Céline Eyewear

Elegant and Luxurious, Yet Still Pretty Utilitarian

History

Celine was founded by Céline Vipiana and her husband Richard in 1945 as a made-to-measure children͛s shoe boutique that was located in Paris at 52 rue Malte. The shop was denoted by a highly distinct red elephant logo created by cartoonist Raymont Peynet. Finding success, the duo expanded and opened three more stores by 1948.

More than a decade later, Vipiana used her success as a launch pad to branch out into ready-to-wear, with the goal to deliver fashion to the everyday woman. On a platform that advocated for practical clothing over frivolity, she launched a sportswear-driven line that revolved around wool skirt suits, fitted shirts, leather vests, and pastel-colored denim.

Vipiana believed that women did not need a bizarre and out-there wardrobe, but rather something more understated and functional, thus making the brand an advertisement for French Couture Sportswear.
According to Vipiana, she believed the typical Céline customer is ͞dynamic, she works, she travels a lot and doesn’t rely on extravagant and overly eccentric clothing to convey her personality to others.
This resulted in a high-end collection of pieces that were elegant and effortlessly chic.

In 1963, she unveiled a women͛ shoe line and a year later introduced Vent Fou, the brand͛s first fragrance that featured notes of galbanum, jasmine, and rose. Vipiana added leather accessories in 1966, including bags, belts, and gloves. In her mission to deliver pieces of the highest caliber, she sought out a leather goods factory in Florence.

Thing that made Céline really popular was to aim her collections of bags and shoes at the new middle  class market and not just at the elite few. The most important things for brand founder were materials.  Céline Vipiana is constantly innovating her lines, when denim became fashionable, she re- worked it and made it more feminine.

By the ͚70s, Celine had gone international, with new boutiques opening across the globe, from Monte Carlo  to Beverly Hills to Hong Kong. But 1973 marked a logo redesign, in which Vipiana revealed intertwined Cs , a nod to the Parisian landmark Arc de Triomphe.

In 1987, Bernard Arnault, a French business magnate, saw the brand͛s potential, bought its capital, and inherited all 89 of its stores. Nine years later, Celine officially became a part of the LVMH group and began ramping up the development of its ready-to-wear and accessory collections. Vipiana remained the designer of Celine until she died in 1997 at 84 years old; she was immediately succeeded by Michael Kors as lead designer.

Kors brought to Celine his trademark sportswear sensibilities of luxury and easy glamour. When translated into clothing, that resulted in cashmere knit sets in peppy hues, slouchy gilded pants, sharp tailoring, and skin-skimming dresses.

Kors͛ Celine saw themed collections that catered to the jet-setter, centering around exotic destinations like Monte Carlo and Tahiti, or after-hour activities, like a Miami night club or casino—not unlike Kors' current collections.

He had a hand in boosting Celine͛s ͞It͟ bag appeal with the Boogie and Poulbot styles. In 1999, he was appointed creative director, but by 2004, buzz had died down and he left to focus on his namesake label.

Post-Kors, the future of Celine was uncertain. Former Burberry designer Roberto Menichetti lasted at the helm for only a year. Ivana Omazic—who had previously been at Prada, Jil Sander, and Miu Miu—picked up the reins in 2006, but couldn͛t quite deliver and was succeeded by British designer Phoebe Philo.

When Philo was made creative  director in 2008, she put her own unique twist on Céline Vipiana͛s original vision of minimalist chic. For her first collection, during the Spring 2010 season, she showed clothing that women aspired to wear: precise lines, and sharp tailoring that juxtaposed with fluid shapes, all  rendered in a rigid color palette of neutrals.

Much like Vipiana, both designers feel creating something that women want is more important; something tasteful, elegant and luxurious, yet still pretty utilitarian.

After a 10 year leadership of Phoebe Philo, in 2018 Hedi  Slimane, who has previously held tenures at Dior Homme and Saint Lauren, has been appointed artistihc, creative and image director of Celine.

He, will oversee all collections produced by the house along with introducing couture, men's fashion and fragrances. Hedi is known for the sleek and clean aesthetic that he brings to his brands. 

As one of his first initiatives the Celine logo has undergone a restyling: The accent on the 'e' has been removed to enable a simplified and more balanced proportion, evoking the Celine collections of the 1960s where the accent wasn't used often. Following in the footsteps of celebrities like Taylor Swift and Blake Lively, Céline deleted its entire Instagram account to reveal its new logo.

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