Could an American in Paris Breathe New Life into LVMH's Celine?

There was no master plan," said Celine's new creative director, Michael Rider, backstage at his Paris debut for the LVMH luxury brand. "It was very intuitive."

- Rory Satran

That instinctive approach resulted in a men's and women's spring 2026 collection that felt like an art-school student rummaging around in the Celine archive and putting it together for a night out.

Rider, 44, previously worked for Phoebe Philo at Celine from 2008 to 2017, and so her era was well-represented with military-inspired jackets and coats, preppy sweaters and Philo-classic handbags, remixed. There were also sequined black dresses and shrunken tuxedo jackets from the playbook of Rider's predecessor, the Lord of Indie Sleaze Hedi Slimane, and beige tailoring recalling 1990s Michael Kors.

"I definitely did not want there to be a sense of erasure," said Rider of the brand's past. "There was a foundation to build on."

Rider is part of a new generation taking the reins at the top of luxury houses after a period of topsy-turvy musical chairs in fashion. Born in Washington, D.C., and a Brown University alum, he came to Celine from Polo Ralph Lauren. Rider joins other recent appointees Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe, Louise Trotter at Carven, Julian Klausner at Dries Van Noten and Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford.