Hedi Slimane leaves LVMH’s Celine, speculation mounts over next move

In a brief — but widely predicted — announcement on Wednesday, LVMH said that Hedi Slimane is stepping down as creative and image director of Celine.

It didn’t say what he’ll be doing next, although there’s been speculation that he’ll go to Chanel (but rumours have also suggested Simon Porte Jacquemus will get that job).

Either way, LVMH cited the “exceptional growth” that Celine has seen under his tenure since 2018, the label having also “established itself as an iconic French couture house”. The company cited his “exigence and rigour [that] have made it possible to redefine the codes of Celine whilst reaffirming its feminine and Parisian roots”.

It also highlighted him taking the brand into new categories such as menswear, couture and high-end perfumery.

LVMH added that Celine is now “a house with a formidable foundation for the future”, and there’s really no arguing with that statement.

Slimane is one of those designers who finds it hard not to make a big impact and the group’s chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault gave him some ambitious targets when he started, saying early on that the company wanted Celine revenue to rise from close to €1 billion at the time up to €2 billion or even €3 billion within five years.

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It’s unclear how much of that target has been achieved as the company doesn’t break out individual brand revenues and, of course, we know that luxury has slowed down in periods.

But there’s no denying that Celine is a much bigger entity than it was when the creative chief arrived.

Slimane had had a similar impact at Saint Laurent, which he left in spring 2016, after also helping drive that label to be a much more important part of the Kering portfolio (both during his early stint in charge of menswear and later running the entire label’s creative output). He was also previously creative director for menswear at Dior.