In Los Angeles, Celine cultivates nostalgia for the 2000s

A mythical rock hall in Los Angeles and Iggy Pop, one of the last rock icons, headlining: for his second real show since the pandemic, Hedi Slimane imagined for Celine, of which he has been artistic director since 2018, a similar event. It was in Los Angeles, a city where he lived for almost ten years and still considers his ” home “, that he has chosen to present his winter 2023 women’s ready-to-wear collection before anyone else, breaking the fashion calendar as usual.

Ten years after leaving the Californian megalopolis, he is back among the artists he photographed in the 2000s, starting with Beck, in the front row of the parade. A fashion show that was aimed as much at the artistic community of Los Angeles, widely invited, as at the fashion world.

In the room, he had taken care to mix the generations. Dustin Hoffman rubbed shoulders with one of Hollywood’s rising stars, Miles Teller. Austin Butler, who has just played Elvis Presley on screen in Baz Luhrman’s film, was neighbors with the King’s daughter, Priscilla Presley. And while the rock scene had pride of place – the parade was followed by a festival-like concert with, in addition to a still provocative Iggy Pop at 75, the Strokes and Interpol – rap figures like Rich The Kid also had entitled to places of honor to admire the collection.

The place had been carefully chosen. Celine At the Wiltern cleverly distilled posters in trendy areas of LA The Wiltern announced for a few days, it is undoubtedly the most beautiful rock scene in Los Angeles. A former art deco cinema from the 1930s brought back to life in a concert hall in the 1980s which saw Prince, Nick Cave, Lou Reed or the Rolling Stones pass through, in other words a universe familiar to Hedi Slimane. For the soundtrack of this parade with false airs of the 2000s, he had also chosen a title by another regular of the place, Jack Stripe, of the White Stripes.

The art of self-quotation

“Hello operator”repeated a desperate voice, after an opening saturated with analog telephone ringtones, while on the podium, Hedi Slimane brought the audience back to the dawn of the 21st century.^e century, this era before “digital dystopia” – as he likes to call our time: ultra-slim pants worn in spirit boots musketeers, suit waistcoat over ruffled blouses, tuxedo jacket over tight leather trousers, fine ties just tied, officer’s jackets with gold buttons, reworked perfectos, all regularly enhanced with gold embroidery, rhinestones, lamé, for finish with a festival of sparkling evening dresses of timeless elegance.

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