‘I’m taking things one day at a time’: How Celine Dion is using fashion to triumph tragedy

Her new photographs speak volumes – she’s power dressing in a Saint Laurent pencil skirt with leather gloves, and wearing a sculptural Alaia merino wool coat backwards. She strikes a semi-naked pose in an unbuttoned Balenciaga shirt – perhaps the most powerful image of the set, as she proudly shows off the very body that is challenging her.

This is not the first time that Dion has found energy in fizzy fashion when her personal life has reached a low point. Dion’s husband of 22 years, and former manager, René Angélil, passed away after suffering from cancer in January 2016. Just two days later she lost her brother to cancer also. 

She was at home watching the Disney channel with her twin sons, then aged six, when she spotted the actress Zendaya – 2024’s pre-eminent red-carpet fashion star, but who then ruled the tween network. Dion Googled her stylist, Law Roach, and emailed him that summer.