Celine’s ‘Neo-Rave’ S/S'22 Men’s Show

The pandemic has changed us all, but boy is it evident in the Celine men’s wardrobe, finds Vogue fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen. Here, everything you need to know about the spring/summer 2022 digital showcase, from the FMX drivers to the 14 collaborative artists bringing Hedi Slimane’s vision to life.

The show was an ode to neo-rave

Neo-rave is Hedi Slimane’s newest obsession. Not to be mistaken for nu-rave – the mid-2000s reincarnation of the original rave scene – the emerging genre hits the soft spot of a post-pandemic youth hellbent on making up for lost time. His Celine men’s show celebrated the euphoria inevitably created by our re-emergence from lockdown, drawing on the 1980s’ escapism that generated the Second Summer of Love and the rave scene that framed it. It was a natural progression from the shift-up staged by Slimane in last summer’s e-boy-focused men’s collection, which set a trippier, grungier and more clubby tone for Celine Homme.

It featured FMX drivers

Shot on a Celine-ified black racetrack erected in the luxuriant surroundings of Île du Grand Gaou and Archipel des Embiez not far from Slimane’s home in the South of France, the show employed FMX – freestyle motocross, that is – as a metaphor for the fast and furious dreams of a young mind circa 2022. Cosmic Cruiser, he poetically titled the collection, nodding at the sky-is-the-limit mentality that must possess a teenage mind after more than a year in lockdown. FMX isn’t a new attraction for Slimane. In 2011, he portrayed the motocross scene in his photographic diaries, and last year, he shot both a men’s and women’s show on racetracks native to the world of speed. (Naturally, the motorcycle helmets he created for last summer’s men’s show sold out in seconds.)

The collection debuted an ultra-loose silhouette

Since the pandemic, Slimane has been pushing his menswear in bolder directions, adopting and adapting the free-spirited ways of the digital youth cultures that inspire him today. It hasn’t just emboldened his silhouette but expanded it too, and Cosmic Cruiser was no exception. Enter the ‘Elephant Jean’, Celine’s most voluminous shape to date, which must be the biggest of Slimane’s career, too. Alongside contrasting skinny-skinny trousers, it made for a collection of extremes. He echoed the sentiment in supersized jackets and oversized T-shirts, words you once thought you’d never utter in relation to a Slimane collection, but which serve to embody the feelings of anti-constraint and anti-limitation key to our current collective psyche, young as well as old.

Hedi Slimane commissioned 14 artists

Unable to attend the youth-driven music, art and sports events he has historically portrayed through his photography, Slimane spent lockdown nurturing long-distance friendships with the young contemporary artists that inspire him most. He commissioned 14 of them to embellish the collection: works by Amy Dorian, Anna Hofmann, Emerson Snowe, Anne MacKenzie, Harry Wyld, Marcelo Lavin, Mary Hebert, Paige Mehrer, Paisley Verse, Sara Yukiko, Scott Daniel Ellison, Scott Reeder, Sophy Hollington and Tyler Childress appeared across T-shirt prints, knitwear motifs, slogans, denim embellishments, jewellery and shoes, emulating the collaborative and cross-cultural qualities that were always part of the rave wardrobe. (Many of the artists will feature on the walls of Celine stores in seasons to come.)

This could be Celine’s last digital show

The digital show format imposed by the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for Slimane, aligning with his study of digital youth cultures in a way that’s made perfect sense. When – or if – he returns to the real-life runway this autumn, it will be interesting to see how Slimane is going to imbue the live format with the tricks he’s picked up over the last year-and-a-half. That period has changed us all, boy is it evident in the Celine men’s wardrobe.