eBoy Fever Dream
Celine Spring Summer ‘21 “The Dancing Boy” aka eBoy Fever Dream
After Hedi Slimane’s multiple successful seasons at Celine, the Parisian designer has taken a full one-eighty turn selling out to TikTokers in a “how do you do fellow kids” fashion, with a collection featuring tie dye tees, Nike windbreaker lookalikes, Vans-esque skate shoes, beanies, bucket hats, bleached denim, and lock chains. And like most TikToks, this collection left me wondering “is this cringe or is this making fun of cringe?”
Much of Hedi Slimane’s appeal is his signature silhouette where he often draws inspiration from his past feats (Teddy jackets, Wyatts/Jacnos, etc.) and makes smart adjustments to it. The same thing could almost be said about this collection as well, except for the “smart adjustments” part, this collection is clearly a bastardized version of Saint Laurent SS16 “Surf Sound”. It is quite literally Surf Sound but made for eBoys hence the name “The Dancing Boy” and to really strike home this idea, Hedi even teased the collection on TikTok and currently has TikTok stars such as Lil Huddy promoting it.
The only redeeming quality of this collection would be if this is another case of satirical fashion however, I have no idea if it is. The line of irony, if there is any, has been lost on me, as it is not Hedi’s style to have a whole collection be satirical (although having a whole collection be based solely on satire isn’t a bad thing, just look at early Vetements collections). His last spring summer collection had notes of irony sprinkled throughout, it was nuanced and tasteful, having collaborated with artist David Kramer. Pieces in the collection which satirized the American dream with pseudo-advertorial images and humorous text slogans as opposed to whatever this is.
What makes me think this could be a satirical collection is the loud ostentatious prints with the only clear ironic piece in this collection being a clown sweater. Is he calling the industry a bunch of clowns or is he calling himself a clown for making this collection? Unfortunately it might be the latter as Hedi Slimane hasn’t indicated that it’s anything but serious. In fact, he’s done the exact opposite, in an email following the show he described it as, “A ‘documentary’ collection spanning E boys and current skate culture” and “a candid portrait of a generation that took advantage of the confinement to assert itself and emancipate itself creatively.”
This quote along with having TikTokers promote the collection doesn’t bode well with me and makes me question the future of Celine with Hedi as the creative director, as it seems he has also become a victim to the nouveau-riche consumer and is following suit with making clothes for influencers.
