This weekend, designer Michael Rider debuted his spring 2027 menswear show for Celine in Paris—and what a show it was. Equally as buzzy as his lineup of modern-cool pieces was the front row that took it all in. It was filled with icons such as Grace Jones, BTS’s Kim Taehyung, Oscar Isaac, and legendary theater critic and New Yorker writer Hilton Als, among others. Below, Als gives Vogue his exclusive recap on the collection.
“Like everyone else, I have been interested in Celine for a long time. I was a friend of Joan Didion’s; of course, Juergen Teller shot his now famous campaign on the great American writer, and when Michael Rider and his team invited me, I have to admit that, in addition to the beauty of his work, I had visions of being the new Joan Didion dancing in my head. (But alas and wonderfully, there is only one Joan, on and off the page. You can’t approximate that look.)
A long time ago, Tina Brown, then editor of the New Yorker, had me write a piece on the young British designers, and the first couture show I went to was Alexander McQueen’s [Givenchy show]. I remember the entire auditorium felt edged in gilt; I remember golden angel wings, and the feeling of white tunics. I don’t know the date of this, but as a piece of total theater, it was so graceful and otherworldly, I never forgot it.
Photo: Julien Mignot
I was very moved by how adept the Celine team was in taking care of us. The tents were beautifully airy, and the clothes mirrored that ease and gracefulness. I am a person who is devoted to cardigans no matter the season, and Michael’s use of fabric I found particularly inspired. In fact, I loved the wonderful sort of Arabian Knights pants and capes. I felt that those pieces were objects of transport—they took us to another dimension.
[I see a lot of parallels between fashion and theater.] Both belong to what the French call le spectacle—the spectacle. Fashion opens our eyes to the now—to bodies moving through space, inventively dressed. Actors on stage dress for the character, of course, but like fashion, they are showing us what we humans look like and how we affect one another. Designers like Michael want to affect us, too. That’s a marvelous ethos. Fashion never fails to open my eyes to color and form.”
