René Célestin: “A fashion show is a hybrid, multilingual, multidimensional creature.”

New York vitality, London grit, Parisian sophistication: Célestin strikes a perfect balance between frankness and quietude. While Paris Fashion Week is in full swing, in between two meetings, he shares his journey. Notifications may flood his phone, yet he turns the screen away: if he dedicates time to you, it is wholehearted. “Serving others, being at their service, might not be the trend, but it's a notion dear to my heart. And OBO stands for ‘On Behalf Of’ the other,” he says. In his youth, Célestin experimented and explored different paths. First, healing the other: he began his studies in medicine. Then, pampering the other: he took the advice of a trusted friend and switched to hospitality, a field that affirmed his appreciation for order. Finally, discovering the other. “Ever since I was little, I told my parents I wanted to go to America. Everyone laughed because no one really believed it. I spent my evenings reading lyrics on album covers. The Stones, Supertramp, Fleetwood Mac...” His studies ended with a few months abroad, where he experienced New York while attending the prestigious Cornell University. He returned to Paris and then quickly moved back to the city he had always dreamed of as his home. “I started working in Paris for an event organizer. When a branch opened in New York, I took over as general manager for three years. I went to the United States because it was my destiny." 

"I always say I can thank fate for sending me to New York; it re-educated me.”

Célestin arrived in New York with a light step but a heavy heart. “It was very harsh. The loneliness, the lack of resources, and the pace of New York. Parisians complain, but there, you're constantly plugged into the socket.” He settled at the Chelsea Hotel, “at that time, it was not at all a glamorous place. I was next to a Russian guitarist who played hard rock all night long.” Short nights and intense days unfurled as he lead his team and coordinated projects. “What I learned, which I had begun to grasp before, is this commando mindset of starting a new project every two weeks, with a team. It immediately resonated with me. I realised that we could move much faster, much stronger.”

Célestin, an “ultimately” sociable creature, began freelancing “for this and that,” meeting people at random events and projects. This is how he met his business partner and founded the OBO agency in August 2000 to produce fashion shows. “I told him, as I had with others who hadn't taken the bait, that there was an opportunity. And off we went.” Why build endless theoretical plans when sometimes all it takes is to just dive in? “An event production agency at that time was just people, computers, and ideas. You could even start a production company now,” he says with a broad smile, nodding towards the corner of the Parisian bistro table that holds his green tea. It was the very start of the century, in a frenetic energy. Paco Rabanne had failed in predicting the end of the world, Bill Clinton was winding down his presidential term – “not to talk politics, but he did manage to cancel the American debt” – and the beginnings of the Internet were underway. And: the luxury industry was taking off. “It was an absolute contest of who had the biggest advertising campaign. The promotion machine was in full swing.”

“In the strictest confidentiality, I was told that the House of Saint Laurent was going to be purchased by what would become the Gucci Group.”

“When you start a business and you have only one client, your obsession every morning is to find the second, third, and fourth.” Shortly after establishing himself in New York, Célestin set up the Paris offices of OBO. “There are territorial differences. Fashion in New York is neither conceived nor managed as it is in Paris. Didier Grumbach often enjoyed reminding us that beyond creativity, fashion is a matter of business. And I am completely aligned with this vision. If you represent a major retail store, you start the season in New York with an open budget, and you conclude in Paris. It's in Paris where the largest number of orders are placed anywhere in the world.” Didier Grumbach, a central figure in French fashion, was president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode from 1998 to 2014.

Célestin’s intertwined professional and social networks grew quickly, sparking a flurry of contracts. “I found myself in an office where they announced the acquisition of the House of Saint Laurent by what would become the Gucci Group. It was July 2000, it was very hot, and I had come in a T-shirt and shorts because no one had told me where I was going. And I really looked like a penguin among all those people in suits.” Kering, formerly known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) until 2013, was then beginning its strategic pivot towards luxury in the late 1990s. In 2000, PPR acquired an initial 42% stake in Gucci Group, and 100% of the ready-to-wear and cosmetics divisions of the House of Saint Laurent. Haute Couture remained under the control of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. With one foot on each side of the Atlantic, Célestin was sent to Paris as a secret agent to discreetly assess the House, to see if the project could proceed, if the House could be ready for a show in September. “I eventually reported back that they wouldn’t make it and explained that Saint Laurent was a sacred monument to the French press.” He signed Saint Laurent among his clients, then the Gucci Group, which organised an exhibition on the Pop Years at Beaubourg from March to July 2001. “Everything was under the aegis of Tom Ford,” who was appointed director of creation for the YSL Rive Gauche ready-to-wear collections, while maintaining his role at Gucci until his departure in 2004.

