The official CELINE thread

[VinceCompost]

Conversation has really gone down hill in here since Kim Jones restored the rightful state of things. But then, what else is there to talk about once you've established the eternal preeminence of skinny jeans?

That post earlier with the guide to dressing post-punk about sums things up; rock-n-roll-by-numbers. Can somebody explain to me where the fun lies in simply spending large sums of money to acquire instant cool? Where's the satisfaction? Surely any compliments you might receive are Hedi's, not yours.

Don't hate. I know my delivery is antagonistic, but I genuinely would like to know the answer to these questions.

 

[dacarden]

That not the 13 jacket? Looks very nice

It is the same jacket that was brought back in SS16! I sized up on it to layer, but its now one of my favorites.

 

[RedVelvetWounds]

Conversation has really gone down hill in here since Kim Jones restored the rightful state of things. But then, what else is there to talk about once you've established the eternal preeminence of skinny jeans?

That post earlier with the guide to dressing post-punk about sums things up; rock-n-roll-by-numbers. Can somebody explain to me where the fun lies in simply spending large sums of money to acquire instant cool? Where's the satisfaction? Surely any compliments you might receive are Hedi's, not yours.

Don't hate. I know my delivery is antagonistic, but I genuinely would like to know the answer to these questions.

I'm actually interested to know how many people in this thread only dress in slim/skinny clothing from Hedi. I love it too but mostly because it's such a good starting point for a wardrobe and it's so easy to expand from it. Quite easy to mix and match pieces with other designers.

 

[VinceCompost]

I'm actually interested to know how many people in this thread only dress in slim/skinny clothing from Hedi. I love it too but mostly because it's such a good starting point for a wardrobe and it's so easy to expand from it. Quite easy to mix and match pieces with other designers.

This strikes me as a healthy approach. But I'd already noted considerably less fanboy tendencies in your posts, so you may not be best placed to enlighten here.

Perhaps literally nobody dresses in Hedi-to-toe Celine, but that's not the impression I've got from reading through this thread.

 

[RedVelvetWounds]

This strikes me as a healthy approach. But I'd already noted considerably less fanboy tendencies in your posts, so you may not be best placed to enlighten here.

Perhaps literally nobody dresses in Hedi-to-toe Celine, but that's not the impression I've got from reading through this thread.

It was just something that popped in my mind after reading your post, unrelated to your question. It would be an interesting statistic to see.

Don't get me wrong I'm definitely a Hedi fan as well, but there are so many designers I find way more interesting. However I might own just a few pieces from them, or nothing at all, whereas I do own a lot of Hedi's stuff in comparison.

 

[dacarden]

I look towards the past for style inspiration to carefully sculpt my wardrobe. I am the last person who goes flocking to a store when a new season is released.

The fun for me is hunting for some of those older special pieces that fit my personality whether it is Dior era, SLP era or Celine era. The pieces I gravitate towards are not always the most expensive or sought after. Hedi's designs speak to me in many different ways that other designers fail to capture me, specifically. A lot of these pieces are not always easy to find, but when you do find them, they offer something unique that someone who rolls into a Celine looking for "instant cool" can't appreciate or doesn't care about. It takes work to constantly search for some of those grail pieces that put a smile on your face every time you wear them. My wardrobe is not as expansive as most people, but I ensure that everything in there provides me with a level of excitement and joy when I wear it. If it doesn't, I typically will sell it to someone else who will appreciate it.

I feel the clothes enhance my style and personality, but I don't let them define me. I strive the wear the clothes confidently as opposed to them wearing me. If that makes any sense.

 

[Bryan55]

I myself don’t dress head to toe in Hedi nor Celine. In fact, I don’t like to wear too much of one label nor designer in one outfit. At most 2 out of 4 will be the max.

 

[ASAPRice]

These are only snapshots at certain points on the spectrum, and doesn't capture it comprehensively. The spectrum is a lot more fluid and the lines blur between genres. But the general idea is that there are styles which match the degree of formality required for the specific social situation, without looking too dressed down or too dressed up. I also like how the same pieces can be used for multiple genres and maintain congruency between all the looks. Something linking it all together so it doesn't feel like I'm flip flopping different "identities".

thorns fitpics when

 

[ASAPRice]

That post earlier with the guide to dressing post-punk about sums things up; rock-n-roll-by-numbers. Can somebody explain to me where the fun lies in simply spending large sums of money to acquire instant cool? Where's the satisfaction? Surely any compliments you might receive are Hedi's, not yours.

spending large sums of money doesnt acquire instant cool, most people rocking purely slp or purely celine outfits look like a copy paste version of 1000000 dudes on IG. The fun, for me, lies in pulling inspo from designers but using other designers or vintage pieces to get the look I want. Although I will admit, I'm slightly addicted to copping **** from hedi dior

 

[CentrallyLocate]

Conversation has really gone down hill in here since Kim Jones restored the rightful state of things. But then, what else is there to talk about once you've established the eternal preeminence of skinny jeans?

