The aura of the star has covered up the bigger changes behind this Celine show!
Celebrities steal the spotlight from celebrity creative directors.
html On June 26, French luxury brand Celine, a subsidiary of LVMH, released the 2023 spring and summer men's wear series at Paris Men's Fashion Week. This is also Celine's high-profile first physical fashion show in the two years since the epidemic. In the past two years, Celine has achieved success with its new series released in the form of short video clips. In the absence of physical fashion shows, Celine has completed a classic brand turnaround.
Celine's global spokesperson LISA, a member of Korean idol group Blackpink, as well as Korean stars Kim Taehyung V and Park Bo Gum of BTS. The arrival of the day caused a huge commotion. Thousands of fans gathered outside the venue at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where the show was held. Screaming calls for LISA and the other two stars outside.
Such a grand occasion alarmed LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault. He and LVMH Group CEO Sidney Toledano went out specifically to see what was going on, and then used their mobile phones to film the noisy grand occasion.
Bernard Arnault bluntly praised when he was interviewed by the famous French fashion journalist Loic Prigent when he returned to the Palace of Tokyo. "LISA is a global success." As the world's third richest man and the man behind LVMH, Bernard Arnault's casual recognition immediately triggered a frenzy among fans. Since creative director Hedi Slimane selected LISA as the brand's global spokesperson, LISA, which has nearly 80 million fans on Instagram , has become a consensus to leverage the Celine brand.
However, LVMH has not specifically pointed out the role of individual celebrities in promoting the brand in its financial report release. Although Bernard Arnault expressed his views on LISA this time in an informal setting, it is an important recognition of this relationship.
To some extent, the aura of the star has obscured the bigger changes behind this Celine show.
In the first physical show after the epidemic, Hedi Slimane seemed to suddenly wake up from the dream of the epidemic, from the Tik Tok generation trend aesthetics after 2020, to return to the glam rock style before 2020.
The picture above shows the Celine 2023 spring and summer men's wear series, and the picture below shows the 2020 spring and summer men's wear series
Hedi Slimane, who took over as Celine's creative director in 2018, gave LVMH a headache for two full years. After Hedi Slimane took over Celine, he started a drastic reform. By erasing all the imprints of the original creative director Phoebe Philo, the brand was fully personalized.
This imprint is the typical style that Hedi Slimane has maintained for a long time in his career for more than 20 years, retro and nostalgic 70s rock punk and hippie style . Tassels, sequins, narrow-leg jeans, and bomber leather jackets almost outline Hedi Slimane's most typical male image, throughout his time working at Dior Homme and Saint Laurent.
This style had a fatal attraction for Hedi Slimane, who was born in the 1960s and did not fully experience the passion of the 1970s. He once said in an interview, "I have nostalgia for things I haven't experienced." Therefore, he devoted himself endlessly to painting a detailed portrait of a certain kind of people in his imagination of that era, and this theme has not changed over the years.
However, while Hedi Slimane remains the same, the market is changing. Retro is not archeology. Millennial consumers love retro and vintage clothing more than any other generation. However, what consumers want to see is not the same old clothes with no innovation as in the last century, but matching them with different styles. Ultimately expressing a contemporary mood.
In the first two years after taking over Celine, the fashion critics initially worked hard to defend Hedi Slimane, explain the logic of the new Celine to the outside world, and emphasize Hedi Slimane's important position in the fashion industry and in the hearts of his loyal fans.However, after three consecutive series that lacked changes, even the fashion critics felt powerless to defend themselves.
In the past two years, LVMH has rarely explicitly praised Celine’s business contributions in its financial reports. Whether it is the successful acquisition of Tiffany, or the transfer of Kim Jones from Louis Vuitton to Dior Men's Wear, and vacating the position of Louis Vuitton Men's Wear Artistic Director for Off-White founder Virgil Abloh, this series of bold moves have taken effect quickly and opened new doors for LVMH. situation.
The only move of inserting Hedi Slimane into Celine has not achieved the expected results. In contrast, Bottega Veneta, owned by competitor Kering Group, was gaining momentum under the leadership of Daniel Lee, a new creative director with no resume endorsement, which invisibly put pressure on Celine, which is also a mid-sized luxury brand.
LVMH’s original expectation for Hedi Slimane was to replicate the business miracle he achieved at Saint Laurent, helping Celine’s annual sales increase from nearly 1 billion euros to 2 billion or 3 billion euros in five years. But given Celine's condition at the time, such a goal was almost impossible to achieve.
After Celine’s unsatisfactory commercial performance in the first two years, Hedi Slimane suddenly turned around, either under pressure or out of self-awareness, so there emerged 2020’s landmark show of goodwill to the new generation of Tik Tok in the spring and summer of 2021 Men's collection .
