Celine roll out Hedi Slimane designed stores across the globe

Following the opening of Celine’s latest flagship store in New York back in February, which boasted a new brutalist redesign, the brand’s renowned creative director, Hedi Slimane, has implemented this aesthetic into all of their branches across the globe.

Stores in Paris, Tokyo and LA have already seen their old appearances replaced by this eye-catching design that features a mix of natural stone, reflective units, site-specific art installations and furniture designed by Slimane himself. One of the latter, situated in the store on New York’s Madison Avenue, takes the form of a stainless steel sculpture by British artist James Balmforth.

Wood also features in the space, but sparingly. Used for ceiling high columns and seating, it stands in contrast to the predominantly grey tones of its surroundings, but serves to balance the composition of slick, materials with more organic, natural ones.

This assertive yet refined expression of materiality is reflected through the rest of the design which boasts gleaming marble surfaces juxtaposed against rugged, unpolished stone features. Accentuated by LED lighting that spans the cavernous space and works to highlight the reflective fixtures that adorn the walls and floors of each store.

Though strikingly different to the brand’s former retail space aesthetic, Slimane has stayed true to the prior minimalist values with his reduced palette of whites, blacks, greys, and browns. It’s a scheme that works well with the structural focus of his vision for the redesign, emphasising the raw elements of the materials whilst complementing the stark contrast in texture and colour of the clothing itself. The latter only recently and for the first time in the brand’s history, including menswear.