Céline Dion loves fashion. More than anyone I’ve ever seen at a fashion event. At the Giambattista Valli show during couture week in Paris this month she leapt from her front-row seat to give the designer a standing ovation. On her way out, she performed arabesques for photographers in a pink brocade mini dress and over-the-knee stiletto boots. En route to the Dior show, she draped herself over a Mercedes town car outside her hotel to display her mustard leather Dior dress, peering dramatically over the top of her gold mirrored sunglasses. At the show, where she was seated next to Anna Wintour, she cooled herself gracefully with a folding paper fan. When Céline finally left Paris after the week of shows (which, for her, also included performing a concert in a 20,000-capacity arena) she did so by driving from her hotel in a motorcade. She blew kisses to a crowd of fans while perched on the roof of a moving car wearing a silk pencil skirt. This can’t have been easy but nothing has ever looked more joyful.
“Céline has no fear,” Dion’s new stylist, Law Roach, recently told Vanity Fair. Roach, who describes himself as an “image architect,” began working with Céline last summer and is responsible for introducing the singer to the iconic Vetements Titanic hoodie that first thrust her into the fashion spotlight in July 2016. Below are some of the most iconic “new look Céline” moments Roach and Dion have blessedly built together.
Here’s Céline in a pair of those glittery Yves Saint Laurent boots from Anthony Vaccarello’s second collection. Covered in crystals and worn by Rihanna just days after their runway debut, the boots racked up a notoriously long wait list. But Céline’s love for fashion waits for no one.
“I enjoy the moment, the vibration, the emotion, the nervousness, the anticipation,” Céline told The Hollywood Reporter about attending fashion week, moments before the Dior show. Here she is, feeling the vibrations, in a yellow leather dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri. Later, she appeared in a tweed Dior couture skirt suit, fresh off the runway, in a portfolio of life-changingly beautiful images for Vogue.
Alessandro Michele’s fantastical, embellished new Gucci and the woman who got married in this dress and jeweled headpiece were made for each other. This green Gucci floral look is just further proof.
When you admire this look – a floor-length python Balmain jacket and thigh-high suede boots – know that is was 75 degrees in Paris on the day that Céline wore it. Who else loves fashion this much?
“She loves it,” Roach told W about Céline’s approach to fashion. “I wish I could take credit for introducing Céline Dion to this whole new world. But she’s always lived in this world; she just did it quietly.” There is nothing quiet about this Roberto Cavalli suit, which is patterned with flowers and what look like octopus tentacles.
Margaret Atwood recently revealed that she’d like fellow Canadian Drake to appear in the Hulu adaptation of her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. This photo of Céline at the Billboard Awards (wearing an insanely epic dress-slash-cloud), is the best possible advert for casting both Canadians in the show’s next season.
“Law has changed me 65 times a day, but one of my favorites was the Titanic sweatshirt,” Céline told The Hollywood Reporter in March. He had decided to put her in the iconic Vetements hoodie (featuring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s faces) as a wink to Titanic‘s 20th anniversary and Céline’s legendary contribution to the film’s soundtrack. “I thought it would be so cool,” Roach said. “But I was afraid she’d think it was corny. When I actually pulled it out and showed it to her, Céline snatched it up and threw it on. She was like, ‘Man, this is cool.'”
Roach recently reflected on the hoodie look again, for W. This time, he shared some more intimate thoughts about Céline’s personal evolution. “She was probably at the beginning stages of her healing process, and so she was becoming a different woman,” he said. “She had been with René [Angélil] for most of her life, and now all of a sudden she’s a single mother and she’s an artist on her own. So, [Demna Gvasalia’s] talent of creating this new woman fit with her actually becoming a new woman. It was incredible.”
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Text Alice Newell-Hanson