The landmark 2021 spring and summer men's and women's wear series bring a turnaround for Celine.
The 2021 spring and summer men's wear series marks the departure of Hedi Slimane from stubbornly adhering to the prudent aesthetics of the middle class in the 1970s, leading Celine to a comprehensive trendy brand. Taking the men's wear series as the starting point for change means that LVMH is unwilling to wait any longer and is unwilling to try and make mistakes. Men's clothing, which is Hedi Slimane's personal signature, must assume the task of strategic growth.
Since then, the women's clothing series has indeed followed Hedi Slimane's latest creative direction. The short films of the men's collection shot on the F1 circuit in the south of France and the short films of the women's collection shot on the Stade Louis II sports ground in Monaco form a series called "Documentary", which aims to outline "a Portrait of a Generation.”
This generation is no longer the wealthy people in the 1970s that Hedi Slimane created when he first entered Celine, but the younger generation playing social media such as Tiktok in 2020. The brand’s target audience is almost 20 years younger.
This decision to fully become a trendy brand allowed Celine to quickly reverse its decline and enter a rapid growth track. What followed was the sales effect of LISA, a member of the Korean girl group Blackpink, serving as the brand's global spokesperson, as well as a series of hot-selling handbags and accessories, which ultimately led to Celine's brand explosion that lasted for two years.
Today, Celine has become the most prominent brand in the second echelon of LVMH. LVMH stated in its first quarter 2022 financial report that Louis Vuitton is still the main growth driver of the fashion leather goods department, and the growth rate of Dior and Celine exceeds that of other brands.
According to sources quoted by Fashion Business Express, Celine’s annual sales are likely to have reached 2 billion euros last year. This means that Hedi Slimane’s rejuvenation and trendy brand transformation of Celine has taken effect quickly. Although there were detours in the early stage, Celine still initially completed the group’s business goals in the first five years.
Without considering the above background, it is easy to overlook the significance of the transformation of Celine's 2023 spring and summer men's wear series.
Set against the show music of New York indie band Gustaf, the jackets were embellished with sharp tailoring and shiny details, allowing Hedi Slimane’s classic punk vibe to pervade the entire venue. Celine chose to appear at the finale of Paris Men's Fashion Week this season. Why did Hedi Slimane choose to return to a style that has been proven to be unpopular by the market at such a critical moment? And LVMH acquiesced and gave the greatest support. The real reason behind this is What, it was all ignored.
There is very limited discussion on the Internet about Celine’s show and the series itself. Almost all show critics talked about the commotion caused by LISA's visit, and this was not even a women's show.
Vogue reviewer Luke Letche writes that after 25 years as a fashion designer, Hedi Slimane has built a rich menswear catalog that still influences progressive men's dressing styles today. Hedi Slimane's ongoing exploration of the new wave spans the three cities in which his career has spanned. In 2002, Hedi Slimane said "I always think that something will come along to undermine any of my beliefs." Twenty years later, he continues to keep the faith.
The Bloomberg article stated that although the series is noisy, there is nothing new in the designer's work. For Hedi Slimane, who showcased a similar aesthetic at Saint Laurent, it was a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Two simple examples can illustrate the market’s polarized views on Hedi Slimane. The traditional fashion industry has the greatest respect for Hedi Slimane's insistence on self-exploration of style over the years. However, in the mass market, compared to the artist's pursuit of improvement through change, people instinctively continue to ask for new changes from the creative director.
Such contradictions have been fully understood by LVMH in the first two years of Hedi Slimane's helm. The current situation is not that the brand blindly insists on itself, but that after testing different paths and even tasting the sweetness of becoming a younger and more fashionable brand, it is returning to retro rock and punk.
knows it cannot be done but does it, perhaps for other purposes. One possible scenario is that fashion cycles are bringing classic glam styles back to the center of popularity. Saint Laurent, which has barely changed its style since the departure of Hedi Slimane, has recently begun to benefit from the return of classic styles.
At the Kering Group’s investor conference not long ago, Saint Laurent became the focus of the group’s attention and was expected to become the next Gucci. Under the guidance of Saint Laurent CEO Francesca Bellettini and creative director Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent's commercial value has continued to rise in recent years, with sales more than doubling in five years. Last year's revenue increased by 46% to 2.52 billion euros, a record A new high, with profit before interest and tax exceeding 700 million euros, a tenfold increase compared with 2013, which attracted great attention from the industry.
Saint Laurent's revenue surged 46% last year to 2.52 billion euros
Taking Saint Laurent's 2022 autumn and winter series released at the Eiffel Tower in Paris as an example, Anthony Vaccarello used founder Yves Saint Laurent's personal experience and France's interpretation of Hollywood style in the 1970s. Inspired by this, he has created gorgeous style works such as luxurious artificial fur, tuxedo jackets and tight dresses, which have won high praise from the industry. The series of products have appeared on the covers of major magazines many times.
