Celine Homme debuted its Winter 2024 collection video this week, led by Creative Director Hedi Slimane. The film opens in the sprawling California Sierra Nevada mountains and desert as helicopters lower a stereophonic jukebox player onto an empty tarmac road. As soon as the jukebox starts playing 19th-century composer Hector Berlioz’s 1830 piece “Symphonie Fantastique,” a whirlwind of images spring forward like 1960s Cadillacs, a western cowboy, and looming cliffsides.
Described as “the first psychedelic symphony in history” by American composer Leonard Bernstein in 1969 and first encountered by Slimane at the age of 11, Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” stemmed from the composer’s obsession with Anglo-Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson. The piece, with its extreme romantic energy and crescendos, serves as a conduit for Berlioz’s passionate nature and emotional turmoil.
Entering the World of Psychedelic Symphony with “Symphonie Fantastique”
Bernstein’s descriptions of Berlioz’s lovesick composition further emphasize the Celine Homme’s Winter 2024 collection feel: “Now I’m sure that any of you who has ever had a crush on someone who didn’t return your feelings will understand that passionate melody perfectly; and you can easily see how a lovesick musician could become obsessed by it. And if you understand that, you’re ready to hear the symphony.”
While “Symphonie Fantastique” originally transgressed public understanding of appropriate composition, today, the piece serves as a vital root for psychedelic, energetic, and passionate symphonies that later blossomed in the 1960s with groups like the Beatles who stood at the forefront of the psychedelic era.
Celine Homme Winter 2024 is an Ode to 1960s Style
With its old Hollywood feel, the video further depicts the romantic nature of Berlioz’s nineteenth century piece with Slimane’s newest collection for Celine Homme. The collection is focused on matte black, satin, and lacquered materials, particularly with silk, cashmere, and vicuna, all of which are prominent in the video’s presentation and contrast with the sandy starkness of the western desert roads.
The collection features an array of 1960s-inspired English “I-line” silhouettes, slim figures, frocks, three-buttoned coats, embroidered waistcoats, and pointed boots. Each ensemble is accompanied with sunglasses, which both shield from the blaring Californian sun, but further contribute to an air of mystery, melodrama, and passion that is similarly tangible in the video’s accompanying music.
Interwoven with imagery of a local cowboy peering down at the camera and traversing the desert in his own attire, the video further summons imagery of the vast California landscape, filled with adventure, passion, and mystery.
Additional shots for the collection were filmed at West Hollywood’s Troubadour Club, an iconic venue that opened in 1957 and has hosted some of the world’s leading musical icons, including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Carole King, James Taylor, Tom Waits, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes and Elton John. This location further propels the Celine menswear collection’s Parisian ties with Hollywood’s deep history of rock and roll and glamor.
The video ends with a final crescendo: the Celine jukebox ablaze, as Berlioz’s psychedelic symphony fades away in the background. This sight further exemplifies the passion and drama of this season’s Celine menswear collection.
