Celine names Emilie Leblanc as global communications director

Celine has appointed Emilie Leblanc to be its new global communications director, the first major hire since changing creative director at the house in early October.

Leblanc joins Celine, a key fashion house in the LVMH luxury empire, from Saint Laurent, the largest French label inside Kering, LVMH’s closest rival.
 
The new comms director will report to Severine Merle, Celine’s CEO, and be part of the house’s executive committee. Her appointment took effect on Monday.

The house did not issue a press release, but an LVMH spokesperson confirmed the nomination.
 
In her most recent position, Leblanc was associate chief marketing officer at Saint Laurent, where she had spent over a decade and a half. She first joined YSL, running its global marketing and international advertising, in 2006. Remaining there for a decade before spending one year at Reposi, another LVMH brand. Before then returning to YSL in 2017.
 
Prior to entering luxury labels, Leblanc was for a time an ad sales executive at Editions Jalou, the publisher of French fashion magazine, L’Officiel. Her LinkedIn profile also notes that she is a lecturer in Science Po, the distinguished French Grande Ecole specializing in political studies, based in central Paris. 
 
Her appointment comes seven weeks after Celine’s highly successful creative director Hedi Slimane quit the house. He was quickly replaced by Michael Rider, a former designer at Polo Ralph Lauren, who will begin working at Celine at the start of 2025.
 
Under Slimane, Celine enjoyed explosive growth almost doubling sales in a half-decade to some €2 billion in annual revenues.