Celine muse Kaia Gerber made her only runway appearance of the spring/summer 2021 season at Hedi Slimane’s Monaco track-and-field show spectacular. Gerber made one of the first exits inside the grand Stade Louis II wearing a youth-imbued street-style ensemble that looked like an elevated version of the clothes she nips from pilates to home in LA. The 30 models who followed the youngest member of the Crawford dynasty around the racetrack were almost Kaia clones, wearing all manner of Celine-ified high-top trainers, crop tops, boyish blazers and denim-shorts. It was a savvy move from Slimane, a designer who is a youth culture obsessive, to book Kaia, a 19-year-old at the heart of fashion’s new generation, as an exclusive.
Four months down the line, the spring/summer 2021 campaign images, which Slimane shot in Monaco, keep the buzz around the Kaia-infused collection alight. A serious-looking Gerber is pictured wearing her Gen-Z uniform by a palm tree-lined pool and lounging in a hotel suite. With her logo cap pulled down over her sunglasses, the impression is very much off-duty It-girl goes incognito to evade the paparazzi on the glamorous French Riviera.
Gerber naturally plays the part well. The only difference between this polished version of her downtime looks and the real deal is the handbag shrugged over one arm. While Kaia is rarely seen without her Celine Ava bag, the focus of this campaign is squarely on the Patapan bags and the medium chain Sulky above. These casual-yet-polished accessories are emblematic of the way Kaia’s crew dresses: low-key and effortlessly chic.
As Vogue fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen neatly summed up in his spring/summer 2021 review, “Slimane speaks to the sensibilities of the post-lockdown youth, who are more tuned into comfort and nonchalant coolness than ever before.” Get ready for a summer of baseball caps and Kaia-worthy shades.
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