The fashion house Céline appeared in 1945. The creator of the brand is Mrs Céline Vipiana. Her dynamism and energy provided a good impulse for development of the company. The first boutique appeared in Paris and it was a luxury shoe boutique for kids. Superb quality of made-to-measure shoes with soles that met orthopedic demands brought fame to the brand. Its logo then was the Red Elephant.
2 decades later it expanded with accessories, footwear and collection of sportswear that was named “fashion for everyone”. The brand featured unique sportswear approach and thanks to it the brand entered the history of fashion. Its flagship model in the 1960-s is flat-heeled moccasins.
Its international policy was rather flexible and effective. It became the first luxury brand that entered Japan. Then it actively expanded to other countries and this continued for decades. Its shops can be found in such cosmopolitan cities as Hong Kong, Monte Carlo, Rome, Geneva and others. In 1987 the brand had 87 boutiques around the world. The collections of this fashion house had sportswear oriented chic. Céline always produced leather accessories paying much attention to meticulous details.
In 1997 Michael Kors was appointed a designer for the CELINE women’s collection. He became the artistic director 2 years later. In 2002 Michael Kors created the famous model of the Boogie Bag. It features simple, yet carefully sculptured lines that demonstrate the main accent of the fashion house on simple elegance. It is not that easy to combine simplicity and Parisian luxury, but Michael Kors coped with this task. Michael Kors headed the fashion house until 2004 and then left it. Some thrill also disappeared then and the house struggled for a year. Ex-Burberry Italian designer Roberto Menichetti performed the duties of a leading designer during this time.
Another expression of Céline spirit is observed in 2005, when Croatian designer Ivana Omazic was invited to be an Artistic Director of the fashion house. Her first collection was released a year later and it was a big success. She tried her best to make the brand recognizable and succeeded in it. The collections acquired modern feminine elegance that was difficult to achieve in sportswear oriented items. She greatly contributed to the success of the luxury brand and now the Céline crest logo signifies the quality of the Céline brand.
Another period for the brand begins in 2008 when Phoebe Philo was appointed for the position of the artistic designer. She previously worked for Chloe, where she was Stella McCartney’s design assistant and then a design director. In 2009 she presented her first collection for the brand. Working in Celine, she received Designer of the Year award from British Fashion Council. It was in 2010, and a year later she became the International Designer of the Year. This time the award was given by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Céline always strived for international recognition, but it was not merely a distribution policy. It was more than that. It arranged exhibitions and created the cultural bridge between different countries.
The brand is loved by Lucy Liu, Angelina Jolie, Renee Russo, Jennifer Aniston.