Saint Laurent also benefits from this style when it comes to competing in strategic locations such as celebrity red carpets and magazine covers. Three days after the Saint Laurent 2022 autumn and winter fashion show was released, fashion opinion leader Hailey Bieber attended the event wearing an imitation fur jacket from the series, which attracted the attention of many netizens.
At the same time, Celine, who is proud of the market, is losing the red carpet competition. The current success of Celine's ready-to-wear clothing comes more from Hedi Slimane's outstanding styling ability. He combines the image of the new generation of young people with his favorite 1970s retro to create an "atmosphere" that young people like.
However, these commercial products may be sold directly on the shelves, but they are also easily copied in large quantities by fast fashion. At the same time, in disguise, Celine voluntarily withdraws from the competition on red carpets, award ceremonies and other important occasions that establish brand positioning. , which is detrimental to the long-term growth of the brand.
Therefore, the style return of this men's show may be in line with the resurgence of classic gorgeous style, which seems to make Celine and Saint Laurent once again have a smell of gunpowder after a truce. Saint Laurent currently also has another Blackpink member Rosé, and created The same star power.
Another possible scenario is that Celine’s business success in the past two years has been mainly driven by women’s business. Whether it is the influence of LISA, popular women’s clothing items or handbags and leather goods, Celine’s women’s clothing business still seems to be stronger than its men’s clothing business .
Hedi Slimane’s iconic men’s clothing business still hasn’t exploded due to trendy brand style. His once loyal consumers were forced to leave the brand due to changes in Celine's men's clothing style. Instead, the brand lost a group of male consumers with real purchasing power and loyalty. Compared with female consumers, male consumers are less interested in brands and creativity. Superintendents tend to be more loyal.
allows men's clothing to return to the classic style of Hedi Slimane, which will help bring into play the true value of the most senior creative director in the industry. As a historical stage, the current trendy brand style can certainly help the brand complete the necessary original accumulation, but for Hedi Slimane Still overkill.
The separation of men's wear and women's wear styles is conducive to maximizing profits, but whether Celine will play the two cards of men's wear and women's wear separately still depends on the women's wear series show in two months. After all, whether it is the transformation series in 2020 or the first physical show after the epidemic and other key nodes, Celine chooses to take the lead with the men's wear series.
The third possible scenario is that it serves as a link between Celine’s high-end layout.
For Celine, who has entered the 2 billion euro club, the next step has been put on the agenda. Trendy branding is obviously not the end of Celine. The latest signal is that Celine is developing towards high-end, targeting advanced customization brands like Dior that have both reputation and sales. Celine recently launched a customized handbag series to meet the needs of wealthy consumers. Celine's launch of crocodile leather customized handbags means that the brand has officially entered the field of luxury leather handbags in the higher price range. Unpredictable prices may further strengthen the brand's halo as an identity certificate for ultra-high net worth individuals.
WeChat public account LADYMAX pointed out in a previous article that Celine’s actions in the past two years have rapidly increased its scale, allowing it to escape the competition between mid-range luxury brands. This method of first increasing scale and then focusing on quality was discovered by Bernard Arnault. A shortcut from mid-range luxury brands to top brands.
But for Celine, which has broken into the 2 billion euro club and hopes to make further breakthroughs, it has entered the next chapter and will next target Dior, which has 6 billion euros. Under this circumstance, it is imperative to make high-end, or at least it must not expose too many flaws in the competition in the high-end field..
We have also pointed out that the greater uncertainty is whether Celine’s youthful transformation starting in 2020 will compete with its future high-end positioning.
The current situation seems to be somewhat clear. When the strategic goal of high-end and youthful style conflict, the latter that is no longer suitable will obviously be the first to be replaced. In this way, the transformation of Celine’s 2023 spring and summer men’s wear series no longer seems difficult to understand.
As the world returns to normal after the epidemic, Hedi Slimane has returned to the same self he has remained unchanged for many years. Two years ago, such changes might have attracted close attention and analysis from the media, but now celebrities seem to have obscured the edge of celebrity creative directors.
This once again proves that times have changed. Traditional fashion people may regret this, but for Hedi Slimane, who has been creating for 25 years, true self-expression may provide more satisfaction than any external recognition. For LISA, any star who has the ability to deeply participate in the evolution of the industry can add the highest leverage to his or her personal business value.
But for businessmen, whether they are celebrity creative directors or celebrities, they are nothing more than tools to achieve their goals.
Today, if anyone continues to deny the critical structural impact of celebrities on the luxury goods industry, they may be unwilling to wake up. Even 74-year-old Bernard Arnault has already smoothly integrated into the business logic of the new era and made the next move.
According to people who sat next to him at the show, he took photos of almost every look.
