WE DIDN'T SEE IT COMING: HOW MICHAEL RIDER IS (ALMOST) MAKING US WANT TO WEAR COLOR

There are exceptions but open our wardrobes and you’ll mostly find the usual suspects: black, white, gray, navy, denim, brown. Perhaps a flash of red or green when we’re feeling particularly adventurous. Which makes our increasing fascination with Michael Rider’s Celine somewhat difficult to explain. Because Rider likes color. It was one of the first elements that stood out when he presented his debut collection for Celine last summer, and it has remained one of the clearest threads running through his work for the house since. At the time, we wrote about that first show with plenty of enthusiasm. A few collections later, however, something has changed. We’re no longer just looking at it with interest. We kind of want to wear it.

HERMAN black car coat (on sale, also in beige), FLORE FLORE Julie organic cotton-piqué polo shirt, CELINE white lace-up shoes (Loewe makes these, or try these at ARKET, in canvas at COS) and CELINE large drop bucket bag (in brown in size small here)

It was Rider's first menswear collection that tipped us over the edge. So far, his womenswear has often had a certain dressed quality to it: layered, polished, accessorized. The menswear kept much of that richness but loosened everything up. There were huge drawstring trousers and tiny T-shirts, skinny pants and oversized coats, Oxford shirts, washed denim, scarves, bright knits and blazers. Things looked proper and slightly scruffy at the same time. It felt less like getting dressed for a specific occasion and more like simply getting dressed for the everyday. Rider explained part of his approach perfectly in an interview with Vogue. He talked about how the team tries on everything they make: "We try it all on, we have to want it. We're the customer." It sounds obvious, but it goes a long way toward explaining why his Celine is becoming more and more convincing.

CELINE Spring 2027 Menswear

Which brings us back to color. It's not the colors themselves winning us over, it's what Rider puts around them. That's a direct echo of Phoebe Philo's Céline, where color was just as bold, but earned through the combination of color and design. With Rider, the work happens in the styling: while pieces themselves are more wearable, it's the unexpected pairing that makes the color land. A bright knit is never presented as a bright knit. It shows up underneath an oversized coat, next to faded denim, with an almost battered sneaker. Some red gloves are mixed with a brown wool coat and trousers, and a bright green cotton tee. In another look a green long-sleeve tee is worn with a simple black shirt on top of it combined with gold-looking leather trousers (you can't miss the beaded belt, of course). In that same interview, Rider himself said that the things he used to search for in thrift stores were 'jeans, military parkas, a zillion blue Oxford shirts.' In other words: he isn't a maximalist trying to convince minimalists to abandon everything they know. His starting point isn't so far removed from ours. He just knows how to disturb the familiar enough to make us want it again.

@CurrentCeline

It becomes clear that one of the most immediately recognizable aspects about Rider's Celine has been its styling, as he mostly builds his designs on the concepts Philo and Slimane created. Brian Molloy (you might also know him for styling The Row and Tory Burch shows), who has worked on the womenswear shows, has helped create a world in which more really does seem to be more: scarves, belts, unexpected color combinations and, crucially, an almost ridiculous amount of jewelry.

In this Spring 2027 menswear show, it was the shoes that stood out the most. The barely-there styles where toes unexpectedly peek out. The softest-looking loafers imaginable. And, perhaps our favorite, the collaboration with Reebok: distressed versions of the wonderfully retro Freestyle sneaker that look as though you've owned them since approximately 1987 rather than picked them up at Celine. Bright red flats with strings of leather pull otherwise proper looks in unexpected directions. Different bags, from enormous weekenders to a new, bigger iteration of the trio bag, completely change the character of the clothes. There isn't one prescribed Celine woman or man, but a wardrobe that can be rearranged according to whoever happens to be wearing it.

LADEGA Signature flaired trenchcoat, VALENTINO Plissé satin belt (try this blue or green vintage Gucci tuxedo belt, we love this purple vintage YSL) , RÓHE Bruun optic white denim, and CELINE Runner shield-style injection sunglasses

What we actually want to wear: the gold, green and black combination is definitely one we're taking back to our own closets, long fringe belt and necklace situation included, both of which have had our attention ever since. The same goes for yellow with gray: an unexpectedly perfect pairing. But perhaps what we love most are the smaller, slightly weirder pops of color: a red shoe that puts almost every toe on display, a bright baby blue tuxedo belt, or those army-green leather ankle boots. The latter are subtle enough to read almost as a neutral, yet add just enough color and character to an otherwise tonal look.

CELINE Spring 2027 Menswear

For those of you just like us living under a rock, while working on this newsletter we discovered the Instagram account @CurrentCeline, where the Rider era is being discussed in microscopic detail. For years, the internet's collective Celine obsession was dominated by accounts devoted to Phoebe Philo's Old Céline. Current Celine feels like a rather satisfying antidote: evidence that perhaps we can stop looking backward for a second and obsess over what is happening at the house right now. And there is plenty to obsess over.