Runway: CELINE S/S20
Spread the news: The 70’s are back!
On June 23, in the famed Dôme des Invalides, Hedi Slimane expanded CELINE’s menswear range and delivered CELINE’s second menswear-only show - ringing an end of an extremely eventful Paris Fashion Week. Fans and critics alike knew what to expect - rock-chic, rock music and rangy models with size 28 waists and Hedi delivered just that, with the addition of stadium jackets, animal-prints and flares - tons of flares. In 2019, even Hedi Slimane is done with skinny denim - who would’ve guessed?
Slimane sent his rakes marching to “Name Escape”, an original tune created by aptly named Bodega, an indie Brooklyn band (by way of Scotland). Models donned haircuts and flared pants likely to make Jagger fret with envy - and that was just the beginning. Slimane’s runway was full of cropped jackets, cardigans and 70’s British tailoring, nearly all atop animal-skin footwear. Accessories included skinny belts, skinny ties and… gold jelly sandals? Serge Gainsbourg was a visible style inspiration as Slimane’s boys paired washed denim with striped jackets and nearly all of the collection’s 51 looks were befitting of a English rocker circa 1975.
Celine S/S20 is the latest inclusion to the designers’ repertoire of rocker and vintage-inspired garments but that doesn’t necessarily make it contemporary. If we are to take the collection at face-value, then perhaps Celine’s new man wants nothing to do with modernity. The collection conveyed an attitude - one glibly coined on the straw totes featured in the collection: “I have nostalgia for things I probably have never known.” This iconography is an interesting tease considering the designer’s history - an admitted outsider of sorts with a love for the cool-kids-club to which he has never truly belonged (at least in his youth). However, it is entirely possible that the expression is merely a riff on the designer’s ability to channel decades and subcultures of the past - rendering customers hopeless as they purchase *CELINE* souvenirs emblematic of experiences they’ve never really lived.