Phoebe Philo Designed 17 Runway Collections at Céline, Here Are All of Them in Order of Greatness
Sunday’s announcement that Hedi Slimane would replace Phoebe Philo at Céline as the house’s first-ever artistic, creative, and image director has prompted shouts of hosanna and not a few worried frowns from the women she dressed.
When the news came on December 22 that Philo would be leaving Céline after an agenda-setting 10-year run, Instagram promptly exploded with an industry-wide lament of “What will we wear now?” Among all the tributes and thoughtful evaluations of her legacy, Vogue’s Sarah Mower put it best: “Of all the designers working now, Phoebe is a proven genius for tuning into the intuitions of a generation—she’s acted as lightning conductor of the female energy of the times, twice over.”
Philo’s Céline, like Philo’s Chloé before it, was the official outfitter of fashion’s in-crowd, and a status symbol for many more. Rati Sahi Levesque, chief merchant at The RealReal confirmed this earlier in the month: “Unique search for Céline has increased 42 percent since Phoebe announced her departure. We saw it go up within minutes of the [announcement],” she wrote via email. Since then, the designer consignment site has seen more than a 60 percent increase in revenue on the brand.
Slimane’s Saint Laurent treasures no doubt fetch a pretty penny too. The issue for Philo’s many followers is how different his aesthetic is from hers. From the slick minimalism of her Spring 2010 runway debut to the expressive individuality of her last show for Spring 2018, there are endless ways that Philo has defined the look of this decade. As runway watchers, we have a keen interest in the collections themselves. Philo’s Céline shows were always among the most anticipated on the calendar. The streets outside the Tennis Club de Paris, where she showed, were perpetually jammed with street style photographers eager to snap pictures of attendees in their newest Philo pieces. But inside was where the real action was: What shape would her tailoring take? What ugly-chic shoe would she dream up next?
Editors and buyers will see the last Philo-designed collection (for Pre-Fall 2018) in Paris today. Slimane starts work on February 1. In honor of Philo’s brilliant run, here’s our ranking of all 17 of her Céline shows.
Spring 2014 was just about the midway point of Philo’s tenure at Céline. It was also the high point—part Brassaï, part Soul II Soul, and freewheeling in a way that would presage her later, more instinctual collections. The bold, brushstroke prints are seared in the memory, and the asymmetrical plissé skirts launched a thousand imitations. But what really makes this show stand out four years later is its verve. It looks like Philo had a lot of fun making it.
Consider the context of the minimalist masterstroke that was Philo’s Céline debut. Coming as it did at the height of Balmainia, it made a major impression. Here was smart daywear in super-clean neutrals, chic yet sensible wooden platforms, and sleek bodysuits with a grown-up sex appeal. Fashion for smart, sensitive women by a smart, sensitive woman. She had us all at hello.
Philo never quite shook the minimalist label, though it’s an incomplete, inadequate description. She broke with the rigor of her early work for the house at her Spring 2013 show. Designed after the birth of her third child, the collection is notable for the offhand way she treated its luminous silks—with unfinished seams and easy twists and drapes—and the relaxed yet confident mien those silhouettes produced. Mostly, though, this was a show about shoes: Its mink-lined Birkenstock-style sandals proved idiosyncratically irresistible and precipitated a huge trend.
Vetements’s Demna Gvasalia receives the credit for the floral-print dress phenomenon of recent seasons, but if you ask us, it’s Philo and her Spring 2015 collection that deserve the props.
By the time this collection made its debut last September, rumors were rife that Philo was leaving Céline. It was a fitting last show: inventive, audacious, and, in many ways, a maximalist riposte to her streamlined debut. These, too, were clothes for working women, with an emphasis was on tailored daywear. But with grand gestures like those loop-hemmed trenches, there was absolutely nothing workaday about it.
Philo didn’t hold back with this collection—the holster bags accessorizing a few of the early looks notwithstanding. Backstage she riffed, “loaded vulgar, intense, I’m trying to propose that we women go for it.” And that she did, with duvet coats unbuttoned at the shoulder, giant pom-pom scarves, and deconstructed slip dresses. The results were hardly vulgar, though. Tender is the word that comes to mind.
This was a Céline show about the human touch: single earrings collaged from found objects, buttons placed gracefully askew, a vivid red corsage on a gray leopard-spot coat. Philo is one of fashion’s most closely watched designers not only because what she does sets trends (see: those single earrings), but also because the littlest details of her collections are often the most delightful.
Two things stand out in memory about this Céline show. First was Philo’s preshow front row drive-by. She chatted with editors like an old friend. Second was the presence of her preteen daughter, who took in the collection propped against a pole in the center of the runway alongside two of her friends. Both felt emblematic. Women respond to Philo’s Céline precisely because it is a woman-led operation.
Leave it to the Designer Who Knows What Women Want to come up with the must-have accessory of the crap year that was 2017: a logo-stamped comfort blanket.
Philo’s contribution to the fashion conversation this season was the gray linen dress that Binx Walton modeled. Puffed of sleeve, nipped of waist, and falling to just below the knees, it was unassuming—humble, even—and the very definition of effortless chic. Two years on, you can still find reinterpretations of it in the collections of down-market brands.
Sophomore outings are tougher than debuts, especially after expectations are raised by a first collection, which in Philo’s case they absolutely were. But she was clearly up to the challenge. This show was loaded with great outerwear and further built on the polished, minimal day-to-night uniform she introduced for Spring 2010.
Philo never went after celebrities while she was at Céline, but they came anyway. Kanye West, the most fashion-obsessed celeb there is, wore the scarf-print silk shirt from this collection onstage at Coachella the same year that he launched his eponymous line.
The radical idea behind Philo’s Fall 2013 collection? That comfort counts. A lot. She made her point with felted purses clutched to the breast like hot-water bottles, tops that swaddled the torso, coats that offered a literal embrace (lifted from Geoffrey Beene, apparently), and texture, texture, texture. All this, years before hygge entered the popular lexicon.
For women who shudder at the thought of fancy, floor-length gowns, Philo’s Céline has been a go-to for black-tie events. Overall, this collection erred on the dry side, but she did give us several different takes on tuxedo dressing, the most seductive in baby pink.
With her third baby on the way, Philo scaled her Fall 2012 show way, way back. It was a rarefied few who saw this collection in person, but it made an impact even so. Her graphic color-blocked Crombie is one of the standout coats of the last decade.
This was the season when Philo started moving beyond the sleek minimalism of her first collections for Céline into more sculptural, feminine territory. With its wide patent belts, graceful basques, and full, rounded sleeves, the Philo-philes fell into line.
Wear your dress over pants was Philo’s message this season, and pair the look with heavy-soled, vegetable-dyed leather sandals. Plenty of us took her up on it.
