For Winter, Hedi Slimane Gives Emo Boys the CELINE Treatment
No one can accuse Hedi Slimane of not knowing what he likes. The creative director's fastidious obsession with rock n' roll has fueled his fashion output for decades and, at CELINE, Slimane has only refined that fixation with input from contemporary culture.
Witness CELINE's Winter 2022 runway show, an exploration of the various inspirations that push Slimane beyond his comfort zone of '60s-era rock music.
In recent seasons, Slimane has entirely thrown open the door to Tiktok culture, directly absorbing e-boy taste into CELINE's seasonal collections.
After all, who are today's rock stars if not social meda celebs?
There's a willful contrast between Slimane's grungy influences — young kids with ragged biker jackets and ripped jeans — and CELINE's luxury inclinations (behold CELINE's ancient in-store artwork and bespoke e-foil) which serves to underline Slimane's output as appreciation, not appropriation.
Slimane is indeed a designer: his work does indeed incorporate familiar stylistic cues but they're rendered barely recognizable through updated shapes, accents, and fabrications. One of my favorite references on the subject comes from the wonderful Charlie Porter, who best explains what it is exactly that Slimane does.
Anyways, onto the show.
CELINE Winter 2022, dubbed "Boy Doll," was soundtracked by noisy Swedish post-punks Shitkid, whose audio contributions were produced by Slimane himself.
That soundtrack is indicative of the intentional contrast that Slimane directs at CELINE, as today's hot topics flesh out his tradework design ethos.
Winter 2022 thus sees Slimane interpreting the the emo boys of yore as a mélange of his preferred tropes, mixed with the edgy coldness of darkwave and topped with a dash of Marc Bolan.
In fact, the collection is ample proof that Slimane's answering the Y2k trend in his own inimitable way — one of the eight featured artists, for instance, is Banks Violette, the reclusive artist and Sunn 0))) collaborator whose gloomy mid-00s output was equally revered and reviled for reflecting anxious anti-establishmentarianism.
Glistening with "Boy Doll" jewelry and CELINE's new Moon sunglasses, models strode the runway with Violette's artwork on the rear of their leather jackets and metallic fringe on their relaxed trousers.
It's classic Slimane, in a sense, with the leathers and pointy boots, but there's a softness in the oversized sequined hoodies and fleece leopard-printed coats that Slimane's channeling directly from the mid-aughts — Not quite Silverstein, more like glaive.
