MIchael Rider's Celine Star Is a Magic Wand of ‘Infinite Possibilities' for LVMH

‘Obsessed’ is not a word used on Anne of Carversville. except on rare occasions. I’m willing to bet that we haven’t used the word ‘obsessed’ once in 2026. It’s time for a change.

My state of being increasingly impressed with Celine creative director Michael Rider shows no sign of subsiding. And now, I am over-the-moon obsessed with the Celine ‘Infinite Possibilities’ Campaign.

Much credit goes to Charles Levai and Kevin Tekinel and their highest-standards creative input. It just seems that everything is rockin’ at Celine; that an entire team is on the same wave length. As an observer of people, it makes me feel optimistic in an unoptimistic time in American history.

I wanted to write about Celine’s success in China, but ran into Jing Daily’s concerning reports on falling July 2026 luxury brand revenues. Beijing is cracking down on budgeted government tax receipts and the flow of money in and out of the country by China’s VICs. More later about Celine’s popularity in China.

Michael Rider has achieved much in his short tenure at Celine. Hedi Slimane didn’t leave Celine in any tattered and torn state of disrepair or slo’mo sameness. Hedi left it strong, and like Rider, Slimane moved out in year one of his tenure to grow revenues. Lauren Sherman at Puck says otherwise, but she’s wrong.

In short order, Rider has taken Slimane’s success and refined it through his own unique lens of Celine’s DNA in spectacular fashion. I’ll bet that the revenue trajectory is riding major Michael Rider momentum in these tumultuous, international, luxury fashion waters.

Michael Rider as a New Humanism Globalist

After learning more about Michael Rider’s background today, I can only imagine how much Louis Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari, who is also in charge of LVMH Fashion Group, feels in alignment with Rider.

The designer’s background is different from Pharrell’s for certain, but even I shook my head over how Rider got off a quasi-activist, values-driven career track, to end up as creative director of Celine. A March 22, 2026 profile of the designer in Le Monde helps us understand Rider’s creative roots as a form of global mashup, one that comes to life in my obsession over the campaign video that imports these global culture cues that anchor Celine as a sophisticated, fusion-culture brand that defines French culture on this large platform.

Speaking about his nine years with Phoebe Philo at Celine, Rider told Le Monde:

“Phoebe and I are very different but, in the end, very complementary, like yin and yang. The nine years I spent by her side are precious to me, just like the team that made up her studio. We came from everywhere – there were English, Americans, Italians, North Africans, Asians...

Now this is Anne’s kind of design studio!!

Open-Minded with Community Focus at a Young Age

Michael Rider grew up in Washington, DC, with parents who were lawyers specializing in civil and family law. He studied Portuguese and education sciences at Brown University in Providence, RI and headed to Brazil for several months to write his senior thesis. Rider’s focus was dance and sexuality in Brazil, a joyful reality that many of us know is quite different from most other countries.

The young American taught English to children living in favelas there. After his return to America as a Brown graduate, Michael Rider moved to Oakland, across the San Francisco Bay. Rider worked as a teacher in a middle school for students who had dropped out of the regular school system.

"It was very rewarding, but exhausting. I was barely 22, but I felt like I was 45! I lasted two years."

Now you understand my comparing Michael Rider with Pharrell Williams. I assume they continue to have a shared perspective on the many critical issues of our time.

In My Horse Race, Michael Rider’s Celine Bears Down on Dior

Jonathan Anderson better get his act together at Dior, or Rider should make overtaking Dior a 5-year goal, with a BIG bonus attached if he succeeds. And Rider can fund a school for special kids of all backgrounds. Or he can use Pharrell’s existing YELLOWHAB Virginia school template for his school, in another city.

What a hoot!! Two successful LVMH creative directors funding cutting-edge schools. Women VICs loved this kind of private philanthropy around educating all talented kids, no matter what life story they bring to the classroom.

Right Here, Right Now — Only Pietro Beccari Can Fix This Precarious Situation. Perhaps with Yet Another Lieutenant. I Know Where Anne Would Turn for Help.

I have to believe that Dior is handing over some marketing dollars to Beccari, as we speak, so that the maestro of brand-building Beccari can pump Celine for certain and other brands as well. I’m hearing promising claims about Fendi, but I’m not impartial with Chiuri, so you should wait for the rumor to bear fruit.

Chiuri and Fendi are definitely in better shape in China than Dior is. Several of those issues — like how Dior handled the January, 2025 data security breach — have nothing to do with Anderson. That’s Delphine Arnault’s responsibility and I’m speechless that VICs got the same universal form letter/email that was sent to all Dior customers in China. WOW! I would have been on an airplane to China to deal with the VICs personally.

The book tote debacle is all on Anderson, however.

I bring up the topic because of my sassy, saucy horse race story about the ‘situation’ causing a whole lotta stress at Dior. And that’s before the luxury leader board became a zero sum competition with Chanel in the lead, except for our knowing Louis Vuitton’s detailed performance.

What we know with a high-degree of confidence is that Dior is hardest hit by Chanel’s success. Yes, Chanel’s momentum in China also slowed in July due to these tax matters, but Chanel remained positive is the current word on the street. The Arnault family can assure us that everything’s great at Dior, but AOC will risk being wrong and ride with Morgan Stanley. I have not heard one word from private sources to tell me that Dior is just fine.

There’s way too much digital data out there — remember my ‘sky eyes’ research in Dallas and Shanghai, as one small example. Anne is all in for LVMH, but the chairman must understand, that we are not dimwits with no research resources of our own. And he cannot have a repeat performance of January.

Bernard Arnault is one of the most respected men in international business across multiple sectors. He must not squander that hard-earned reputation and trust within the financial community.

The special emphasis on Dior reflects no ill will towards Anderson, in particular. The financial reality is that under whiz kids Beccari/Chiuri, Dior’s contribution to LVMH profits soared.

If Dior falters, Beccari must figure out how to wring lost dollars from Louis Vuitton and other LVMH businesses like Celine, Loro Piana, Fendi, Loewe, even Givenchy. If anyone can pull off such an insurmountable challenge, it’s Pietro Beccari. If this intercontinental genius in the luxury business manages to figure out that masterplan, I assume that his future at LVMH is set and all members of the Arnault family show him the deferential respect Beccari deserves.

I’ve read that presently only the family members command that kind of overt respect in the LVMH business. All I can say is that if Beccari can lead the troops in weathering this storm, what he will have done for the Arnault family might warrant a reconsideration of these strict protocol rules. You know, just a little exception. I never saw the Arnaults as being this rigid, but in that steamy, recent Le Monde six-part series, they painted a much more strict vision of how things work. LOL. More like The Firm in Britain.

Please note that I have two more wild card visions in my back pocket and they will emerge soon enough. ~ Anne