Celine's New Era: Slimane's Farewell Gift Ignites Buzz for Rider's Debut

Celine's inaugural campaign under its new creative director, Michael Rider, has unexpectedly captured the fashion world's attention. Typically, such a launch might be overshadowed by the bustling New York Fashion Week schedule, which commenced on September 15. However, a meticulously crafted message from Rider's predecessor, Hedi Slimane, delivered just days before the campaign's debut, ignited widespread curiosity and discussion within the industry, ensuring these initial images would be anything but an "under the radar" event.

The catalyst for this buzz was a lengthy post made by Hedi Slimane on his Instagram account on September 6. Slimane, a celebrated figure who masterfully guided Celine's style from January 2018 to October 2024, overseeing a period of substantial growth for the LVMH-owned Parisian house, used the platform to extend a welcome to the brand's next chapter. He expressed confidence that Celine "will be able to reinvent itself brilliantly, both in its advertising campaigns and in its institutional image, with a distinctive, autonomous photographic language and universe." Crucially, Slimane added a pointed caveat: this reinvention, he stated, should occur "in a spirit of creative independence and renewal, free of any remnants, borrowing or insistent reference to my photographic style — including my advertising campaigns and films for Celine — it goes without saying." He concluded by expressing his eagerness to witness this photographic renewal at the house.

Given Slimane's emphatic statement, Rider has clearly navigated a challenging path to refresh Celine's visual identity. His objective was to introduce a new aesthetic while subtly acknowledging the brand's recently established vocabulary. Rider has consciously distanced the new campaign from Slimane's hallmark androgynous, rock-tinged, melancholic aesthetic and his signature black-and-white photographic palette, making a clear break from the immediate past.

In a decisive shift, the American designer has embraced color photography for his debut campaign. The imagery, captured in close-up by Zoë Ghertner, features models adorned in a range of looks that are both sexy and chic, occasionally incorporating a masculine edge. Accessories are notably brought to the forefront, highlighting key elements of the Spring-Summer 2026 collection, which was first unveiled in Paris in July. The chosen models uniformly present a slightly sulky expression; a choice that, while potentially echoing Slimane's rebellious heroines, more significantly communicates a smooth and intentional transition for Celine's evolving brand narrative.