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Hedi Slimane, Celine’s star designer, is getting ready to part ways with the storied French brand, several sources close to the label and its parent LVMH say. It’s the talk of le tout Paris in fashion. The timing of his exit is unknown. It could be tomorrow, or it could take a year or more, depending on how quickly LVMH finds a replacement or whether the Arnaults get angry enough to kick him out from one day to the next, the sources say.

The Arnault family, who control and run LVMH, cannot put up with Slimane’s whims anymore. There is only so much they can stand, several senior industry sources have said. That includes not just LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault but also his daughter, Delphine, who runs Dior and has a say on designer nominations and changes.

If Slimane leaves Celine, there is one obvious place he could go: Chanel. Fashion experts have predicted it for years, partly because he has a lot in common with Karl Lagerfeld, the designer who made Chanel and with whom he was quite close. Slimane’s last Celine fashion show, which was themed around Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, was very Chanel-like, with a 1960s twist.

Chanel designer Virginie Viard has given Chanel a girl-power, rock-chic vibe that Slimane could easily continue. Also, the Wertheimers, Chanel’s owners, are used to dealing with designers’ antics. The late Karl Lagerfeld demanded the impossible and always obtained it.

But as opposed to Slimane, Lagerfeld was a team player who got the best out of his colleagues, something for which they remain grateful to this day. Slimane, in contrast, is a solitary figure who rarely ventures out of his first circle of colleagues and friends. He’s also not into celebrating other people’s work and can be quite mean and aggressive if staff don’t do what he asks. That’s been particularly the case since January as pressure has been mounting on Slimane due to the brand’s sales growth declining.

“A member of his first circle told me that Hedi was leaving but we don’t know when,” a senior manager at Celine told Miss Tweed on condition of anonymity.

Viard, who stepped into Lagerfeld’s big shoes after he passed away in February 2019, embodied continuity. She was his right hand for many years. Viard has powered Chanel’s growth and helped it remain one of the industry’s most desirable brands. Now 61, the designer may want to move on and enjoy life, sources close the brand say. Or she may be asked to leave to allow Slimane to join and give Chanel fresh impetus and momentum. Slimane would centralize and coordinate the brand’s image and communication, which has been going in different directions recently, industry insiders find. Viard sticks to design. Clearly, you sense there are other sensibilities than hers behind the brand’s communication beyond its clothes. When Lagerfeld was in charge, he decided everything. All of the brand’s messages were coherent.

If Slimane joined Chanel, which is far from certain, it would not happen overnight. It may take several years, industry insiders predict. The Wertheimers are known for taking their time before making important decisions such as this one. Also, they would have to be ready to give Slimane the same amount of power and control he currently has at Celine, which is not a given either.

Industry veterans will tell you that an easy-to-manage designer is an oxymoron. It does not exist. Slimane is known for being one of the most difficult designers to work with, together with John Galliano at Margiela – but not for the same reasons. Galliano is very tough on his staff and changes his mind often, making them work long hours. Slimane’s story is slightly different. He is unapproachable. He interacts only with a small number of people. “There are only a few people who have access to the king,” one senior manager at the brand said. “With me for example, he communicates only via e-mail. I personally have only met him only once and he rescheduled our meeting many times before it happened.”

Celine’s ascent may have plateaued, but it has been one of LVMH’s biggest success stories. In 2018, when Bernard Arnault hired Hedi Slimane to take over from Phoebe Philo, he predicted the brand would more than double its annual sales. Back then, revenue stood at just under 1 billion euros. Arnault won his bet. Last year, Celine’s annual revenue surpassed the 2 billion euro mark.

Arnault’s ambition now is to make Celine reach 3 billion to 4 billion euros in annual sales. To get there, he may have to part ways with Slimane, people close to the brand say. If Slimane leaves, a source at Celine said, “life would be easier for us because we know what the brand is about and we could really improve its communication, which has been terrible.” Celine CEO Severine Merle has done a great job putting up with Slimane’s exacting demands. Staff are more loyal to her than to Slimane, Celine employees say, even though they admire the designer and think he is a genius.

Under Slimane, Celine launched its first perfume collection in 2019 and this fall it will unveil its first make-up line, starting with lipsticks – as brands usually do.

Prior to Celine, Slimane worked wonders at Kering’s Saint Laurent and stamped the brand with his dark seditious aesthetic, which remained after Anthony Vaccarello took over in 2016. Before Saint Laurent, Slimane made a name for himself as Dior’s menswear designer. Lagerfeld enjoyed saying he forced himself to remain slim to fit into Slimane’s Dior suits. Slimane has a cult following and knows it – perhaps too well. That’s why he thinks he can get away with anything – really anything.

During the pandemic lockdowns, Slimane moved the entire Celine studio to Ramatuelle, the village on the hill near Saint-Tropez. That move not only cost a lot of money but disrupted the lives of his team, who had no choice but to follow him. Then, Slimane got angry at Conde Nast’s new global content strategy launched three years ago. In reaction, he forbid Celine to feature in any of the company’s glossy magazines, whether in the form of advertising or features. These include all the various editions of Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair. “Celine is not even allowed to give them a photo of a piece of clothing or bag,” a senior industry source said. “It takes balls to do what he did, but the problem is that it has significantly reduced the brand’s visibility and that’s just suicidal.” Celine’s shows also do not feature on Vogue Runway, the main platform for watching shows. “If you are not on Vogue Runway, you don’t exist,” the source said.

Enough is enough. The Arnaults are fed up with Slimane’s whims and costly decisions. The designer decides everything, shoots every film and photo, and charges big amounts for everything he does. Slimane is estimated to be paid several tens of millions of euros a year by the brand. He managed to negotiate royalties on the line of perfume he launched in 2019 and on every piece of furniture he designed featuring in the brand’s boutiques, industry sources say. Slimane also decides the layout and design of every one of the brand’s boutiques.

“For any photo he takes, he charges 50,000 euros,” one person who works with him said. Staff at the brand feel that its communication needs to evolve. Its black and white stern photos have become repetitive. Also, Celine models are always very young and ultra thin – which goes against the current inclusive trend of featuring older and plumper models.

“It’s always the same thing. We know that the brand’s communication needs to change but Hedi does not listen to anybody,” one person who works closely with him said. “He does not surprise clients anymore. In fashion, you constantly need to create excitement, that’s how it works. But he always wants things to be his way, with his codes that never change.”

The designer gives himself credit for every product he designs and every photo featuring on the brand’s website or social media account. During the last Paris Fashion Week, Slimane did not want to do a show. Instead, he produced a film called “L’Arc Triomphe” that he shot himself. At the end, the film says CELINE and then HEDI SLIMANE. That is usually a big no-no in the industry. Brands are supposed to be bigger than the designer. But Slimane thinks Celine is him and the world should know about it.

Relations have become particularly tense between the Arnault family and Slimane in the past six months. “War has been declared between Slimane and the Arnaults,” one person close to the brand said. Internally, there’s been recurring chatter about the designer’s departure. However, it may be some time before an announcement is made. Slimane designs collections the way he wants. In his last Arc de Triomphe collection, there are very few outfits ordinary people could wear since it featured mainly ultra-short skirts and tight-fitting looks. Not everyone has the figure to wear such clothes. But Slimane does not care. That’s one of the many reasons why the Arnaults think it’s time to show him the door.