Collection

Upon arriving to Celine in 2018, Hedi Slimane left California where he lived for 10 years and settled in Ramatuelle in the gulf of Saint-Tropez. For the past 5 years, the couturier has explored Saint-Tropez and a more general nostalgia for the French Riviera as a counterpoint to the SaintGermain-Des-Près Codes of Celine. Now, La Collection de Saint-Tropez aims to hail a glorious reinterpretation of the famed portraitist’s classic glamour exploits of the aughts for womenswear.

The short black and white indie-esque Celine Spring-Summer 2023 film, starring supermodel Lulu Tenney, was luxuriously directed at Villa Kerouac in Ramatuelle and Saint-Tropez throughout October 2022 by Hedi Slimane himself, who was also in charge of casting and styling. At the heart of his project for Celine, the aforementioned Villa Kerouac beach house in Ramatuelle also serves as the inspiration for the interior design of Celine boutiques across the globe.

Throughout the 2000s, Hedi Slimane dressed various figures of the British and American rock scene, acting as both their couturier and preferred portraitist. In 2023, Hedi Slimane reunites once again with his friendly accomplices for the past 20 years, Carl Barât and Pete Doherty from the cult album ‘The Libertines’ to reestablish the Celine auditory tone for the Saint-Tropez Collection.

However, that isn’t the only renaissance of his 2000s era: the SaintTropez Collection marks the nostalgic revival of the ‘the original skinny jeans’ that Hedi Slimane created and launched in the 2000s. This archival silhouette grounded by skinny jeans and narrow shoulders was adopted by both the British and American rock scenes between 2000-2007 and soon spread around the world. The original Celine skinny jeans by Hedi Slimane are low-rise, in Japanese blue or black denim. They are also proposed in timelessly supple lambskin leather, and can be worn with Celine ballerina flats, Mary Janes or babies, the new Celine “Biker” boots offset with open buckles, or Tropézienne sandals.

Men’s tailoring is once again leaning narrow. In addition to his renewed chic cardigan jackets, Hedi Slimane has re-introduced rock-star shortened jackets for Celine defined by sharp-edged collars that he pioneered at the dawn of the 2000s. The Tailleur Francais is cut and hand-assembled in white cashmere, black vicuna, and traditional English fabrics. Shorts and bandeau skirts, as well as miniskirts in leather, denim, and military gabardine, are worn low on the hip. Celine triangleshaped swim tops, in jersey or hand-crocheted, are visible under blazers and leather jackets. The iconic black leather jackets by Hedi Slimane for Celine are reinstated in the most luxurious leather and are newly proportioned with a narrower fit.

Not finished with his restoration campaign to redesign, rebuild and reclaim the nonchalant, unbothered rocker vibe of his yesteryear, Hedi Slimane eschews the traditional Celine shoulder bags. In its place, he spearheads a London period throwback of a relaunch of the Cabas forearm-carry bag. The Celine ‘Conti’ saddle bag is hand-finished in supple leather and vegetal-tanned leather, as well as polished black and amber crocodile.