Celine presents the new Men Winter 24 collection by Hedi Slimane in a 15-minute fashion film. Titled "Symphonie Fantastique," this film is firmly rooted in the Franco-American dynamic that Hedi Slimane brings to Celine. Notably, it recalls "The Wiltern Women" collection of winter 2023, shot in Los Angeles.
This short film is an ode to America, featuring helicopters emblazoned with the Celine logo, which are now as iconic in the collective imagination as the cowboys of the Wild West. Cadillac rims and fins are added to the list, along with a symphonic jukebox that kicks off the show, positioned in the middle of a road. Finally, the setting: the models strut through a landscape that drove Johnny Depp mad in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and nearly proved fatal to Largo Winch, buried alive in this American desert.
Androgynous models take their turn in the middle of a road traversing the Mojave Desert in California. Their silhouettes are almost reminiscent of American secret service agents, expected to be anonymous and discreet. The outfits parade to the crescendo of “Symphonie Fantastique” by the French classical composer Hector Berlioz, who arguably created the first musical trip in 1830 after falling in unrequited love with an English actress.
Hedi Slimane offers a series of outfits quintessentially Hedi Slimane. Black, white, and leather are, of course, present. Cowboy boots, American West hats, trench coats, knee-length coats, rectangular or round glasses add a fresh and new character to this base.
Fur coats and capes are layered over striped or plain three-piece suits, a nod to the spirited 19th century of an expanding America, where wealthy industrialists symbolized a country already entangled in a toxic relationship with capitalism. The symphonic touch of the collection is set on the coats, with a layer of stones ready to sparkle under the winter 2024 sun. The men dressed in suits sometimes evoke those in Magritte’s surrealist painting “Golconde”, this time with their feet on the ground.
Slimane is yet another designer captivated by the cowboy aesthetic, following Pharrell Williams and Willy Chavarria, and especially after the highly influential album "Cow-boy Carter" by Beyoncé, released on March 29, 2024. This men's collection will aim to capture the recognition received by the Women Winter 24 collection, titled "La collection de l'Arc de Triomphe," and may perhaps put an end to the rumors of a split between Hedi Slimane and Celine.
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