Hedi Slimane Sets Sharp Tailoring, Western Wear, and Sparkle to Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique From the Mojave Desert
Hedi Slimane has debuted his Winter 2024 collection for Celine Homme via a sweeping and cinematic short film captured in the Mojave desert and set to Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
Composed during the height of the romantic movement in 1830 by a young and lovesick Hector Berlioz, the piece was described in the 60s by Leonard Bernstein as the first psychedelic symphony ever created, anticipating the heady explorations of that decade by over a hundred years. The piece has a personal connection for Slimane as well, who first heard it when he was 11, and has cherished the romantic rush of its melody ever since.
For the runway film, Slimane selected a location that echoes the grandeur and spaciousness of Berlioz’s music: California’s Mojave desert. Captured mostly in black and white via drone cameras, the film offers stunning panoramas of the seemingly endless desert’s desolate beauty.
Woven between these cinematic shots are footage of the models transforming an abandoned desert highway into a runway. The collection is largely a return to form for Slimane with a renewed focus on sharp tailoring – but references to the American West boldly make themselves felt as well. Cowboy hats, gator-skin boots, and duster coats infuse dimensions of bounty hunter or outlaw country rambler into the characters of these men in black. As usual Slimane’s penchant for glam embellishment is present, with rhinestone-studded jackets glittering in the desert sun.
As the final chords of the Symphonie Fantastique fade away like a lover’s lament, that sun sets on these chic cowboys and the fleet of black Cadillacs they rode in on. Achieving an unexpected synthesis of artistic eras and archival references, it’s a fitting final flourish for a runway film that is one of Hedi Slimane’s most personal and ambitious yet.
