Ever since Hedi Slimane took over at Celine, it’s been all change for the iconic brand. Today’s announcement, that Celine is kicking off a major worldwide retail push with the opening of a flagship store in New York City, is no exception.
The store, which will open Monday 25th February on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, is the first designed by Hedi, and promises to be a merging together of his signature graphic design style and specially commissioned artworks, individual to each store. The first store will feature a commissioned sculpture of stone cubes from British artist James Balmforth, along with an installation from Mexican artist Jose Dávila.
The new 5,000 square foot space on Madison Avenue took nine months to be remodelled, replacing a former Celine store on the same seminal fashion block. It will showcase women’s and men’s ready-to-wear and accessories across one floor, with an aesthetic that’s heavily influenced for the brutalist black and white marble Hedi is known for.
Celine has a great distribution network and high-quality visibility but no large stores,” said Celine CEO Severine Merle. “We need to open flagships in major cities, larger stores that can accommodate menswear and newly expanded women’s collections.
And if that wasn’t exciting enough, the New York concept store won’t be a standalone venture. In fact, Celine are set to roll out more retail locations over the next month in New York, Tokyo and Paris, with additional stores in LA, London, Milan, Shanghai and Beijing to come later this year. Canadian artist Elaine Cameron-Weir will present work in Celine’s Tokyo store, and American artist Oscar Tuazon will show a piece in the Paris branch, which will feature one floor each for men’s and women’s collections. Another Paris store will be dedicated solely to menswear, an innovation for Celine spearheaded by Hedi.
“We have openings planned all over the world,” Severine Merle explained. “Flagships and larger boutiques will offer men’s and women’s together, but some stores will also present just men’s or women’s. The Paris network will expand in March, notably with the first menswear flagship on the Rue François 1er , a historically Celine location. The Avenue Montaigne store will remain dedicated to womenswear. There will be menswear boutiques in all the major capitals.”