CELINE SS26: BETWEEN ABSENCE AND ASSERTION
Michael Rider’s debut for CELINE set a distinct tone. After months of anticipation and a quiet runway hiatus, Spring/Summer 2026 emerged not with spectacle, but with clarity. A negotiation between heritage and progression.
Rather than overwrite CELINE’s existing vocabulary, Rider offered a subtle remix. The silhouettes were recognisable: narrow blazers, slick sunglasses, softened tailoring. But they felt less like Hedi Slimane’s declarations and more like conversations — quieter, more measured.
The show unfolded in calibrated layers. Tailoring, while precise, met fluid trenches and diaphanous shirting. Sheer button-ups sat beneath cropped leather vests, and pleated trousers were matched with delicate knits. Everything suggested thoughtfulness — less about rupture, more about alignment.
Rider stayed loyal to CELINE’s chromatic world: deep black, dusted grey, sharp white, and punctuations of cherry red and ice blue. Accessories weren’t an afterthought. Slim belts, looped keychains, and compact bags were fused into the looks. The merchandising logic behind them was palpable, but never overt.
Spring 2026 was a quiet but confident merging of the brand’s past and present. Rider brought together Phoebe Philo’s softened structure, Hedi Slimane’s precision, and his own experience at Ralph Lauren and Balenciaga under Ghesquière. Familiar items like layered T-shirts, polos, and sweatshirts were styled with care and slight distortion, making everyday garments feel considered without losing their practicality.
Accessories played a central role. Sunglasses, brooches, charm belts, keyrings, and small bags were part of the silhouette, not added on. Rider’s merchandiser instincts were clear in the way each look carried something to hold or fasten or attach.
Equestrian touches tethered the collection to a sense of movement and control. Horse-and-carriage insignias resurfaced on knits and leather goods, while riding boots, long gloves, and jodhpur-adjacent trousers traced lines between tradition and subversion. The skinny trousers stood apart. More stretch than Slimane’s, cut like riding crops, they felt slightly out of sync with recent trends. For years they’ve been seen as anti-fashion, but here they were used to reinforce the equestrian line. The effect was intentional, even if it felt unfamiliar.
And then came lightness. The Phantom bag returned, softened and smiling at the edges. Washed pastels entered the scene. Some proportions loosened their grip. Alongside playful proportions and a lighter colour palette, it signalled a shift in mood. If this is where CELINE is going, it’s not about choosing between identities, but letting them speak at once. In those small gestures, a shift in energy. Not radical, but intentional.
There was no bombast. No sets to distract. No soundtrack to overpower. Just garments, in space, with room to breathe. In a season obsessed with fashion’s volume, CELINE turned it down.
This wasn’t about declaring a new era. It was about understanding the present one. And perhaps that’s Michael Rider’s greatest introduction: a refusal to chase noise, choosing instead to steady the signal.
