Fashion designer Hedi Slimane leaves LVMH’s Celine By Reuters

By Mimosa Spencer

PARIS (Reuters) – Fashion designer Hedi Slimane has left LVMH’s Celine brand, the company said on Wednesday, marking the latest departure from a fashion brand as the industry grapples with falling sales.

LVMH named Michael Rider as Slimane’s successor. Rider, who will start her new job early next year, worked alongside former Celine designer Phoebe Philo at Celine for over a decade.

Slimane’s departure will heighten speculation of upheaval in the industry, where a number of top designers have moved jobs. One of the most coveted roles, Chanel’s creative director, remains vacant following the departure of Virginie Viard in June.

Creative directors most often leave when they no longer have a positive impact on sales, said Luca Solca, an analyst at Bernstein.

“I don’t think this is an exception,” he said of Slimane’s exit, noting that, like artists, creative directors tend to produce variations on a theme, which can become predictable.

Solca said Slimane has done well at the label, likely doubling the brand’s revenue to around €2.5 billion.

Slimane could not be reached for comment.

Slimane joined Celine in 2018, quickly making his mark on the historic fashion house with his distinctive rock-chic aesthetic.

He is also known for the lean silhouettes he offered when he was at Dior Homme and at Kering (EPA:) Yves Saint Laurent inspired Karl Lagerfeld to lose weight to fit into his Dior designs.

The designer rarely gave interviews and maintained strict control over all aspects of the brand’s image, shooting advertising images himself and holding fashion shows outside the traditional calendar.

At Celine, Slimane sought to update the brand’s French bourgeois aesthetic for a younger audience, with ad campaigns featuring model Kaia Gerber in cropped tops and faded jeans, accessorized with a baseball cap and a small leather purse.

He also introduced a menswear line at Celine, as well as perfumes and makeup.

LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault set ambitious goals for Slimane, telling investors shortly after he joined that LVMH aims to grow annual revenue at Celine to 2 billion to 3 billion euros in five years, from nearly 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion) at the time.

In January, at LVMH’s annual results presentation, Arnault said Celine was enjoying “great success” thanks to Slimane and was surpassing 2 billion euros in sales.

The company does not break down revenue by brand in its published earnings statements.

Sales growth in the luxury goods industry in general has slowed sharply this year as China’s middle-class buyers hold back on buying due to property slumps and job insecurity.

Barclays analyst Carole Madjo noted during a recent trip to China that Celine is experiencing “brand fatigue” and is likely to underperform in the country.

The change follows other moves by LVMH, including its investment in one of the industry’s strongest performers in recent years, Moncler.

It said this week that it has sold the streetwear brand Off-White, founded by the late Louis Vuitton menswear designer Virgil Abloh.

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