Could Hedi Slimane be a fan of The Crown? If he is, it would certainly explain his men’s summer 2025 collection for Celine, an intrinsically British, overtly aristocratic display that plays out over 13 minutes in the brand’s latest cinematic presentation.
Titled “The Bright Young,” Slimane’s latest outing celebrates luxury, as well as the decadence of the 1920s. Waistcoats, rowing jackets, and boater hats adorn the men who lounge about the 18th-century country house Holkham Hall in Norfolk. The first model, an Eton-educated actor named Harry, raises a trumpet to his lips and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s 1736 work Les Indes Galantes erupts. Models begin their walk along the beautifully maintained gardens, the runway footage interspersed with shots of men enjoying the grounds on horseback, laying in tall grass, and riding Slimane-designed leather bicycles.
Couture methods are at play in the embroidered details and reproduction of traditional 20th-century military garb. Other looks bring to mind F. Scott Fitzgerald and the “cricket whites” he wore at the Hotel Eden Roc in Antibes, France back in 1922, an inspiration for the collection.
Anglomania has always been an interest of Slimane, a Paris native, who once studied the phenomenon at École du Louvre in the late ’80s. The French have long been enamored with the ways of the British, from the days of Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, in the 18th century to the more recent Stephen Tennant and Cecil Beaton. The summer 2025 collection represents a continuation of Slimane’s exploration of Britishness, and proves that the French designer’s interest in the extends beyond the page.
