Is Celine's new collection a diss to Chanel?

A few months ago, Bruno Pavlovsky from Chanel said: «The ideal system for us is not to recruit an artistic director who offers the same thing at every house he visits. Too many artistic directors lose the meaning of their brand». A statement that many perceived as a veiled reference to Hedi Slimane as well as an unofficial denial that the designer would indeed be directing Chanel. In fact, after Dior, Saint Laurent, and Celine, directing Chanel would be for Slimane like reaching the peak of the mountain after a long and arduous climb – the mountain in the metaphor being French fashion. The fact is, according to increasingly murky gossip, the potential union has not materialized for the reasons everyone imagines: Slimane wants to control every aspect of a brand, without delegating absolutely anything to anyone. While this approach has worked at Celine, which after Phoebe Philo’s years has built a completely new (and very profitable) identity, the vast universe of Chanel is something more complex and it’s unlikely that the Wertheimer family, who owns the brand, would blindly hand over the keys to the kingdom to Slimane. And that’s why several critics have glimpsed in the latest SS25 collection from Celine a diss to Chanel. But in what sense?

The SS25 women's collection from Celine, designed by Hedi Slimane, is inspired by a French summer of the 1960s, evoking nostalgic and refined atmospheres. The collection was inspired by Slimane's reinterpretation of La Chamade by Françoise Sagan, a story about a woman who gives up a poor lover to return to her rich husband, with the sounds of Nico and the Velvet Underground in the background and various references to French divas of yesteryear like Françoise Hardy and France Gall. Most of the models wear a black silk headband with a short fringe and bob adorned with the Triomphe logo, featuring pleated skirts, striped tops with sequin skirts, embroidered twinsets sprinkled with sequins, delicate Art Deco vibe skirts encrusted with crystals, evening dresses in black silk faille, tweed suits, collarless jackets, and numerous layered necklaces. It’s a type of classic elegance with unmistakably French touches that indeed echoes (with appropriate and conscious degrees of distinction) many of the “signatures” that the public now associates with Chanel – including a four-petal floral top that is not the famous camellia but is very close. While the allusion is notable in the black and white looks with sparkling details, Slimane's rock heritage emerges in the women’s tuxedo, in certain very short 1960s-style dresses, leopard print furs, and leather suits. Very different from the usual is the finale of the video show: the antique chandeliers of the Chateau de Compiègne crashing to the ground in a thousand pieces – a very unusual flourish for Slimane, where the more malicious have wanted to read a suggestion of something old being swept away.

In any case, whether or not there is intentionality in Slimane's creative choices, whether it’s true that Chanel considered him and then rejected him, or whether this collection was inspired by the brand in the first place – it’s all material for future speculations and fashion legends. After all, there are no pearls or gold chains, nor quilted details, and only a very decorated (and very Slimaniana) version of the classic petite robe noire necessary for a complete casting of Chanel's style. In general, Slimane has fantasized a lot about distant eras in his recent collections, abandoning the indie rock world in favor of fantasies of the early 1900s. Analyzing the previous collections presented by Slimane, in fact, one can notice a kind of retrogressive movement through time: from the youthful and aggressive looks of two years ago, the focus has gradually shifted toward the early 2000s with the Age of Indieness collection; he winked at the 1990s with the SS24 collection, full of grunge touches, only to leap into the height of the 1960s with FW24. But while the last collection was an ode to the 1960s, today’s release does not reflect the same decision of lines or the same clearly defined vocation for that decade – rather, it seems a rumination on a type of French chic that, by necessity, is indebted to Chanel as the most important star in a broader firmament that also includes Brigitte Bardot, Sylvie Vartan, and Anouk Aimée. As always, after all, conspiracy theories are appealing because they make us suggest further stories - only time will tell if these stories exist or not.