NEW CELINE, OLD CELINE . . . those conversations can finally be put to bed because the only thing that matters now is Michael Rider’s Celine. The new creative director’s debut collection at Paris Fashion Week made it clear: it’s a new era for the iconic French house. Please enjoy the ride.

Enjoy, indeed. If there was any indication that the indie sleaze microtrend was just that, it was the complete departure from Celine’s nightclubbing era under Hedi Slimane. Instead, what we saw was straight out of the wardrobes of the Carrington family. The shoulders were wide, the pants were loose and the jewellery was piled on. It was a masterclass of excess in excelsis without tipping over the edge into the pitfalls of parody.

Voluminous jackets, including one particular eye-popping red leather one, were paired with equally blown-out trousers (completely cinched at the waist, of course – the traditionally slender Celine silhouette remains true, even under Rider). The off-duty preppy uniform of blazer, tie and shirt was paired with ironed denim that had a crease so sharp you could imagine the way it sliced through the air as it came down the runway.

Rider’s use of black has changed, too. Now, it delineates as opposed to dominates. Sharing space with core neutrals, emeralds, bold primary hues of red and blue, the appearance of black, whether that’s the sleek suiting, blazers or even the playfully oversized rugby shirt, another preppy favourite, cleverly punctuated the collection. 

Popping up between the baggy trousers and looser-fitting blazers was Slimane’s familiar feline silhouette. Skin-tight denim and trousers were still there, although not the norm. For Rider, this felt more like creating a specific shape within the collection – the infamous inverted triangle made famous during the 1980s. 

If Rider’s vision for the brand seems to be rooted in the joie de vivre of decadence, he hasn’t come there suddenly. Before his appointment at Celine – technically a return as the American designer had worked at the maison under the tenure of Phoebe Philo – Rider had been creative director at Ralph Lauren. What was presented on the runway in Paris was a far cry from the Americana that forms the Ralph Lauren brand; it’s undeniable that they shared a common thread of nostalgia.

But this was Parisian fashion in its truest form. The city that birthed and celebrated the flâneur and the arcades. These were clothes designed to stroll Rue de Rivoli in before grabbing a drink at Au Petit Fer à Cheval and dinner at Dumbo.

 Celine spring/summer 2026: