Slimane goes super skinny in Paris Celine men’s debut

PARIS — Paris men’s fashion week finished late Sunday with superstar designer Hedi Slimane’s first menswear collection for Celine, which has up to now only dressed women.

The “sultan of slim”, who previously sent revenues soaring at Dior Homme and Saint Laurent, is credited with inventing the skinny look.

And in Sunday night’s show in a mirrored pavilion Place de la Concorde at the foot of the Champs Elysees, Slimane stayed true to his tight ultra-tailored style.

Rake-like male models, often in black shades, wore a panoply of Slimane staples, 1960s-style English suits with pencil-thin ties, black Nehru tunics, leather jackets and trousers a bright yellow leopard pattern coat to add to the retro rock-star chic.

The skinny sixties theme had earlier been picked up by the veteran Britain tailor Paul Smith, who sent out a sassy and colourful collection.

Slimane also lowered the suit hem, a move away from the pinched jackets now a la mode.

The reclusive French creator and close friend of pop star Lady Gaga is regarded as the second most powerful creator in fashion, after Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel.

“The Kaiser” once famously shed 41 kilos (90 pounds) to squeeze into Slimane’s skinny jeans.

But his slash-and-burn takeover of Celine — previously led by popular British feminist designer Phoebe Philo — took a kicking from critics in his first women’s show in October.

They railed at his retrograde “crotch-skimming cocktail dresses” for wafer-thin teenage vamps.

Hugely vocal Philo fans known as “Philophiles” also branded Slimane the “Trump of fashion” for taking down her collections from the label’s website.

An Instagram account dedicated to her work at Celine soon clocked up nearly 200,000 followers and sales of her clothes rocketed on resale sites.

The RealReal, the world’s biggest of these resale sites, said prices had also spiked as Philo’s minimalist creations became collector’s items

“We are finding people to be extremely loyal to her,” the US site said.

Paris haute couture week starts Monday. The highly select shows of handmade creations happen only in the French capital and are sustained by a small number of the world’s richest women. — AFP