Hedi Slimane's nightclubbers in Celine's FW22 collection

«You’re my favorite thing», obsessively sings Swedish indie-punk artist Shitkid, accompanying the long Celine FW22 runway show that takes place on the revered catwalk of L'Olympia - a historic Parisian concert venue opened in 1893 and which over time has hosted the best singers in history, from Billie Holiday to David Bowie. Clubbing, the glam scene, punk nuanced by the aesthetics of the 80s: these were all points touched upon in Hedi Slimane's latest show entitled Boy Doll, which represented a return to familiarity and the Parisian world for the French designer after various detours to Le Castellet, the castles of Chambord and Vaux-le-Vicomte, Monaco and Nice.

The soul of the collection are the shiny elements, which seem to have been born for the nightclub floor, and which are affixed to pinstripe suits, trench coats, lozenge mohair cardigans, in fringed pants, on the lapels of biker jackets and on the upper of the new ankle boots that introduce a western wedge for men. In some looks, then, which appeared towards the end of the show, a hoodie covered in micro-mirrors reproducing the disco mirror balls made its appearance, along with other simil-couture pieces such as an extraordinary scaly coat that reproduces in thousands of fragments of cut-out leather the skin of a crocodile. The element of genderlessness was also augmented with leather skirts and tunics for men, sheer and sparkly knits.

Left as a legacy of Slimane's pandemic-era collections are then the collaborations with visual artists, which this year have included the likes of Banks Violette, Ed Broner, Hate Paste, Sharada Tolton, Steve Reinke, Tommy Coleman, Viandeblueue and Jade Montserrat - though perhaps the most important legacy is the evolution of the typical Slimane silhouette, which becomes softer, with straighter, less fitted pants and more enveloping lines. Compared to The Dancing Kid, Teen Knight Poem and Cosmic Cruiser, the phantasmagoria of graphics and patterns, as well as graphic logos, has been greatly edited, restricted to a series of versatile essential archetypes, thus producing a sense of greater structure and restraint on which glam-punk variations such as platform boots, the total gold look of the finale or glittery furs were then executed.