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LVMH-owned fashion house Celine announced on Wednesday that Michael Ryder will serve as Celine’s new creative director. His appointment will be effective in early 2025.
“I am delighted to welcome Michael back to Celine, a brand he knows well. Michael’s vision, creative talent, genuine personality and strong connection to Celine’s heritage make him a natural choice to continue the brand’s enduring success.
“Celine is a brand with values close to my heart and a legacy I feel passionately about carrying forward,” said Ryder.
Earlier on Wednesday, Celine announced the departure of Hedi Slimane. Ryder coming to Celine is like coming home. The American designer previously served as the brand’s design director and worked at the brand for 10 years, the same tenure as Phoebe Philo. Most recently, he served as the creative director of Polo Ralph Lauren since 2018.
Ryder will replace Slimane, who was appointed artistic, creative and image director of Celine after Philo left in 2018. Slimane, who has worked at Saint Laurent and Dior Homme, dropped the emphasis on the “e” in Celine and unveiled a new logo ahead of his first show. Robin Givhan of the Washington Post wrote that his spring/summer 2019 debut, which also included menswear, was met with “vigorous criticism.” “In one night, he blew up everything good about Celine and obliterated it. His name may not be on the label, but in other respects the brand might as well be called Slimane, For autumn/winter 2019, he became the bourgeois French girl look.” This time, “it’s almost unanimous,” writes Sarah Mower of Eskume Runway.
At LVMH’s annual financial conference in January 2018, shortly after Slimane’s appointment was announced, LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said: “His goal is to reach at least 2 billion to 3 billion euros in five years, and possibly even more. At the time, Celine’s sales were close to 1 billion euros. Five years later, its sales are expected to reach 2.6 billion euros in 2023, making it LVMH’s third-largest fashion brand after Louis Vuitton and Dior, surpassing Fendi in terms of revenue. Celine is expected to launch fragrances in 2019, and cosmetics (initially in the form of a lipstick line) are expected to launch this autumn.
Slimane, who has shunned the media since the start of his job, has more or less stopped making in-person appearances since the pandemic struck, though other LVMH-owned designers have resumed regular shows. Though he retreated from the public eye, his combination of Parisian haute bourgeoisie and Los Angeles rock ‘n’ roll glamour remains an inspiring vision.
In December 2022, Slimane chose Los Angeles – the city where he lives and works as Saint Laurent’s creative director – for his first physical fashion show since the pandemic, which was titled “Edge of Independence.” “If Slimane had launched the namesake label, this nostalgic collection would surely have formed the basis,” writes Christina Binkley of Askew Business.
In early September, while still free from the fashion calendar, he launched his SS25 menswear collection in the form of a 13-minute film called “The Bright Young.”
“Celine continues to make strong progress,” Arnault said at LVMH’s annual shareholder meeting in April. “Celine is chic, trendy, sexy fashion for young people, at a price, too, and it works. I went to Japan last week with Delphine [Arnault]. I could see in front of the Celine boutique, there was an incredible queue, two hours long.
Ryder has been working behind the scenes at Polo Ralph Lauren, where the brand’s founder is a company backer, but he has made the brand more unique than it has been in years past, increasing its sense of cool amid an incipient renaissance led by other brands, including many European ones, clearly inspired by American heritage brands.
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