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High temperatures and a bed bug outbreak in Paris couldn’t quell the glamour of fashion’s key city this season.
Under the gilding of the Élysée Palace, French president Emmanuel Macron hosted a dinner for around 200 guests during Paris Fashion Week. It was the third fashion dinner he’s hosted; the first was in 2018, the last right before Covid hit in February 2020. “Three weeks after [that] dinner, I had to make the decision to close the country, so I hope after this dinner something big will happen but positive,” he said during his speech. He went on to announce a day dedicated to fashion on 23 June 2024, a month before the Paris Olympics, which will take place on Place Vendôme and “find synergies” between fashion and sports.
The Spring/Summer 2024 edition of Paris Fashion Week featured 108 shows and presentations (67 shows and 41 presentations), up slightly from 106 last September. Alongside the usual major labels, this season featured much-anticipated shows from visiting labels Marni and Peter Do, plus the return of Margiela and Mugler.
This season was marked by the farewell of Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen and of Gabriela Hearst at Chloé. Burton’s was very emotional, with a standing ovation as the designer hugged front row supporters including Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault, Vogue’s Anna Wintour and actor Cate Blanchett. News broke on Tuesday that Burton will be replaced by JW Anderson’s Seán McGirr. Hearst’s final bow was festive, seeing her samba dance around the runway. “If Milan was about new beginnings, Paris gave us grand finales,” said Nordstrom Women’s Fashion Director Rickie De Sole. “There was a feeling of being witness to the closing of chapters and openness for the next that made this a memorable season.”
The Louis Vuitton show was held in its new space on 103 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which is still under construction. You can’t miss it: standing next to the brand’s flagship store, the new building’s scaffolding is decorated to look like a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk. “The future of this place will be where we unite different expressions of the brand, commercial of course but also cultural, exhibitions, hospitality,” Louis Vuitton women’s artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière told Nicole Phelps, global director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business.
At Dior, artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri worked with Italian artist Elena Bellantoni on the show set, which featured feminist slogans set against neon yellow and pink — in stark contrast to the black and white collection. Models walked with attitude in front of 1,400 guests.
Across Paris, the collections presented a dichotomy. While a few went for viral moments and showpieces, many brands pared back their show formats and collections, as the quiet luxury trend continues amid ongoing economic challenges in the US, Europe and now China.
Isabel Marant sent out a collection that was in line with the DNA of the brand but with a softer touch. Think breeziness, muted colours, soft tailoring. “We’re in a new era where we want clothes, but we want the right quality pieces that will last,” Marant said ahead of the show.
Halfway through fashion week, Phoebe Philo — known for her minimalist aesthetic — set a date for the launch of her first own-brand collection online: 30 October. In the meantime, there were whispered reports of an invite-only Philo-era Celine sale in a central Paris hotel suite. “It was very high-quality stock, the prices reflected that, but everything was being snapped up,” one attendee described.
At Carven, Louise Trotter’s well-received debut featured clean silhouettes, sheer skirts, voluminous tops and jackets, as well as flat mules. It was about making “real clothes, honesty, pragmatism, focus on the women, little fuss, not too much noise, no drama”, she told editors backstage. Does she subscribe to the quiet luxury idea? “I have my aesthetic,” she said.
“We’re seeing a break between the designers finding serenity in elevated foundational wardrobe for the everyday and those exploring a more maximalist mood,” said Nordstrom’s De Sole.
Even Harris Reed, creative director of Nina Ricci — who is known for his maximalist demi-couture — considered wearability. “The first season was about creating drama. This season is more about building a wardrobe,” he said backstage after the show.
There was still drama. At Balenciaga, creative director Demna showed a dark collection that played with volume and proportion, against a backdrop of heavy red drapes. He cast friends and family — including his mother, husband and musician Bfrnd (aka Loïk Gomez), the brand’s PR director Robin Meason, fashion critic Cathy Horyn and veteran fashion journalist Diane Pernet — as his models. It was an uncharacteristically size inclusive show, featuring pop star Yseult and plus-size model Paloma Elsesser. “I can’t repress my creativity. I can’t castrate my vision. I just can’t do those things. It’s not me. So this collection is a celebration of everything that I love about fashion,” he told Vogue’s chief critic Sarah Mower.
