Hedi Slimane brought the menswear summer of neo-rave to a flying FMX stunt-biker conclusion with an action-and-item packed Celine show recorded by drones somewhere on the Archipel des Embiez in the south of France. On a black runway set up with freestyle motocross ramps and jumps, teams of shirtless Honda-riding boys leapt and arced against the Mediterranean sky. The location is apparently not far from where Slimane lives outside St.Tropez, and this was Slimane on home territory in more ways than one: capturing his endless obsession with male teen energy, studding the collection with multiple art collabs, and wrapping it all up to the beat of a mesmeric looped soundtrack.
The FMX bikers belong to a community that invented its renegade free-riding sport in the hills of California in the early ’90s—Slimane has been documenting them since 2011, when he came across them while he was living in L.A. This time, he commissioned and co-produced the music with Izzy Camina, intersecting the long, slouching march of a black-leather and silver-sparkled collection with souvenir slogan T-shirts and prints made by 14 of the emerging artists he collects and promotes. Posted underneath the film came three lines captioning the collection’s title: Cosmic Cruiser / Riding a new age / Restless dreams of a cosmic team.
Since the pandemic hit, Slimane has shifted his Celine productions into the open air and into spectacular French locations. Wherever he lands, though, be it a Formula One racetrack, a chateau in the Loire valley, or this time, on a rocky Med coastline, there’s always the same, recognizable atmosphere, the romantic-erotic stamp Slimane puts on a world inhabited by young men, always spiked with his laser-eyed channeling of a relevant moment picked up from youth culture. His meeting of motocross daredevilry and neo-rave frippery nailed the current summer of ’21 teen spirit—a full-ranging breakdown of XXXL elephant jeans, mirrored bug sunglasses, scaled-up bombers, tour jackets, and draped tuxes. Black capes flew over sexy black leathers; sequins, crystals, and silver western boots glinted.
A boy lost on his own Cosmic Cruiser trip officiated as the sun went down in a sunset-embroidered poncho: a hedonistic, freedom-celebrating finale for a back-to-clubs, back-to-raving Gen Z audience that’s at long, long last out on the loose.
