Celine Unveils Newest Collection at Richelieu Library

In this historic location, Hedi Slimane has chosen to present a women's collection with rock and sportswear influences in a video unveiled on Friday, October 20th.

What was once an experiment (resulting from the first lockdown) has become a habit: Celine is moving outside the fashion week calendar. More than two weeks after the end of the women's edition in Paris, the brand, led by Hedi Slimane, reveals its women's fashion show on Friday. It's a Spring-Summer 2024 collection titled "Bibliothèque Nationale," which can be discovered through a rhythmic video. It was filmed in May 2023, behind closed doors, without an audience. There's no front row and no celebrities. This is a real singularity at a time when the presence of stars in the front rows of fashion shows underlines a strategic challenge for brands seeking to maximize their visibility. Here, the focus is simultaneously drawn to the location on Rue Vivienne in Paris and the young women passing through this historic place. This is not a coincidence. In recent seasons, Hedi Slimane has shown his penchant for electrifying historical buildings in the capital by hosting his fashion shows in places like the Hôtel de la Marine and Les Invalides.

In this place of excellence, the "Slimanian" neo-bourgeoises walk briskly. They have the look of students who embrace a mix of styles, crossing the cobbled courtyard under a sunny blue sky before entering the 19th-century Salle Labrouste with its nine domes. These young women walk in flat shoes, their ankles kept warm in furry high boots, to the rock and engaging sound of LCD Soundsystem. Looking at them, you get the feeling that you've seen them somewhere before. In the street, on Instagram, at the university...

They wear black leather bombers with slightly loose denim shorts and lace-up boots, a leopard print mini skirt, right in line with the times, jeans that are increasingly flared, here with a blazer. The looks oscillate between a masculine and feminine sexiness. They parade in tracksuits, jogging outfits, or microshort versions, short jackets, couture minidresses that reveal their bare legs. Rhinestones and glitter increase in intensity under more casual jackets, as if to remind us that in this glam dance, it's time for studious hours.