Michael Ryder stepped up with his third outing at Celine in a way that didn’t dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm. “Creating life in clothes” is one way he puts it. “We’re always scared when it looks like a fashion show,” she added. Expensive-looking yet aspirationally relevant, his collections gave both women and men the satisfying impression that you might as well hit the streets and join the life of a sunny Parisian afternoon dressed in anything off the runway.
Put together, but not too much. In his last two seasons, he nailed the preppy look: lots of silk scarves, rugby shirts, chinos and wrap ties. He sparked a trend, but not one he wanted to get caught up in. Now he was looking to cut a short line, made closer to the body: coats and suits with clean shoulders, fitted to the torso and worn with cropped kick flares; adaptation of the French Moors; A panoply of tight longline overcoats for men.
Turning the fashion dial takes a lot of insight into the zeitgeist. Fresh into the role of creative director, Ryder sees a trend that has been rampant for the past decade coming to an end. “I think Céline is a place where you go to find beautifully cut clothes; a slim silhouette,” she said. The difference lies in how it is assembled. “Classics are one thing, but we like to cut,” he said. “A jacket is a jacket, but it shows character. I don’t like the idea of something that hides what people are going through.”
That balance between downright luxurious and slightly whimsical is reflected in Headspace — the odd crown of feathers growing in the boys’ hair, the satin mufflers climbing over the faces (references, he said, to our “dirty inner lives”). How did he get there? “Intuition,” he shrugged. Designing and styling for him and his team is “like a jam session. Putting a collection together, we’re always critiquing each other. One note after another.”
That sound was amplified—literally—into music, which played an elevated role in giving context to what was happening. Installations of old-school wood amplifiers destroyed Prince and uptempo gospel (the entire playlist is now on Spotify). He told you about Boys in the Band’s skinny hook-up trousers and cropped leather double-breasted jackets that were going on. Just a hint. Nothing too prescriptive or literal. This is the skill of the rider. He makes it feel as if it’s up to us to piece it all together in our own way, while providing all the necessary equipment to go with it.
