RUNWAY: Celine FW19

Hedi Slimane's first exclusively men's collection for Celine has arrived. The result was what you would expect from Slimane but since this is a brand new segment of Celine, without all the history and fanfare of a prior aesthetic like its womenswear has, it was not as jarring. In fact, it was quite commercial and that, friends, is exactly why the Arnaults gave Slimane carte-blanche at Celine. Their aim is to double, if not triple, sales at Celine in the next 3 to 4 years. Its sales are at an estimated 1 billion euros and with menswear predicted to outpace womenswear in terms of sales growth until 2022, Slimane's prominence and influence will, LVMH hopes, catapult Celine into the 2 or 3 billion euro sales arena.

Leather played a major role in this collection, evidenced by the multitude of moto-jackets and leather pants. Arguably, the biggest challenge with Celine under Slimane is that it's his aesthetic and it's incredibly similar to his aesthetic while he was at Saint Laurent and still is that aesthetic under its new designer, Anthony Vacarello. Take, for example, the baseball jacket bomber, it is an item that Slimane offered at Saint Laurent as part of its Permanent Collection and while the current Celine version is stylistically different in minute ways, it is, essentially, the same item. Most of the garments here are quite similar to things Slimane has made before. There were some looks that veered from  the established Slimane look, such as the looser suiting which was more 80s power suit than 2000s super skinny. This differing is where Celine can and probably expects to see sales growth, since the rest of the industry has figured out Slimane's formula and has been repeating it in varying iterations. Slimane's reputation and cool-factor will only take Celine so far; if the maison wants to realize its goals of becoming a multi-billion euro business, it has to become a leader in fashion once again, like Slimane was during his Dior Homme days and not just rest of his laurels by offering items that many other houses are offering, even if the idea originated with Slimane.