Celine signals evolution, not rupture, under Michael Rider

Few debuts in recent memory have been as self‑assured, or as finely calibrated to the realities of the luxury business, as Michael Rider’s first outing for Celine during Paris Men’s Fashion Week on Sunday. Presented co‑ed inside the house’s 16 Rue Vivienne atelier, the collection treated Celine’s heritage as a living archive rather than a museum piece, splicing Phoebe Philo’s pragmatic minimalism with Hedi Slimane’s razor‑sharp bourgeois swagger. The result was a wardrobe whose commercial intent was unmistakable yet never cynical.

Continuity as competitive hedge

Rider inherits a brand that more than doubled sales to an estimated 2.5 billion euros during Slimane’s tenure, thanks largely to accessories, menswear and fragrance extensions that now form a key core of Celine’s profit pool. Rather than resetting the dial, the new designer trained his focus on surefire hits like new Triomphe bags, weightier jewellery and vermeil, fun logo tees and low to the ground loafers, items that could all do high volume. In a market where soft luxury demand is forecast to grow low‑single digits this year, such product‑driven continuity looks like prudent risk management.

Design vocabulary: less erasure, more annotation

Slimane’s rebrand, by some considered polarising at the time due to the removal of the accent aigu in “Céline”, so far emains untouched. Rider’s decision to keep the uncluttered logotype reads as a tacit acknowledgement that hard‑won brand equity should not be sacrificed to signal a regime change. The approach contrasts with recent logo whiplash elsewhere: Burberry cycled from Peter Saville’s Helvetica block to Daniel Lee’s calligraphic flourish within five years, while Demna’s Balenciaga pared its wordmark to near‑municipal austerity back in 2017.

Evolution not revolution

Rider’s methodology echoes Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut, where the Irish designer has iterated that a brand refresh should not erase the past. In each case the creative lead recognises that heritage houses now sit inside publicly listed conglomerates, LVMH for Celine, LVMH again for Loewe and Dior, whose investors prize EBIT margin consistency over aesthetic rupture. LVMH’s 2024 results underline the point: fashion and leather goods hauled in 41 billion euros on flat organic growth, leaving little appetite for costly brand resets.

The collection itself proved that commercial stewardship need not come at the expense of delight. Long coats, both double and single-breased nodded to the liberated ease that made Philo a cult. Skinny stovepipe trousers, worn under tailored jackets, channelled Slimane’s rock‑bourgeois signatures without the froideur that once bordered on ascetic. Accessories were particularly strong, with plenty of new bag shapes to entice shoppers.

It just goes to show that in an environment where luxury groups are trimming guidance and store traffic is softening in China and the US, the strategy of “evolution, not erasure” feels as modern as any silhouette on the runway.