Celine Women’s Spring 2022

Courtesy of Celine

Hedi Slimane gets the last word on the spring 2022 season with his brisk fashion film for Celine, which could also double as a terrific tourism campaign for the French resort city of Nice.

The idyllic footage is enough to make you want to don a straw boater, a cardigan-style jacket and mom jeans to stroll the Promenade des Anglais, the sunshine glinting off your handbag chain and a breeze ruffling your loose tresses.

Slimane is a brilliant image maker, opening his 12-minute, rapid-cut film with a Celine-branded cruise ship steaming toward the Baie des Anges, its famed Hotel Negresco also bearing the name of the French fashion house, and closing with a lighthouse flickering to life amid a blazing sunset.

Amid all the historically important architecture, meticulously described in the press notes, and with the seafront as a backdrop came a parade of perfectly styled outfits, a calculated mash-up of bourgeois tailoring and varsity casualness — with a soupçon of streetwear cool.

Slimane dialed back the branding to the most laid-back pieces in the collection — bomber jackets, oversized hoodies and ball caps — and ramped up the use of shine via sequins and metallic leather, giving the collection a more glamorous allure. There were even a few ruffles.

While many of the pieces are familiar wardrobe staples — trenchcoats, pussy-bow blouses, fluffy sweaters, LBDs and mannish striped shirts — Slimane has a knack for idealizing them via the right combinations and styling tricks. Low-slung trousers came with kitten heels, while leggy looks ended with platform high-tops.

Interspersed with models strolling on the beach or the perimeter of an observatory were preening shots of two Celine muses: the model Kaia Gerber and the Thai music sensation Lalisa Manobal of Blackpink, whose role as a Celine brand ambassador was recently expanded to include its Haute Parfumerie collection.

It all fed a straightforward theme of summer on the Riviera, with a fresh, young spirit.