Phoebe Philo

Phoebe Philo at Céline, 2008–2018 LVMH hired Philo in 2008, and her debut Céline collection followed the next year. She turned a quiet label into the reference point for women who wanted serious, minimal clothes without logos, and the Trapeze and Luggage totes became phenomenally successful bags. She left after the Pre-Fall 2018 collection, and the devotion she built outlasted her tenure: her fans spent years asking for her return, and her own label finally launched in October 2023. Few reinventions have left such a strong afterlife, even though the house itself was taken in a very different direction by her successor.