While most Americans will spend their holiday week kicking back ripped shorts and baggy T-shirts, Celine Dion is working overtime to turn the streets of Paris into a one-woman fashion show.
Yes, let this be your biannual reminder: It is Couture Week, which means that we all get to stop and watch as the Canadian songstress busts out her carousel of ensembles as she hops from show to show.
Fresh off of her Vegas residency, which ended earlier this month, Dion is taking a sartorial victory lap in Paris. But she’s no stranger to the warm embrace of the often-icy fashion world; in May, she attended the Met Gala in a fringed Oscar de la Renta bodysuit which weighed 22 pounds. If that was not enough to lug around the Metropolitan Museum all night, she punctuated the look with a peacock-inspired crown.
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In recent years, the stylist (or, as he prefers to be called, “image architect”) Law Roach has been the man credited for Dion’s midlife fashion domination. That may not be entirely fair, as Dion’s been serving looks ever since her 1993 “The Power of Love” music video, where she brooded in a white angora sweater and slip dress.
This go-round, Dion tapped the stylist Sydney Lopez and her good friend Pepe Muñoz to outfit her Parisian romp. The two have fulfilled the coveted role with aplomb.
The show has even gone on despite Lopez having to take time off “due to minor surgery,” as she posted on Instagram this weekend. “I have been styling from afar,” Lopez wrote in a caption, adding that she has FaceTimed with Muñoz and other members of Dion’s glam squad to stay in the loop for fittings and quick changes. (Lopez could not be reached for comment.)
Dion began her week in Chanel, as one does. But this was no pink tweed skirt suit—the 51 year-old emerged in a skin-tight black catsuit with chain link straps and a logo belt that spelled out the French house’s name. Paired with strappy stilettos, it may not have been the most sensible sightseeing garment, but then again, Dion is the sight.
WWD reported that at the famed Auteuil Hippodrome racetrack for Miu Miu’s cruise collection, other front-rowers like Nicole Richie and Gabrielle Union fawned over Dion’s mere presence.
For that midday occasion, she wore her evening best—a strapless, ruffled pink gown adorned with a black bow. It lived somewhere between Marilyn Monroe singing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and Julia Roberts’ opera moment in Pretty Woman. That is to say: perfect.
On Saturday, Dion stepped out in what may be her kookiest look of all—but then again, fantasy becomes reality when you are Queen Celine. As Footwear News noted, she wore the exact spray painted bodysuit and blazer that Gigi Hadid wore for Off White’s spring 2020 runway show. That means Dion calls up Virgil Abloh, ordering his designs with the ease most of us spare for calling in takeout.
As with the Queen of Pop’s best looks, the bodysuit and jacket pairing might be better placed onstage than on the 16th arrondissement. But again—who cares? More please.
Ask and you shall receive: on Sunday, Dion power posed outside of her hotel in a truly inspired mini dress. With its navy blue and white blazer bodice that gave way to a fluttered canary yellow skirt, it was the best possible interpretation of “business on top, party on bottom.” There was an after party, too—her mismatched, color-blocked Jimmy Choo pumps.
For Iris van Herpen’s show on Monday, Dion put on one of the Dutch designer’s trippy three-dimensional gowns. The firey, red and black netted dress was basically a wearable optical illusion, made with undulating pieces of wiry fabric.
Hours later, Dion pulled a quick change for the Schiaparelli presentation, oozing femme fatale glamour with a dash of sci-fi weirdness for good measure. What would be an ordinary black halter dress became costume camp, with the addition of a sky-high fascinator, leather gloves, chandelier earrings, and exposed-toe heels.
In one photo taken outside of the event, Dion poses stoically for the cameras. Behind her, a group of paparazzi and fans predictably crane to get a good look of her; one young man’s mouth hangs open in manic amazement. His expression speaks for all of us.