“I have an unyielding spirit of absolute freedom. The one who could ever chain me has yet to be born – though, to be fair, no one has ever tried! Sometimes, that means making choices that are neither practical nor advantageous”

AMI, Balenciaga, Victoria Beckham, Lemaire, Germanier, The Row, Maison Margiela, System, Valentino… For the major players in the industry, OBO operates behind the scenes with brilliance, fine-tuning every parameter of a fashion show that the general spectator would never suspect. “It all begins with a dialogue, a conversation with a designer who shares their mood, their inspiration, their dreams… offering us a direction.” This marks the start of a creative research phase, which encompasses everything from the venue to the lighting, the music, the scenography. “And my ultimate obsession, my all-consuming passion, is the camera, a way of seeing the world that is entirely distinct from the human eye, from photography, from the frozen image.”

The creative research and the quest for the perfect venue are handled by OBO’s teams. But when it comes to music or lighting designers, Célestin is constantly seeking out both emerging and established talents. “I want to pay tribute to Jan Kroeze, who has worked for Maison Margiela, Dior, and The Row, and to Philippe Cerceau. There are so many incredible talents, I could go on forever.” What excites him most is looking beyond the fashion world, drawing inspiration from theatre and opera. “That world fascinates me. I always say that a stunning set with bad lighting is ugly, whereas an ugly set with great lighting is beautiful. No one looks at the light, everyone looks at the object being lit, but it’s the light that defines it. It’s the negative space.”

When the historic House of Poiret was reborn from its ashes in March 2018, 90 years after its closure, OBO worked alongside designer Yiqing Yin to bring her creative vision to life. “We staged it under the grand nave of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. It was a fusion of Blade Runner, a Bob Wilson play, and a fashion show. And yet, the lighting mechanism was strikingly simple. I still see kids today with that image on their phones,” he explains, showing a photo of the show, where the silhouettes seem to emerge from a cosmic rift, bathed in an orange, yellow, mysterious, and enveloping light.

“You have to help the kids. You have to bring in disruptors.”

Célestin has always been committed to supporting young talent. In 2008, when the real estate market collapsed, triggering a global financial crisis, New York came to a standstill. “It felt like the end of the world. We were all wondering what new career we’d have to pursue. But luxury kept going. It defied all logic.” As young New York designers teetered on the edge of shutting down, he and Keith Baptista launched MADE Fashion Week, a platform that gave emerging designers the opportunity to showcase their work. “There was Joseph Altuzarra, Alexander Wang, Charlie Discord, The Blonds—putting on the wildest shows, endless wigs, total madness.”

Since 2022, students from the Institut Français de la Mode have kicked off the Official Calendar of Paris Fashion Week twice a year, once for the Bachelor of Arts graduates, once for the Master’s, an extraordinary spotlight, masterfully orchestrated by OBO. “I firmly believe we’ve all had mentors. When the opportunity to be one arises, you have to take it. You have to support emerging talent, spark new ideas. You have to bring in disruptors.”

“The Olympics? We did something no one on the planet had ever done before. And I am not one for grand statements or exaggeration. When we’ll turn 80, sitting by the fireplace, we’ll be able to say: we did it.”

Going into the Olympics bid, Célestin helped assemble a team of experts over the course of three years. When COVID hit and event agencies found themselves out of work, OBO moved into the offices of Double 2, looking to spark synergies and generate new ideas. What happens when you gather creatives around the same coffee machine? “We figured we could organise ourselves to create events together. We love that. So we founded The Banner.” As they prepared for the upcoming Olympic bids, this improvised collective proved to be a perfect fit. “It was an association of agencies, the best-of French event production.” Célestin encouraged the Auditoire group to join the effort. The founders of Auditoire, in turn, brought in Havas Event. “For the Olympics, we formed an equal three-way partnership, which we decided to call Paname 24.”

As he describes the magnitude of the project, his eyes gleam with pride. “We invented technology. We invented solutions. Six kilometres of scene, or Seine. Over 100 boats, each adjusting speed to the river’s flow. A live broadcast requiring every nation to be shown for 20 seconds. Thomas Jolly, the artistic director, breaking everything down to half-seconds. We had 115 fibre-connected cameras, three loops of 18 kilometres of optical fibre running through the sewers of Paris to connect 5,000 IP devices. We were under terrorist threat, coordinating everything with the French Armed Forces, the Île-de-France prefecture, the Paris police, City Hall, the Ministry of the Interior, the Élysée… And Céline Dion singing on the Eiffel Tower. It was infinite, fantastic, Kafkaesque!"

"It’s easier to find a client than a good project director."

Célestin’s craft demands an extraordinary mix of adaptability, sensitivity, pragmatism, and composure. “Recruiting is incredibly difficult. The beasts that are fashion shows are hybrid, multilingual, multidimensional. And what we deliver? It’s hard. Very hard. The deadline doesn’t move. If the power goes out, it happens in front of the entire world.” How do you keep growing, seizing opportunities as they come, and keeping your focus on the future? There’s only one way, and a brilliant piece of (professional) life advice that perfectly sums up this craftsman of social connections: “It’s all just a constantly nurtured fabric of relationships, of people you meet, people you know, and those you keep close.”

Reuben Attia