Ever since Phoebe Philo announced her departure from Celine back in December 2017, the fashion world has anxiously waited to see what the house will look like under her replacement, Hedi Slimane, tenure. Last week Slimane debuted his first Celine collection at Paris Fashion Week and the response was certainly mixed.
Now Slimane has responded to the backlash for the first time. As part of an episode of 5 Minutes de Mode by by Loïc Prigent, which covered the debut collection, Slimane commented on the reaction via email.
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“For some in America, I also have the poor taste of being a man who is succeeding a woman,” he said. “You could read into that a subtext of latent homophobia that is quite surprising. Is a man drawing women’s collections an issue?”
“You’re dealing with politics, conflicts of interest, cliques, a predictable attitude, but also staggering exaggerations of conservatism and puritanism,” the designer continued.
“Violence is a reflection of our time, the rabble-rousing spirit of social networks, despite the fact that they are a formidable community tool. There are no longer any limits, hatred is amplified and takes over.”
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“At the end of the day, all of this is unexpected publicity for this collection. We didn’t expect as much,” he added. “Above all, it crystallizes a very French form of anti-conformism and freedom of tone at Celine.”
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This article originally appeared on Harper’s BAZAAR AU.
