Hedi Slimane Taking the Reins at Céline<br />The move is a return home of sorts for Mr. Slimane, 49, who began his career at Yves Saint Laurent<br />and was hired by LVMH in 2000 to create Dior Homme, where his pin-thin jeans and sharp tailoring became the stuff of men’s (and some women’s) obsessions.<br />At Saint Laurent, Mr. Slimane became famous for collections seemingly aimed at the young<br />and the fretless, including the musicians, models and hangers-on he met in Los Angeles, where he made his home and where he relocated the Saint Laurent studio.<br />Hedi Slimane, one of the most successful but also controversial designers of his generation, will be the new artistic, creative<br />and image director of Céline, the luxury giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced on Sunday.<br />“I am particularly happy that Hedi is back within the LVMH Group<br />and taking the reins of our Céline maison,” Bernard Arnault, the chairman and chief executive of LVMH, said in a statement.<br />He left Dior Homme in 2007 and returned to Yves Saint Laurent, owned by LVMH’s rival Kering, as creative and image director in 2012.<br />The result delighted customers — Mr. Slimane’s Saint Laurent sold well —<br />but frustrated some critics with its unwavering commitment to a narrowly defined rock look.<br />The appointment also signifies a potential major shift in direction for Céline, where the former designer, Phoebe<br />Philo, 45, became a hero to fashionable women for her emphasis on clothes for working women like herself.
