If it’s fashionable to be immersive, Hedi Slimane is a la mode. His menswear show for Celine involved a takeover of the Paris nightspot Le Palace, where on the opening night back in 1978 Grace Jones had her clothes torn off by the plastered crowd, and was covered by Yves Saint Laurent, on hand with a well-placed cummerbund.
Downstairs, almost 50 years later, the place was still fabulous and bedecked with sequins. With a fashion show, gig and party, Slimane’s mission – along with showing the clothes for autumn 2023 – was to create a disco to die for, a playground for the era’s new club kids.
And, of course, they came, clad in dramatic looks – for instance the experimental musician Yves Tumour, who was resplendent in a blue wig, outrageously embellished black leather jacket and fishnet stockings. Meanwhile, the street outside was closed, in anticipation of the arrival of Lisa from Blackpink, K-pop’s biggest girl band.
Slimane’s talent is to create a parallel universe in which fashion, music and youth subcultures all come together to create a dazzling whole. On Friday night, first there was a fashion show, then a concert by the Irish band the Murder Capital and the Libertines, and then a party that stretched until 3am, populated by the club kids of Paris who were the night’s real stars, and some celebrities ranging from Catherine Deneuve to Wiz Khalifa. At the beginning of the show Pete Doherty caused some consternation by bringing his large dog with him to the front row, but sadly the many TikTokers in attendance were denied their viral moment when the mutt remained well behaved, and was finally led off by a dog handler.
In this beguiling other world, Slimane’s rock’n’roll aesthetic reigned supreme. Since the pandemic, the designer has cocked a snook at the fashion week schedules, preferring either to show films instead of catwalk shows, or to stage huge extravaganzas that take in bands and a party.
In December in Los Angeles, he staged a show that included performances by the Strokes and Iggy Pop and a runway that posited a return to skinny jeans – a trend that, as designer of Dior Homme in the early 00s, he pretty much invented. And Slimane’s instincts have proved lucrative, too – Celine has achieved the €2bn turnover that the LVMH boss, Bernard Arnault, set as a target when the Frenchman took over the house in 2018. Slimane had previously applied his rock’n’roll aesthetic to Saint Laurent, a tenure that was controversial among some fashion critics but supercharged the label’s commercial performance.
At the Celine show Slimane was at his most uncompromising. Dozens of pairs of leather trousers were marched down the catwalk, culminating in a shocking pink, diamante-studded two-piece that Khalifa told the Guardian he would be pleased to wear. Aside from that, in classic Slimane styling, there was a fake-fur coat worn over a suit jacket, over a vest with a leopardskin scarf.
Slimane has dressed rock stars for years – from David Bowie and Mick Jagger to Jack White of the White Stripes, who was also in attendance. If indie sleaze – the revival of the early 00s’ hedonistic looks – was a theme, Slimane was also nodding to electroclash, the early 00s club phenomenon that rebooted 80s synthpop and took its visual cues from Leigh Bowery’s legendary club Taboo.
As well as in-your-face fashion, the show also honoured the community that Slimane has built up over more than two decades. Afterwards the Libertines played, fronted by Doherty, Slimane’s erstwhile muse when the singer was at the height of his indie rock fame, but who is now, happily, burly and middle-aged. The performance also yielded the pleasing spectacle of Khalifa nodding along to the lyrics “they all get them out for the boys in the band”.
Slimane has remained unshakeable in his enthusiasm for indie music, despite the fact that in the internet era it has faded as an avatar of youthful rebellion. Nevertheless, the young Parisians in the audience lapped it up, underlining the fact that the whole evening was ultimately a celebration of the simple joy of going out.
At its root, Slimane’s Celine is about the pleasure of special occasions. He is instinctively aware of the meaning of clothes – the frock you wear for your birthday, the shoes that make you feel as if you can take on the world. Displaying such an extreme iteration of this idea – even the tracksuit tops were styled with leather trousers – Slimane paid tribute to the youth of Paris. But ultimately the show was about community in the internet age, the power of togetherness and of finding your impeccably dressed tribe.
