Celine appoints Michael Rider as new creative director

Celine has appointed Michael Rider as its new artistic director, succeeding Hedi Slimane. It starts in early 2025.

WWD reported on April 24 that Céline was preparing for Slimane's possible departure and had found a potential successor in Rider, creative director at Polo Ralph Lauren.

For Rider, who served as design director for ready-to-wear at Céline for ten years from 2008 to 2018, working under then creative director Phoebe Philo, he returns to the French fashion house.

A graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island, Rider also worked as a senior designer at Balenciaga from 2004 to 2008, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Celine parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced Rider's arrival several hours after announcing that Celine and Slimane were parting ways after a fruitful seven-year collaboration.

In a press release, LVMH said Rider has “full creative responsibility for all Celine collections, from women's clothing, men's clothing, leather goods and accessories to couture.”

“I am delighted to welcome Michael back to Celine, a house he knows very well,” commented Severine Merle, CEO of Celine. “Michael’s vision, creative talent, authentic nature and strong connection to Céline’s legacy make him a natural choice to continue the long-term success of the house.”

For his part, Rider said: “Celine is a house whose values ​​are very close to my heart and on which I can build a beautiful legacy. It is an honor for me to come back and shape the future of the house together with the Celine team.”

LVMH is understood to want to build on Celine's current momentum and not stray too far from the successful template Slimane forged, taking cues from French bourgeois codes with clever nods to grunge and other alternative music scenes.

According to sources, along with Loewe, Celine is one of the fastest-growing brands in the LVMH Fashion Group; with sales of around 2.5 billion euros, it is larger than the Roman house Fendi.

The hiring gives another prominent studio talent a prime, high-profile role. In the past, LVMH has tended to favor standout talent like Slimane and Philo, who are among the most bankable designers of their generation.

“Under his creative and artistic leadership, Celine has experienced extraordinary growth and established itself as an iconic French couture house,” LVMH said of Slimane.

“Hedi Slimane's holistic vision, his aspiration and his rigor have made it possible to redefine the codes of Céline while reaffirming his feminine and Parisian roots,” the French luxury group said in a statement. “He has also remarkably enriched new areas for the Maison, such as men's silhouette, couture and haute perfumery. The extraordinary journey we have undertaken together over the last seven years has made Celine a house with an excellent foundation for the future.”

It is understood that Rider has already moved to Paris but has kept a low profile. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

Slimane's departure came just three days after he debuted his Spring 2025 women's collection for Celine in a 10-minute film that aired on the brand's website and social channels.

It confirmed his reputation as a preeminent fashion designer, filmmaker and dream weaver, able to crystallize a style and present idealized images that are compelling and precise.

His women's collection film brought late French singers and fashion icons Juliette Gréco and Françoise Hardy to life with bushy bangs, heavy eyeliner, babydoll dresses and shapely tuxedos.

Meanwhile, his latest cardigan jackets, tweed suits, long necklaces and knee-covering skirts have reinforced the widespread belief in the industry that Slimane has the talent, aesthetic and vision to take on Chanel is currently looking for Virginie Viard's successor.

Chanel executives told WWD this week that the company isn't ready to announce its next creative leader — and that it isn't necessarily looking for a big-name designer.

A climate of creative uncertainty and disruption pervades the industry, which is currently struggling with a decline in luxury consumption and consumer caution.

According to market sources, the employment contracts of John Galliano at Maison Margiela, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe and Lucie and Luke Meier at Jil Sander expire before the end of the year or early 2025. There are also reportedly creative vacancies at Dries Van Noten, Alberta Ferretti, Jean Paul Gaultier and Y/Project.

As designer of Dior Homme between 2000 and 2007, Slimane cemented his reputation – and influenced men's tailoring for more than a decade. He then reinvented and revived the Kering-owned house Yves Saint Laurent, which he renamed Saint Laurent, in 2012 and 2016 – while maintaining close ties to the Arnault family, which controls LVMH and Dior.

His next step was not to learn immediately. He certainly has a track record of revitalizing a brand and then abandoning it at the height of its success.

In between, he also took long breaks to pursue his photography and artistic work.

When Slimane took over design leadership at Celine, tasked with expanding the heritage brand into menswear, couture and fragrance, he took a different approach than his previous creative director, English designer Phoebe Philo.

“I'm thrilled, what a great choice,” Karl Lagerfeld, one of Slimane's most enthusiastic fans, said at the time of his appointment to WWD. “It’s going to be great.”

Slimane immediately gave Celine a touch of cool and youth by enlisting Blackpink's Lalisa Manobal and enlisting her to appear in one of his collection films during the coronavirus pandemic.

When she attended Slimane's Spring 2023 men's show for Céline along with BTS member Kim Tae-hyung, better known as V, and his best friend, actor Park Bo-gum, chaos ensued.

After a few aesthetic changes and Slimane spotting the Triomphe logo, Celine took off like a rocket, synonymous with cool, French girl style with a bourgeois twist.

He meticulously built Celine into a complete universe, adding stationery, headphones, pet accessories, other lifestyle products and Celine Beauté, the first cosmetics line in the house's history. Lipsticks were added recently and eyeliner is next.

The beauty line is an addition to Slimane's launch of the Celine Haute Parfumerie collection, which launched in 2019.

However, relations between Slimane and LVMH management are understood to be increasingly strained.

Still, it appears that Slimane worked diligently until the end of his contract, and last week released a 445-page hardcover book called “Celine Art Project,” detailing the 250 site-specific artworks Slimane created for the flagship has curated the brand's boutiques around the world.