Celine, now in colour

Zoe Ghertner shot the new Celine campaign in flat afternoon light, with nowhere for the clothes to hide. The bag comes first now, and the black-and-white years are over.

Michael Rider has taken Celine out of the shadows and into daylight. His Summer 2026 campaign runs in full colour, the models standing in open sun rather than the low-lit interiors his predecessor favoured. The New Luggage bag sits near the centre of almost every frame. That placement is the argument.

Colour

For seven years Hedi Slimane dressed Celine in black and white and shot it in shadow. Rider has reversed the lighting. The pictures read warm and a little sunburnt, closer to a Left Bank afternoon than a Sunset Strip night. Sunglasses, flat loafers, a coin belt catching the sun.

Ghertner has worked with Rider before, and she photographs clothes the way a friend photographs a friend. Nothing is posed to intimidate. A white column dress passes a row of applauding guests. A small black tweed dress swings out from a boat neck. The colour carries the message, and the message is that Celine has changed hands.

The bags

Rider trained under Phoebe Philo at Celine and spent years at Polo Ralph Lauren before coming home. He understands that a French house sells its silhouette through its accessories. The New Luggage leads the season, including a soft, slouched version that curls at the corners into what became known on the runway as a smile.

The rest of the accessories carry the same weight. Medallion belts stacked with coins and locks. Silk scarves knotted at the throat or trailing from a gloved hand. Boots printed with the house name down the shaft. The clothes stay quiet on purpose, so the objects can speak.

Slimane

The handover has not been gentle. Slimane, who left the house last year, has objected in public to what he sees as Celine borrowing from the world he built. His grievance sharpens the contrast Rider is drawing. One man made Celine a nocturne. The other has opened the curtains.

Rider's reply is to keep working in daylight. His debut leaned preppy and precise, Left Bank by way of the Ivy League. This season loosens that, adds a masculine cut to a woman's coat and a little swagger to the tailoring. The codes hold. The mood does not.

Celine Summer 2026 under Michael Rider, accessories to the fore. Courtesy of Celine

The news of the season sits in the lighting. A house has decided, in full colour, who it wants to be after Slimane, and Rider has made the decision look easy.