This was bound to happen. Like a hurricane, newly appointed creative director Hedi Slimane has now seemingly erased almost every facet of Phoebe Philo's past at Céline. The motive is clear: this is a brand new Céline. No scratch that, this is a brand new Celine.
Earlier today, Celine's Instagram account has been swiped clean. In a way, it's almost like social media revenge. Saint Laurent did the exact same thing when Slimane left the fashion house. The Saint Laurent Instagram account was bare, save for a portrait of Anthony Vaccarello, the new creative director and Slimane's successor.
At Celine, the brand's Instagram has been replaced with a trio of the same video—a panning of gold lamé fabric with the new Celine logo underneath it. Yes, just like how Slimane rebranded Yves Saint Laurent to just Saint Laurent and in a sans serif logo, the Céline logo has been changed too. Firstly, the accent on the 'E' has been removed. Then, the font was lengthened and the spaces in between each letter were brought closer together.
According to a press statement released, the new logo is "directly inspired by the original, historical, version that existed in the 1960s". The removable of the accent is also a reference to the '60s where it wasn't used often in the collections. 'Paris' has also been removed from future publicity campaigns, but will still be incorporated in retail packaging as well as on labels of the new collections.
If you pop by the Celine website now, you'd notice that you won't be able to find any product information, or any information regarding previous as well as existing collections that are in stores now. Drastic? Well, this is Hedi Slimane after all. He does tend to exert full creative control on all facets of a fashion house. And true to Slimane form, he's keeping everything quite hushed—except for that surprise debut of a new Celine bag seen on Lady Gaga—until the reveal of the full menswear and womenswear collections during fashion week in September.
