We’ve seen a lot of protective fashion this season. At Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice delivered a collection meant to be worn on the surface of the sun (though we don’t recommend testing it out). At Miu Miu, Mrs P gave us pinafores and leather aprons, keeping us safe from the hazards of the kitchen, and at Rabanne, Julien Dossena sent rubber wetsuits down the runway, readying us for rough seas ahead. Then there were the variations of armour that cropped up in London at YAKU, Charlie Constantinou and Yuhan Wang. Maybe the designers know something we don’t; maybe the apocalypse is nigh.
Yesterday (October 5), Michael Rider’s sophomore Celine show provided us with the helmets needed for a quick getaway. Hosted on the outskirts of the city, in the luscious Parc de Saint-Cloud, where Parisians like to promenade at the weekends, Rider deliberately took the Paris Fashion Week crowd out of Paris. “I thought it would be nice on a Sunday if we get out of the city and to a park,” he said backstage. Natasha Lyonne arrived in particularly French fashion, puffing on a cigarette, before squeezing onto the frow between seasoned showgoer Tracee Ellis Ross and French-Canadian actor Niels Schneider.
Uma Thurman also showed up to support Rider’s second offering at the house, as did Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy, who had a whole lot of praise for the show: “I’m not being insincere, wearing Michael’s clothes I’ve never felt better. They’re chic, fresh, covetable, wearable, the location was gorgeous. It was a vibe,” he told Dazed.
Like several collections this season, the show opened with a little black dress, this time with a boatneck and frayed edges. There were floral 60s wallpaper prints, bold jolts of colour and a healthy balance of Hedi Slimane’s super skinny silhouettes and Phoebe Philo’s loose, elegant tailoring. Of course, there were the bicycle helmets too – “I love being on a bike, and all of these really stylish kids in the studio are showing up with their helmets on their elbows,” explained Rider. They may be stylish, but these Celine kids clearly put safety first.
Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page to see the entire collection