Celine is once again, arguably, fashion’s favorite brand. Creative director Michael Rider has charged the French luxury house with a fresh, sporty-sophisticate sensibility. So of-the-moment does his output feel, that the more you look, the more you see notes of Rider’s runways in the way people are dressing everywhere: offbeat color and proportion combinations, aptly placed scarves, dainty shoes.
Rider worked under Phoebe Philo at the label from 2008 to 2018. Naturally, his work at Celine has now been put in conversation with hers, especially because both designers share an aptitude for creating clothes real people want to wear–and, therefore, many of the same fans. Recently, a video of Rider and Philo literally in conversation at the LVMH Prize in September, captured by Loïc Pringet, was met with excitement and feverishly passed around in fashion circles. Other designers who worked under Philo, now helming fashion’s biggest brands, include Matthieu Blazy, Daniel Lee, Chemena Kamali, and Drew Henry.
We decided to bring two acolytes of their respective work–the brains behind the Instagram accounts @OldCeline and @CurrentCeline–together (can you believe they hadn’t met yet?!) for a conversation over Zoom about Celine, fashion, and why they are tracking these two designers. What they’re doing clearly resonates. @OldCeline, run by Gabrielle Boucinha, counts nearly 350,000 followers; @CurrentCeline, run by recent fashion school graduate Martina Bait, has accumulated over 20,000 followers since launching a year ago.
Tell me about yourself and how @OldCeline started.
OldCeline: I started the page the summer I finished my undergraduate degree in fashion communication, in 2018. It was right before Hedi was taking over Celine. I just wanted to document all of the images and just kind of mark that time in fashion. When Phoebe announced her departure, I knew there was going to be this wave of people that would follow her wherever she went.
