It’s official: Hedi Slimane is exiting Celine after seven years, proprietor LVMH confirmed in an announcement.
Throughout his tenure, the star designer recognized for his trademark skinny silhouette has reworked Celine, including menswear for the primary time within the model’s 79-year historical past, in addition to increasing into excessive fragrance and wonder. In womenswear, Slimane reconnected Celine to its historic identification as a purveyor of leather-based items that incarnate Parisian bourgeois model, serving to to greater than double annual gross sales to €2.5 billion, in response to analyst estimates. (LVMH doesn’t report efficiency by model).
”Celine has skilled distinctive progress and established itself as an iconic French couture home,” LVMH stated in an announcement. “The holistic imaginative and prescient of Hedi Slimane, his exigence and rigour have made it attainable to redefine the codes of Celine while reaffirming its female and Parisian roots.”
Regardless of Celine’s success, sources informed BoF in April that Slimane was locked in thorny contract negotiations with LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault might exit the label.
Regardless of Celine’s success, sources say Slimane had been locked in a thorny contract negotiations with LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault for months earlier than in the end exiting the label. Whereas Arnault has lengthy recognised the ability of Slimane’s ultra-coherent, relatable contact for styling, branding, merchandising and shops, the partnership seems to have reached its limits amid a pointy luxurious market slowdown.
Whereas Slimane is broadly considered an distinctive expertise, he instructions a excessive wage along with close to complete management over how hefty budgets are deployed throughout product improvement and communications.
Design groups frequently ferry sprawling collections of completed designs to Slimane’s South of France hideaway, the place Slimane “retailers” for favorite objects and scraps the remaining. In the meantime, months and numerous thousands and thousands have been spent capturing the designer’s assortment movies, that are sometimes dropped on-line with out warning, limiting protection by press and influencers.
Slimane’s commercially potent imaginative and prescient was well worth the expense because it drove the enterprise to new heights. However as LVMH tightens its belt in a slowing market, it might have been tougher to abdomen.
Now, LVMH might want to title a brand new designer to animate Celine’s collections with out disrupting the momentum Slimane dropped at the model. Alaïa’s artistic director Pieter Mulier maintains shut ties to the Arnault household (notably first daughter Delphine) since his tenure working below Raf Simons at Dior, and is probably going within the working. Michael Rider, a prime design deputy throughout Phoebe Philo’s tenure at Celine who not too long ago left a task overseeing womenswear for Ralph Lauren, is one other main candidate, in response to market stories.
Disclosure: LVMH is a part of a gaggle of buyers who, collectively, maintain a minority curiosity in The Enterprise of Vogue. All buyers have signed shareholders’ documentation guaranteeing BoF’s full editorial independence.
