next summer’s men’s collection caught between leather and satin

Celine has opted to unveil its Spring/Summer 2024 men’s collection with a video. It is the same collection the label was set to present at the Gaîté Lyrique concert hall in Paris on July 2, on the eve of Paris Haute Couture Week, a show that had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour because of the unrest triggered by protest demonstrations in France.

Still in July, Hedi Slimane, creative director of the LVMH-owned luxury label, decided to film the collection video, with ballet dancer and model Laurids Seidel, at the venue where “the show was not held,” the Gaîté Lyrique, as well as at another Parisian concert hall/cinema, the Grand Rex, and at the Opéra Garnier in Monte Carlo.
  
The Celine men’s look for next summer is big on allure, with sleek rebel rocker silhouettes featuring cropped black tops and studded biker jackets, some of them enhanced by golden accents, flaunted with hands in pockets, legs encased in tight-fitting leather trousers, and eyes hidden behind the regulation dark glasses.

A look that riffs on the style that has characterised Slimane for the last 20 years. Ever since he redefined the codes of menswear during his stint at Dior Homme, with super-skinny fits for trousers and jackets, and ultra-slim ties. The latter, introduced in the early 2000s, have made a come-back in the new collection, worn with a white shirt and black suit, of course.

The signature Slimane touch is clearly visible in the collection’s aesthetic and carefully curated editorial approach, from the video’s keyed up mood to the soundtrack featuring the cult title Losing My Edge by US group LCD Soundsystem, a blend of post-punk, dance and electro pop influences originally released in 2002.

 
Impeccably cut suits were the collection’s statement items, both for day wear, like the one in houndstooth fabric with slightly cropped trousers, or the white pinstriped ensemble, and for evening wear, characterised by shiny, sometimes silvery textures, gleaming with crystals or dotted with minuscule rubies. Double-breasted suits and white dinner jackets were also de rigueur.

Alongside tailored suits and a few rocker-style items, Slimane has experimented with an unusual, rather theatrical register this season, presenting several corset tops baring the arms and back, or the navel and shoulders, draped around the body and equipped with oversize bows. The latter was a recurrent motif in the collection. Slimane said he was inspired by the French 17th century royal portraits of painter Pierre Mignard.
 
In some cases, huge bows and satin plastrons served as tops, leaving the back and arms bare. Silky satin was often swathed around the midriff, again fastened by occasional giant bows. The same motif also appeared on a bare-shoulders biker jacket, its sleeves made from the curls of an oversize bow. A similar combination of volumes and curves was featured in a cape-style coat with puffed-up shoulders.