That post earlier with the guide to dressing post-punk about sums things up; rock-n-roll-by-numbers. Can somebody explain to me where the fun lies in simply spending large sums of money to acquire instant cool? Where's the satisfaction? Surely any compliments you might receive are Hedi's, not yours.

Don't hate. I know my delivery is antagonistic, but I genuinely would like to know the answer to these questions.

I haven’t worn skinny jeans in weeks. Mostly I wear track pants when leaving the house casually given it’s corona season, otherwise I wear some pretty loose black cotton trousers. In winter I’ve been wearing a lot of thick normal/straight fit denim and sneakers. I’m looking forward to wearing my flares more this year.

Almost nobody year only wears skinny jeans. No ‘huge’ Hedi fan would wear only skinny jeans because only a minority of Celine runway models have even worn them since 2018. If you walk into a Celine store, 80% of men’s trousers aren’t skinny.

Your argument about acquiring instant cool is kind of weird. Why do people collect pens, or stamps, or rare furniture? After all, they’re just objects created by other people. And for people who do collect furniture, we accept - socially - that there are many great and interesting styles of furniture. I can go to friends houses who decorate in Mid-Century, Victorian, Scandinavian modern and other styles and think ‘hey that looks great’, and that their style is cool and interesting. It’s also not just about the ‘look’; it’s about the individual pieces, their quality.

Look at the vintage fashion images on this page. Look at the awful stitching, the ****** leather, the endless scratchy polyester, the things that just don’t fit quite right. The appeal of designer fashion to many men is that it does fit, it is nice, it feels good, well-made (in Celine’s case, most of the time), of decent origin. For older men, they might choose brands like Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli, Savile row suits or whatever, but for people who are a little younger, YSL, SLP, Dior are interesting.

To me at least, it isn’t really about the style. Every runway look, even super wide fit avant garde stuff, can be recreated in the average shopping mall. The ‘Celine look’ can be recreated, head to toe, for $200 in Zara, but that doesn’t bother me. I like clothes that feel and look good, I like the cuts better and I like looks that fit just right, that go perfectly together in a way something from Zara or H&M or even a ‘premium mainstream’ brand like Sandro or The Kooples never could. I remember going from something like Sandro or Kooples boots to Wyatts, and the difference in shape, the little things all adding up, was phenomenal.

I enjoy fashion - and Celine, particularly - because I like pretty things.

 

[VinceCompost]

Your argument about acquiring instant cool is kind of weird. Why do people collect pens, or stamps, or rare furniture?

You've got me there: I have no idea why people collect such things. But in any case this seems to miss my point somewhat.

I enjoy fashion - and Celine, particularly - because I like pretty things.

Me too. But only as raw material for doing something of my own with them. Taking a total fit off the rack in kit form doesn't interest me.

To follow your example of furniture, a house entirely furnished in items by a single designer would have the same effect on me as someone wearing head-to-toe clothing from one brand. In neither case has the home-owner/wearer added anything of value. At least as far as I'm concerned.

Why is my argument about acquiring instant cool "weird"? *

EDIT: For clarity, my comment re. rock-n-roll-by-numbers was not specifically about skinny jeans. But rather purchasing everything from the same brand. So whether Celine collections consist solely of skinny jeans or not is entirely beside the point.

* If it's not already clear above, I don't think that such behavior acquires cool at all. But I suspect that this is what anybody who takes this approach thinks they're acquiring.

 

[dacarden]

To follow your example of furniture, a house entirely furnished in items by a single designer would have the same effect on me as someone wearing head-to-toe clothing from one brand. In neither case has the home-owner/wearer added anything of value. At least as far as I'm concerned.

I find this interesting and agree. People who strive to wear an entire fit from a season or runway look, lack creativity for loss of better words. If I want to see a runway fit. Ill take a look at a mannequin in a window or watch the runway. I'm not saying that you can't wear an entire runway fit without being dubbed "uncreative", but I find that people who piece together fits from different designers and vintage pieces to be more interesting. Seeing the same stuff on IG as ASAP Rice pointed out, is boring and lackluster. No one wants to see anymore fits of Bloodluster L17's with a white t shirt and crash denim with harness bikers.

I'll use the analogy of being either; a cover band for a musical group, or a band that used their favorite influences to write and perform their own music. Which will be more interesting?

 

[VinceCompost]

I'll use the analogy of being either; a cover band for a musical group, or a band that used their favorite influences to write and perform their own music. Which will be more interesting?

It seems that many people like cover bands.

To be fair, covers can occasionally (very occassionally) be creative. But only when the covering artist does something totally different and unexpected, making it their own. I think your analogy continues to function pretty well here too...

 

[thorns]

Don't hate. I know my delivery is antagonistic, but I genuinely would like to know the answer to these questions.

I think you bring a lot of interesting ideas to discuss and the last thing I would want is to have an echo chamber here. One thing unique to this thread is the diversity of thoughts not present into other forums discussing Hedi/Celine.

