Rue du Faubourg Montmartre was cordoned off yesterday evening around 7 p.m. near the Palace, the venerable theater which was, in the 1980s, one of the most famous nightclubs in the world, the Parisian equivalent of Studio 54, where same alchemy of interbreeding: being famous was not enough to enter these decadent temples of the night, it was better to display an original look, the style, whatever it was, and catch the eye of the Cerberian hairdressers who blocked access to the sad people.
Last night, Hedi Slimane, the artistic director of the house of Celine, presented his new Men's collection fall-winter 2023/24, in this mythical place, as he likes them, he who has already shown his fashion at the Hollywood Palladium or at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles.
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The fall-winter 2023/24 men's collection.
Celine
So, at the end of the chilly day, dozens of surlooked young people, famous or unknown, French or Anglo-Saxon, flocked.
The dress code was totally 'Hedi Slimane' compatible, leather or glitter, skinny boys with jackets or fur coats, bare-chested, with a thin tie or a sequined twill tied around the neck;
girls in black, in minidresses and bare legs, smoky eyelids and meticulously disheveled hair.
All wore boots, creepers, leopard print, rhinestones.
Dark glasses of course.
In short, a youth with a retro-vintage sensibility, who dreams of those years, years when parading, dancing, loving, partying was still a way of life and not paid conformism on Instagram.
Hedi Slimane danced at the Palace.
Apparently, he celebrated his birthday there.
He was one of those free young people.
Years later, he remained this special creator, still free, secretive, restive to ambient diktats and still fascinated by youth, its freedom, its fantasy, its extraordinary energy.
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A tour de force
The Palace had therefore momentarily regained its former glory, a theatrical setting for this experience which seemed to relativize space-time, in a joyful communion between fashion and music, the one Slimane loves, rock, electro, punk rock, that of the New York group Suicide, which illustrates the soundtrack of the parade.
Boys and a few girls pass through the narrow aisles of the Palace.
All rush headlong, hands in pockets, in a hurry, dark glasses and unimpeded hair.
They wear tight leather pants, short jackets, sometimes with rhinestones, bomber jackets, leopard print, black - a lot -, boots.
The Slimane style?
A signature.
“Rebel without a cause”.
This skinny, rock, dark silhouette, from the 80s, yet timeless,
attentive to an elegance that goes beyond the anecdote to blend into a kind of Anglo-Saxon mythology totally intertwined with the idea of a freedom of being.
This electrifying parade is part show of strength, part manifesto and part celebration of eternal youth.
The fall-winter 2023/24 men's collection.
Celine
front row
In the front row, a colorful fauna, ultra-cool replicas of the models who are already disappearing backstage behind giant white neon lights - and chic people, not just any, handpicked: Delphine Arnault, Catherine Deneuve, the emblem of freedom, his daughter Chiara Mastroianni, Benjamin Biolay, Étienne Daho, Jane Birkin but also Suzanne Lindon, Vincent Lacoste or Anaïs Demoustier.
Faced with this French rank, Jack White, but especially Lisa Manoban, the queen of K-Pop, member of Blackpink, the most adored Korean girl group of the moment.
Hedi Slimane spotted her before anyone else and she embodies, in her own way, a rebellious American dream transposed and revisited by the Asian continent.
Yesterday evening, this ambassador of the house radiated in a loose black jacket, under the shrapnel of the flashes.
From left to right: Wiz Khalifa, Ava Philippe, Blake Richardson, Lisa of Black Pink and Jack White.
Celine
On the stairs of the Palace, busy waiters were offering salty donuts with the Celine logo and refreshing lemonades.
The group Libertines, that of Pete Doherty (his white Husky was walking around without a leash on stage! – quite a symbol), was getting ready to play.
Curiously, Paris looked like Los Angeles.
And for once, the city was truly a party.