Despite being a brand with over 80 years of archives to rummage through, it can be easy to forget that Celine’s menswear arm began just seven years ago under the tenure of Hedi Slimane. Now continued by Michael Rider, the designer’s first co-ed collection for the house was debuted at the end of Paris Fashion Week Men’s in July last year. This season saw Rider return with his first solo menswear offering, forgoing the traditional runway format in favour of a presentation inside the maison’s headquarters, an apt location for a collection which dissected the framework of the brand’s house codes.

Looks hung from pegs on walls, styled for the runway, while stacks of jeans and jumpers in varying shades were piled high to the ceiling, and this season’s footwear offering was chromatically snaked across the floor. A letter penned by Rider accompanied the collection, “We took the frame of menswear, and what Celine stands for, and then talked a lot about the energy of today, the here and now, the way people live and want to look. The way we want to feel in clothes. Character over costume… It’s about clothes that feel necessary, and personal, in beautiful fabrics that last. An attitude, classics with bite, when discretion and restraint make the right kind of noise.” The sentiment of necessity was paramount; every garment felt essential to one’s wardrobe, and every piece felt immeasurably wearable in turn.

As per most Fall-Winter collections, outerwear took centre stage, with Rider delivering an array of peak-lapel blazers fastened with gold buttons, belted leather trench coats, minimalist bombers and denim jackets adorned with guitar pick-shaped hardware. Perfectly tailored dress shirts of varying hues were paired with square-bottomed silk neckties, while the ring harnesses of the Hedi era were scaled up and threaded through the belt loops of velvet trousers. Jeans were appliqued with labels from the brand’s archive, paired with Cuban heeled boots on foot and a triomphe bag in hand. In stripping things back, Rider further cemented his vision for the house as one of longevity, remaining steadfast to Celine’s luxurious wearability.