Hedi Slimane steps down as Celine creative director

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French fashion designer Hedi Slimane has announced his departure from Celine, the luxury fashion house.

Slimane joined the LVMH-owned fashion house in 2018 as the artistic director following stints as the creative director at Dior Homme and Yves Saint Laurent.

“Under his creative and artistic direction, Celine has experienced exceptional growth and established itself as an iconic French couture house,” the fashion house said in a statement.

“The extraordinary journey taken together over the last seven years has made Celine a house with a formidable foundation for the future.”

Slimane, 56, who had no formal training in fashion, has risen up the ranks of the industry, first becoming YSL’s ready-to-wear director of men’s collections in 1996. In 2000, Slimane became the creative director of Dior Homme, Christian Dior’s menswear line, where his love of the skinny male silhouette became his trademark.

After leaving Dior in 2007, Slimane rejoined YSL in 2012 as their new creative director. He stayed at YSL until 2016.

In 2018, LVMH announced that Slimane would take over from Phoebe Philo as creative director of Celine. Philo had spent a decade in the role but Slimane was quick to make changes, dropping the accent from original brand name “Céline” in a logo redesign and changing up the entire fashion house’s aesthetic.

It worked, and Celine nearly doubled in revenue over a five year period. With Celine at a commercially successful high, Slimane stands down without news of an appointed successor.

Slimane’s contract was due for renewal but the fashion world had been awash with rumours of the designer’s imminent departure for months.

Virginie Viard, the French fashion designer who departed from her creative director position at Channel earlier this year has been cited as a potential next hire. Another recently available creative director could be Pierpaolo Piccioli, who departed Valentino after 16 years in the role this March.