Hedi Slimane's electro-rock for Celine's FW23 collection

For his Celine FW23 collection presented in Paris last Friday, Hedi Slimane chose an exceptional setting: the legendary Parisian club Le Palace. Founded in the 16th century as a theater and ballroom, evolving over the centuries into a nightclub and then a cinema but later falling into disrepair, it was reopened in 1978 by the great impresario Fabrice Emaer as the French answer to Studio 54. Since then Le Palace has been a monument to Montmartre nightlife, the most frequented venue by all the legends of 1970s and 1980s Paris. Such a place could only attract Slimane, who has been frequenting it since he was 16 and, in 2018, used it as the venue for his birthday party. Friday's fashion show was also a very Slimanean affair: in fact, the huge space was filled with the procession of French divas, actors, and indie rock icons such as Catherine Deneuve, Jane Birkin, Jack White, Earl Cave, Jack Dylan, Yves Tumor, and The Libertines - signing the soundtrack instead were Suicide, stars of 1970s proto-punk who accompanied a collection that is perhaps among Slimane's most successful at Celine.

Maintaining a strong continuity with the past, the collection insisted on the theme of the total leather look, with the classic skinny silhouette being decorated with studs or rhinestones. There is no shortage of classic glam details such as an abundance of metallic elements, mesh undershirts, and the omnipresence of animal prints, which, in the case of oversize coats, were recreated using faux fur made of pure cashmere. Elsewhere, most striking was certainly the styling choices that saw these very aggressive garments combined with other more immediately vintage pieces and fabric types: a barbed coat, oversized aviator jackets, tweeds, trench coats and cabanas, pinstripe suits mixing flared pants and raised shoulders. More humorous pieces abounded as well, such as denim jackets constructed like a patchwork, leopard-print ties, and even a T-shirt with a bow tie drawn on it similar to a design Slimane created in his time at Dior Homme. There were also pieces bearing Le Palace branding that will instead be produced in a limited edition. The artwork that decorated many of the outfits, then, was signed by Alan Vega - one of the members of the band Suicide that provided the soundtrack for the show. 

By organizing his show outside the fashion week calendar (as well as that of the women's collection organized last November at The Wiltern, another iconic nightclub but in Los Angeles) Hedi Slimane seems to want to reaffirm his independence not only from the rest of the industry but also from the very concept of the season and the implicit notion that it is necessary to renew even a formula that works continually. The answer then, in the absence of huge media events, is to create a community of kindred spirits, a kind of enlarged big rock band, all united by the same imagery that concedes little to the comings and goings of trends and at the same time is capable of expanding from the rock of leather suits to the classicism of coats and tailoring to the glamour of red carpet gowns seen on virtually every red carpet in the past few years and especially at Cannes.