Hedi Slimane is an evocative designer, one that draws upon life experiences to dictate the tastes, feel, and scents of his current work at CELINE. The latter now permeates across CELINE’s identity, as the house has created a new Haut Parfumerie piece titled “Bois Dormant,” an olfactory experience that draws upon Slimane’s teenage years spent in London.

Wandering the back streets, the designer hunted for a second-hand Saville Row suit. It was something that inspired him to become a couturier and tailleur, and it sticks with him today as every piece of CELINE tailoring features a specific English Flannel collar underlining detail that’s a signature of Saville Row suiting. Finding such a jacket alludes to finding oneself, and that sense of exploring identity and feeling good in your own clothes, and this is exactly what “Bois Dormant” is designed to do.

English Flannel is evoked through the scent itself, as if you are walking into a tailor or perhaps surrounded by leather and sewing machines. Wood paneling on the walls in Saville Row inject themselves into the heady mix, while a waft of old cologne underpins the strength of this scent as a sillage of scent remains on your skin all day long.

Hedi Slimane wants to provoke something with “Bois Dormant.” Whether it’s hearing an old vinyl, sitting in sumptuous velvet or finding that perfect suit, this fragrance is meant to bring you back to a time of innocent youth looking for inner adulthood. This is echoed by the fragrance’s signature bottle, a glass masterpiece that balances contemporary codes with the traditions of dressing as its formal cut lines look perfect sitting atop a mantlepiece.

Designed as a day scent, “Bois Dormant” can be seen above and bought online or in CELINE’s boutiques worldwide now.

For more tailoring references, take a look at LUAR SS23.