Brutally slender, polished to perfection and a fastidious kind of after-dark decadence, the first show under Hedi Slimane’s tenure signals a new direction for the French fashion house
At the most anticipated show of Paris fashion week, with Lady Gaga, Karl Lagerfeld and Catherine Deneuve watching from the front row, Hedi Slimane launched a blitzkrieg on Céline, which for a decade under Phoebe Philo embodied the female gaze in fashion. In the shadow of Les Invalides, the site of Napoleon’s tomb, Slimane jettisoned elegant trousers, silk blouses, understated knitwear and unstructured trenchcoats for dolly-sized sequin micro shifts and tiny leather skirts.
The day of the Kavanaugh hearings in Washington arguably not being the patriarchy’s finest hour, it was an uncomfortable moment for Slimane to raze to the ground the female design philosophy of a house which, for a decade under Philo, was notable for not equating a woman’s power with her sexuality.
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