Celine

Celine began in 1945 as a made-to-measure children's shoe business, opened in Paris by Céline Vipiana and her husband, Richard. Its emblem then was a red elephant. In the 1960s the Vipianas turned the business towards women, building a sportswear and leather-goods house for the Parisian bourgeoisie, with loafers, bags, gloves and belts at its core, and opening boutiques abroad, including a leather goods shop in Florence.

In the early 1970s Richard Vipiana designed the house's interlocking-C emblem, said to have been inspired by the chain around the Arc de Triomphe in the Place de l'Étoile, and printed it on a coated canvas. The Triomphe, as it came to be known, defined the house's understated, practical luxury for the following two decades.

Bernard Arnault bought a stake in 1987, with the Vipiana family's approval, and in 1996 Celine became part of LVMH. The group hired the American designer Michael Kors in 1997 to create ready-to-wear and give the house a fashion profile, and he stayed until 2004. Roberto Menichetti and then Ivana Omazic followed, but the house struggled to find a clear identity.

That changed with Phoebe Philo. A British designer who had made her name at Chloé, she was appointed in 2008 and showed her first collection for spring 2010. Over a decade she turned Céline into the most influential label among women who wanted serious, grown-up clothes: precise coats, wide trousers, flat shoes and a clean, intellectual minimalism whose devotees became known as "Philophiles". Her Luggage tote, Trapeze, Box and Cabas bags became the defining accessories of the period. She won the British Fashion Council's Designer of the Year in 2010 and the CFDA International Award in 2011, and left after her autumn 2018 collection.

Hedi Slimane took over in 2018 with the title of artistic, creative and image director. He removed the accent from the name, launched menswear, a haute parfumerie fragrance line and a revived Triomphe canvas and bag, and redirected the house towards a slim, rock-and-roll Parisian youth. Revenue grew strongly during his tenure. Slimane left in October 2024.

The American designer Michael Rider, who had worked under Philo as design director before leading Polo Ralph Lauren's design, was named creative director in October 2024 and showed his first collection, for spring 2026, in Paris in July 2025. Reviewers saw in it a return to the house's bourgeois roots, with sweaters, scarves and bags that drew on both the Vipianas' archive and the Philo years. Eighty years after the shoe shop opened, Celine remains a house whose influence is felt most in the wardrobes of women who never think of it as a logo.