Celine SS26 — A Quiet Return Home

Coming back is never just about returning. It’s more like picking up a conversation that was left unfinished, knowing full well that the tone, the rhythm, and even the people have changed.

Michael Rider returns to Celine with this awareness, not just to a brand, but to a different Paris, and to a fashion industry that has been reshaped and redefined countless times since 2010.

His debut for the Spring/Summer 2026 collection takes place in the salons of 16 rue Vivienne, the historic heart of the house. But there’s nothing nostalgic about it. Rider doesn’t try to recreate the past instead, he builds on it. Quietly, thoughtfully. There are echoes: a hint of Philo’s rigor, traces of Slimane’s edge. But what matters is the balance he finds between those memories and his own voice.

The collection unfolds with a calm pace. There’s no need for shock value. Its power lies in how references blend into each other: the scarf knotted casually around the neck, the return of the soft, slouchy Phantom bag, now made practical and real for a different time.

There’s a subtle American preppiness, maybe a nod to Rider’s time at Ralph Lauren — but it’s handled with charm and a bit of irony. Think boxer shoes with tailored cigarette pants, blazers over vintage-looking sweatshirts, sun-faded denim, boxy trenches, sharp suits, nipped-in jackets.

It’s not trying to be revolutionary. And maybe that’s the point. It’s a thoughtful reset, a way to redefine elegance for today, without discarding what came before. In the show notes, Rider talks about “turning abstract values like quality, timelessness, and style into clothes that actually live.” And that feels like the key. These aren’t pieces made to capture the moment. They’re meant to absorb time, to shift with it. Not out of a sense of sustainable duty, but out of a more intimate desire: to wear things that last, that feel real, that quietly become part of who you are.

WR,

Rozhin Shafaghati