Noen Eubanks, TikTok Teen, is the New Face of Celine

74-year-old French fashion brand Celine has picked 18-year-old Noen Eubanks, a star on the three-year-old social video platform TikTok, as it’s newest face. The easy joke to make here might be “and now you feel old,” but maybe it just proves that time is a flat circle.

Celine posted the latest campaign on its Instagram earlier today, identifying Eubanks as a “teen idol” rather than a “TikTok” star (though, we suppose TikTok stars are technically today’s teen idols).

The brand’s creative, artistic and image director Hedi Slimane photographed Eubanks, pictured in a leather jacket and stripped crop top.

Eubanks has amassed 7.5 million followers on TikTok. That’s impressive, considering he told Paper earlier this year that he had only joined the app in 2018, and only saw his followings rise drastically starting earlier this year. Despite a bad boy image (that is, thanks to his two-toned fluorescent hair and general penchant for neon, not that far from Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” image), Eubank’s videos on the platform are mostly silly fun. There’s lots of dancing, lip-synching, quick edits, and experimentation with makeup and hairstyling. Cool moms would approve.

By may of this year, Eubanks signed a deal with the “youth entertainment company,” Kyra. The agency essentially helps its stars produce content as well as strike brand partnerships (he’s also launched his own brand of merch since joining the agency).

Eubanks’ quick trajectory from a kid living in the Atlanta suburbs to one of fashion’s buzziest brand faces might perplex anyone over 25, but rendered in Slimane’s black-and-white portraits, it’s easier to understand.

With his high cheekbones, pouty lips, pale skin and floppy hair, Eubanks looks like the classic Slimane male model. Visually, Eubanks wouldn’t have looked out of place in Slimane’s campaigns for Dior Homme last decade or at Saint Laurent just a few years ago.

This isn’t the first time the star of an emerging video platform has risen from anonymity to fashion star at lightening speed. A few years ago, Cameron Dallas caused a massive spectacle outside of a Dolce & Gabbana show in Milan.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.