Have you seen the latest Celine Winter 2022 show? If the answer’s no, my suggestion is you get on it right this instant! Hedi Slimane is doing something special these days, and his designs and clothes are at a point of sublime desirability. He isn’t trying to wow or blow us away with daring new inventions. His stroke of genius is to show you the perfect, Platonic ideal of something you kind of already own.
A look from Celine’s Winter 2022 collection that’s made up of pieces – blue jeans, a black turtleneck and a beige coat – that you quite possibly already have a version of hanging in your wardrobe.
That’s all I could think about looking at this collection of what are arguably staple pieces. A trench coat, a car coat, washed denim jeans, black turtlenecks, grey blazers… the wheel stays firmly invented. But that isn’t the point! The point is that those jackets and coats are cut with just the right proportions of length, boxiness and flow. The jeans are just the right amount of flared. The turtlenecks roll over with just enough volume at the neck. It’s kind of like a wardrobe trick mirror: familiar, but everything’s a little better.
READ MORE: Item Of Interest: “B-Side” Bags, AKA Hidden Gems From Big Name Brands
It got me thinking about that little old thing we call “investment” pieces. I’ve written before about bags worth investing in. (Read: putting in not negligible amounts of money.) I maintain that a leather good designed outside of trend cycles will pay tremendous style and pleasure dividends. But we are, I think, also coming round to this way of thinking when it comes to clothes. In a funny way, the most persuasive things you could see on a catwalk are versions of what’s already hanging in your wardrobe.
