Taking her lap around the Stade Louis II stadium last fall, Kaia Gerber cemented her formulaic street style failsafe in the Hedi Slimane archives of Celine, ensuring there’d be a clear “Portrait of a Generation” – one with well-worn denims, Ava bags, and truncated tops peeking beneath tweed lapels – for posterity. 

A 30-count rolodex of models mimicked her pace down the catwalk, hidden behind baseball caps and ovaled, tortoise shades, advancing Slimane’s foray on youth culture – a collision with the zeitgeist in equal parts tailoring and track.

Yet as Fall 2021 collections have begun to debut in New York, Kaia’s Spring/Summer exclusive continues to buzz under its own steam as Slimane’s latest campaign images scale the heights of social media stature. Poolside, bare midriffed, but tailored to Celine’s gilded ethos, a clutch of shots capture Kaia in the Spring/Summer style that marched through Monaco last October.

Lensed in the French Riviera, but seemingly very much Los Angeles, the images portray a nonchalance and ineffable, hyper-coolness that underscores Slimane’s youth. It’s a uniform for the times, only enhanced by the chain strapped, Triomphe Canvas monogram, Patapan bag and medium chain Sulky clutched to Kaia’s side, surely securing their hold as the latest item of the ‘it-girl’ archetype.

Mixing house sartorial codes with the casual direction of our current milieu, the Kaia x Slimane tie-up has merged bourgeois staples and our unfussy favorites – it’s a bit errant, a bit boyish, something current, and overtly cool – an enduring template of today’s fashion.