the inner lives of clothes

COMPELLING FASHION DOESN'T HAVE TO BE OSTENTATIOUS OR OVERTLY CONCEPTUAL, BUT IT DOES NEED A clear identity AND character OF ITS OWN.

- JEFFREY YAN

After seven years at the helm of Celine, Hedi Slimane is out. In that time, he more than doubled the annual revenue of the brand, which was around $926 million when he took over, to reportedly close to $3.3 billion when he left. His loudest critics often argue two things: That he holds a narrow view of beauty, and that he always does the same thing regardless of the name on the label. What they overlook—and the reason so many buy into his vision—is Slimane’s clarity in who he is inspired by and designs for. You see this in his front rows back when he still did shows, and it has crystallised even further in the fashion films he has been doing since the pandemic. Slimane doesn’t just make nice clothes (though his are precise to the millimetre); he designs a character, an attitude—and that is what people buy into.