Hedi Slimane Unveils His First Celine Menswear Campaign

Less than one week after Celine announced that the brand would be joining the Paris men’s show schedule, Hedi Slimane has released his first menswear campaign film for the house.

Fans of the designer will of course recognise that the tailoring the male models wear in the three-minute montage of photographs and video is unisex. Industry insiders, meanwhile, will know that the gender-specific campaign is indicative of the fact Celine’s parent company LVMH is aggressively chasing the burgeoning menswear market.

So, what can we learn from Slimane’s first Celine short? Photographed by the designer himself in London in October, the animated clip homes in on key looks from the spring/summer 2019 collection to the soundtrack of French synth-pop duo, Ruth. The song, which was released in 1985, is emblematic of the Des Jeunes Gens Modernes movement – a time when creativity was booming against the backdrop of the Cold War.

As the portraits of men draped in Slimane’s ultra-slim suiting and a whirring Prophet 5 synth play on a loop, it’s entirely possible to enjoy the film without the history lesson, however. The stylised campaign might not offer any new insight into his vision as a designer, but it will certainly keep up momentum until the February sale date of the collection. The telling moment for the house will be whether or not it sells.