Runway Report: Céline- The end of an era

Hedi Slimane has once again shaken the industry- this time through his appointment as the creative director , and is succeeded by Anthony Vacarello at Saint Laurent. This is marked by the removal of the 'é', which was an essential part of Céline's parisian charm. After the entire Celine Instagram page was wiped to form a clean slate, a translation from a new post stated "The accent on the 'e' has been removed to enable a simplified and more balanced proportion, evoking the Celine collections of the 1960s where the accent wasn't used often."

This controversial action echoes his previous decision to remove the 'Yves' to form simply , 'Saint laurent' citing 'aesthetic purposes' as the reason.

For a decade, Phoebe Philo's elegant minimalism transported Céline from a label that lacked relevance to a powerhouse, dressing society's women for whatever a day could throw at them. The label was defined through its comfortable yet refined proportions, with Philo establishing some of the label's most iconic and recognisable pieces including the Luggage tote and the exaggerated acetate sunglasses Victoria Beckham continues to rock to this day.

This was all taking place against the backdrop of the US political situation- with Dr Christine Ford delivering a powerful testimony against Kavanaugh. The continued plight for equality within the industry is highlighted by the absence of Céline's status in armouring powerful, working, modern women, with Slimane's designs for CELINE SS/19 collection confirming this. The ensembles presented- largely comprising of tight, skimpy mini-dresses restricting the freedom of movement Phoebe promoted- were in no means 'bad', but an audience looking for the philogynist (a fitting term for Philo) strength found in Philo's designs will be sorely disappointed. On the other hand, fans of Slimane's Heroin-rocker chic essence he achieved at Saint Laurent will be thoroughly pleased.

(Oh, and the overwhelmingly lack of diversity within CELINE SS/19 casts a serious shadow of doubt over the positive impact Slimane will have on 'CELINE' . I can only hope with time, the viewpoint Slimane clings so desparately to, will open up to make way for a more progressive vision.