That post earlier with the guide to dressing post-punk about sums things up; rock-n-roll-by-numbers. Can somebody explain to me where the fun lies in simply spending large sums of money to acquire instant cool? Where's the satisfaction? Surely any compliments you might receive are Hedi's, not yours.

Taking a total fit off the rack in kit form doesn't interest me. The wearer did not add anything of value. At least as far as I'm concerned.

This is an interesting argument. I've thought about it for a while now. What is cool? How does one look cool? I feel like there would be a diverse range of answers for those two questions. However, I think the underlying theme of those responses will involve some facet of "masculinity". Breaking it down in descending order, I feel like there are 3 elements necessary to look cool.

1. Energy
2. Physique/Proportions
3. Actual pieces

Looking cool requires the synergy of these 3 elements. This is also why many find those wearing Hedi pieces can look uncool. It isn't Hedi's fault, it is the wearer not synergizing all three elements.

What is energy? It is specific personality traits that are viewed positively and linked with "masculinity". There is a dynamic component to it that relates to "motion". An easy way of thinking about it is what are you doing in your life. Are you living a "fulfilled" life? Someone in the "now", in the "moment". This is why it is often easy to find corny photos posted on Instagram. The idea of taking the time to pose, pick pictures, and meticulously curate your Instagram betrays all of that idea of living a "meaningful" life with "purpose". Someone with that cool energy is constantly chasing after their goals and moving forward with momentum. Basically, if someone made a movie about your life, would enough people care to watch the movie.

I think physique and proportions is easier to understand. Looking as lean and elongated as possible is what looks cool to a lot of people.

Actual pieces really rank as the least important component in looking cool. It may surprise many that this is coming from me, but you don't even need to have actual Hedi pieces to be cool. Tons of the people Hedi is obsessed by don't even wear his pieces. I feel like people should really be buying Hedi pieces because they actually appreciate the piece, rather than thinking it would somehow magically, by itself, make them cool.

You bring up an idea that copying a look is not cool. I suspect it stems from your value on individuality. I think that two different people wearing the same uniform will naturally have different energies they can't help imbuing into the look, so both looks will feel different. I believe that people are inherently unique since there won't be someone that will ever be a carbon copy of you. Also, I feel like someone, not even knowing the existence of Hedi, can wear a look that Hedi has shown before and it would be unfair to criticize them for copying. I think it would be actually corny to force some unique signature accessory to your look for the sake of individuality, but if you can pull it off convincingly then it wouldn't matter. Whether you pull it off convincingly or not is dependent if you're able to sell it to the audience and have them believe that it fits and matches the image you're projecting.

For example, Thomas Brodie-Sangster wasn't able to convincingly pull off a "cool" character in Queen's Gambit, which I suspect might be intentional. His face lacks the bad boy look. Only other nerdy Chess people will think he is cool. He's a nerdy kid trying to be edgy. He's trying so hard to look badass, but he is not convincing the audience. It feels off, which is perfect for the script, but probably not what most people would want their look to be. It lacks believability.

Here is the same person pulling off another look that feels more congruent. He's able to give off a more "authentic" image as it is more believable.

In order to look cool, congruency between all three elements (energy, physique/proportions, actual pieces) is key and important.

 

[thorns]

thorns fitpics when

Perhaps I've snuck some in secretly already in the enormous mountain of images I've shared...or maybe not? I like to maintain as much anonymity as possible so that I can freely unleash my antisocial tendencies online without it linking back to me in real life.

To me at least, it isn’t really about the style. Every runway look, even super wide fit avant garde stuff, can be recreated in the average shopping mall. The ‘Celine look’ can be recreated, head to toe, for $200 in Zara, but that doesn’t bother me. I like clothes that feel and look good, I like the cuts better and I like looks that fit just right, that go perfectly together in a way something from Zara or H&M or even a ‘premium mainstream’ brand like Sandro or The Kooples never could.

I agree, I think when you really find the pieces that resonate with you, damn do they resonate with you. They're like art.

I'll use the analogy of being either; a cover band for a musical group, or a band that used their favorite influences to write and perform their own music. Which will be more interesting?

Good artists borrow, great artists steal. I think it is down to whoever can make the best version of the product that supersedes their predecessors.

To be fair, covers can occasionally (very occassionally) be creative. But only when the covering artist does something totally different and unexpected, making it their own. I think your analogy continues to function pretty well here too...

I'm not sure if I judge covers by creativity, I look at it as a whole and it just clicks or doesn't. Two covers that comes to mind that I prefer significantly to the original.

Freddie Mercury's cover is just superior.



Sinéad O'Connor's cover again being superior for me.



To tie this back to Hedi, I feel like some people styling Hedi pieces make them look better than how he styles them sometimes. I'm very grateful to people who share their fits which helps me think about the pieces in other ways than how Hedi presented them.