Why Celine Dion's sense of style will go on

At 51, the Canadian singer has reinvented herself as the consummate fashion maestro

Celine Dion attends the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2019 2020. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

We all know Celine Dion, or at least think we do. The slender singer with the huge voice emerged in the 1980s, and signed with Canadian music impresario Rene Angelil when she was just 12 years old. She released nine albums in her native language, French, winning numerous awards while still a teenager, and went on to sing at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Montreal Olympics. In 1988, she won the Eurovision Song Contest, and by the time she recorded her first album in English, entitled Unison, in 1990, Celine Dion was already a superstar.

Dion at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988. Photo: Pat Maxwell / Rex Features

In 1994, despite a 26-year age gap, Dion declared her love for her manager Angelil, and their wedding ceremony was broadcast live on Canadian television.

Dion is best-known for the song My Heart Will Go On from the 1997 film Titanic, which smashed box-office records despite everyone knowing the ending (spoiler alert: the ship sinks). The single sold 18 million copies. When invited to sing at the Oscars ceremony in 1998, Dion arrived wearing the film's famed blue diamond necklace.

At the Oscars a year later, Dion showed her love of daring fashion when she donned a white John Galliano tuxedo worn back to front. Now a backless top, it was a bold statement, but one the audience did not take to. As the only woman not in a gown, Dion was panned; and she recently confessed in an interview that the look was too avant-garde for the time, adding: "If I would do this today, it would work."

In 2002, Dion signed up for an unheard of 600-show residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which would see her perform five nights a week. As the industry tutted and predicted it would finish her career, the singer tasked former Cirque du Soleil theatre director Franco Dragone with creating a new stage concept involving song, performance art and state-of-the-art technology, while Dion herself focused on seven costume changes, starting in shimmering minidresses, and ending in a full-length column dress split to the hip. Far from ending her career, Las Vegas proved so successful that the songstress remained in residence until last month.

By 2014, Dion had raised her fashion game again, wearing Armani Prive and Schiaparelli haute couture on stage, cementing her position front and centre at every important fashion show. A valued and important client, Dion made bolder and bolder choices, stepping out in Versace, Elie Saab, Yves Saint Laurent and even Iris Van Herpen, who all indulged her fearless taste.

Dion at Alexandre Vauthier autumn/winter 2019/2020 haute couture show. Photo: Lucas Barioulet / AFP

In 2016, she lost both her brother and husband to cancer within two days of each other, and the world watched her all too human struggle, as she buried her partner of nearly 20 years, while trying to protect their three young children. Remarkably, Dion returned to her Las Vegas residency just a month later, and in what can only be described as embracing the next chapter of her life, hired stylist Law Roach, a self-titled “image architect”. Their meeting has become the stuff of legend, when, having admired the clothes worn by actress Zendaya, Dion took to Google to find who dressed her. Roach later admitted that when Dion called, his first words to the pop legend were: “Celine, who?”

A few weeks later, Dion arrived at Paris Haute Couture Week dressed in Saint Laurent skinny jeans, and an oversized Vetements hoodie, which was pulled from the archive especially for her. The hoodie was emblazoned with a young Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic, a witty nod that made her the darling of the fashion pack. At the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, Dion wore Stephane Rolland haute couture, with magnificent, puffed shoulders, and then stepped out in a ceaseless parade of cutting-edge fashion, which included looks by Balmain, Maison Rabih Kayrouz and Givenchy.

Earlier this month, at a Paris Haute Couture show, Dion elevated her status to full-blown fashion maestro by wearing a Vetements blazer and an "I heart Paris Hilton" T-shirt from the spring / summer 2020 collection, which was shown less than a week earlier. And around her neck? The blue diamond necklace from Titanic.

Dion at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week on July 3, 2019. Photo: ACau / SIPA / Shutterstock

Celine Dion’s style, it seems, will go on and on.