Hedi Slimane is a famend artwork lover, continuously collaborating with a few of his favorite modern artists, together with Cody DeFranco and David Kramer, for Celine collections. Now he and the French design home have taken issues one step additional, by unveiling a jewelry collaboration with one in every of France’s most celebrated twentieth century artists, César Baldaccini.
An authentic César Compression pendant, gold, circa 1971-72
Courtesy: Sorry We’re Closed Gallery / Brussels
The artist, extra generally identified merely as César (1921-1998), was a member of the Nouveau réalisme motion. He’s most well-known for his Nineteen Sixties “Compression” sequence, by which towering sculptures have been shaped from automobiles and scrap metallic. Within the ’70s, he miniaturised the idea by taking damaged however treasured bits of previous gold jewelry from buddies and and giving them new life, compressing them into pendants on lengthy chains that could possibly be worn and performed with as memory-filled talismans. Immediately, Carine Roitfeld is never pictured with out her classic César pendant, which matches the enormous sculpture by the artist she has at house.
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For autumn/winter 2020, Celine has collaborated with Fondation César to recreate these pendants in a restricted run of 100 gold vermeil and 100 silver items that ties in completely with the gathering’s bourgeois theme. Stéphanie Busuttil-Janssen, who was César's accomplice for the final decade of his life and is president of the inspiration, says the collaboration was an ideal match up that got here collectively simply two months earlier than the catwalk presentation. “Celine approached us and it simply felt so present,” she says. “There’s a sort of ’70s glamorous bourgeoisie decadence within the vogue, which may be very near the César spirit.”
Celine’s restricted version gold vermeil pendant from the collaboration with Fondation César on the autumn/winter 2020 runway
Picture: Armando Grillo / Gorunway.com
César himself was no stranger to vogue. He counted designers Azzedine Alaïa and Yves Saint Laurent amongst his buddies and collectors, and himself collaborated with Louis Vuitton and Alaïa. For Busuttil-Janssen, the Celine mission is the right technique to honour his reminiscence and preserve his legacy alive. “César liked vogue and with this mission, we are able to replicate what he represented and attain a totally new viewers,” she explains.
No element, she says, was missed within the making of the version, with Slimane and his staff working intently with the inspiration to maintain true to the spirt of the unique. The mould was based mostly on an precise César pendant after which resized by artisanal craftspeople specifically for Celine. The brand new model, which will also be displayed as a sculpture, even is available in a pine field, simply as César's would have finished. “It’s a jewel with energy, with perspective,” says Busuttil–Janssen. And who can say they don’t want a type of?
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