The Irish man at Dior had his and was in attendance here along with Raf and Lucie and Luke and now the American from Martha’s Vineyard at Celine followed suit with his debut. Michael Rider presented his first show, and it was terrific. In fact, it looked like he was preparing for his chief designer career from the moment he started working in the studio of Phoebe Philo at Celine more than a decade ago. He successfully merged Philo’s intellectual spell Celine with Hedi Slimane’s sober and very French version. It was often thought an impossible reconciliation: Slimane’s delivery of casual French classics liked striped Bretagne sweaters and his high-octane fashion 60’s interpretation of black and white A-line silhouettes most recently and Philo’s thought provocation with clothes. Rider brought together these two universes with only one show. Backstage he said, “It’s about quality, timelessness and style with attitude.” And yes, he delivered on that. The level of work and detail that went into this show was mind boggling all the way down to the Celine bicycles with Celine branded bags and locks parked on rue Vivienne. The choice of venue at the headquarter was humble and smart with a let’s get to work attitude and the high spirits couldn’t be dampened by the rain that set in just about showtime. A rendition of classics from camel coats with a preppy red sweater thrown over its shoulders (Hello former design director of Polo Ralph Lauren), to oversized rugby sweaters, military touches all held together by the deft usage of Celine foulards used as piping on tailoring, covering fronts of coats or as protective scarf triangles and as invite for the show which was on bus shelters and kiosks all over Paris. There was a clear idea of floating tailoring, a focus on the shoulder and an inversed A shape throughout. The hardware was in abundance as extra chains and keepsakes applied to bags and one sleeve of a jacket entirely covered in mini logo C’s.

Cut and line?

Rider is big on tailoring with his wide shouldered, single breasted and elongated tailoring down to the thigh with a focus on the waist. He loved to pair this with skinny pants like the denim legging from look one which set the tone of the Phoebe vibes in the collection. 

Fancy Footwear?

Rider showed that he has the range of being a clothing designer and focused on accessories as well. He elongated a luggage bag into a weekender and made the zipper look like a smile, but the standout were his white dancing or versions of black-tie boat shoes that stood out plus all the logoed kick box styles in flashes of red. In general, the color card felt very American preppy which added freshness to a French house.