The Mugler show, held at Carrousel du Louvre, featured industrial fans blowing plumes of fabric from models’ headscarves and gowns down the runway. Black Panther star Angela Bassett, media personality Paris Hilton, models Helena Christensen and Paloma Elsesser and poet and trans-visibility activist Kai-Isaiah Jamal were just some of the names who walked the show, which Machine-A founder Stavros Karelis described as “the best I have seen for a very very long time” on Instagram.
The Loewe collection, with its refreshing work on silhouettes, was among the other highlights. While Jonathan Anderson has moved away from novelty slightly, compared to the anthurium dresses and cracked-egg heels of previous seasons, his very wearable collection still featured fun accents, like a Loewe engraved needle at the waist.
“Underneath everything, there’s a battle going on between creativity and commerciality in fashion this season. Must it be that binary?” Vogue’s Mower wrote in her review of Maison Margiela, a collection she described as “fiercely imaginative” but also “studded with wearable gems”.
Coperni eschewed its usual show stunt this season, following the spray-on dress moment for SS23 and last season’s robot dogs. Of course, there were still some novelty moments, from the viral CD bag (that functions as a Walkman) to a jacket fitted with a working speaker. Models including Naomi Campbell wore AI “pins” created by startup Humane, which work as wearable smartphones. The full functionality of the pins will be revealed later this autumn. At Courrèges, the runway was made of plaster and designed to look like moon rock, which cracked as the models walked.
As temperatures rose in the French capital, the industry was reminded of the very real climate consequences of fashion consumption. Stella McCartney brought this to the fore with Stella’s Sustainable Market, showcasing material innovation partners that can replace animal leather or yarn. Meanwhile, animal rights group Peta continued its round of the fashion weeks, this time crashing the Hermès show to protest against its use of exotic skins.
PR guru Lucien Pagès noted that some brands shifted attention to exciting celebrity or supermodel casting and flashy front rows, over big sets or novelty collections. As the SAG-AFTRA strike continues and movie shoots remain suspended, there’s been an influx of actors on the front row and the runway for SS24. Heavyweights including actors Cate Blanchett, Sigourney Weaver (Givenchy), Robert Downey Jr (Stella McCartney) joined more regular brand ambassadors like Robert Pattinson (Dior), Zendaya (Louis Vuitton) and Florence Pugh (Valentino) on the front row. There were also fresh talents like The Idol star Rachel Sennott (Acne), The Morning Show actor Greta Lee, The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri and Taylor Russell (Loewe).
There were pop stars aplenty, too. Showgoers are used to a music performance or two during PFW, but music events rivalled runway shows when it came to buzz this season. FKA Twigs at Valentino was a highlight, albeit a little distracting from the clothes. Each night after the last show, groups of editors, celebrities and influencers rushed to La Seine Musicale to watch Usher’s 11-night residency, planned on purpose to align with fashion week. On Sunday, a last-minute invite was issued to a party curated by Self Service Magazine founder Ezra Petronio. The DJ line up included Pagès, Courrèges’s Nicolas de Felice, Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier, stylist Carlos Nazario and photographer Juergen Teller. And, on Monday night, after a mysterious unbranded invite was sent out earlier in the week, H&M brought Cher, Robyn and Peggy Gou to the stage for a special “secret” concert, to celebrate its Rabanne collaboration at subterranean nightclub Silencio.
There was a lot of new blood this season. The week kicked off with a celebration of Chinese emerging talents, hosted by OTB chairman Renzo Rosso and Chinese investor Wendy Yu, in collaboration with FHCM. On Thursday night, editors, buyers and friends packed into Paris club Le Red Light to see Paris-based label All-In’s off-schedule show, styled by renowned stylist Lotta Volkova. With support from the Swedish Fashion Council and a bigger focus on wearability, the brand could be a good pick for the official schedule for AW24. To round off the week, Dutch upcycling designer Duran Lantink joined the official schedule with a well-attended show yesterday.
Among the ones to watch is Marie Adam-Leenaerdt, who has a “sure hand for her craft and a wicked sense of humour”, according to Vogue Runway. Her first collection, presented off-calendar in Paris last season, was picked up by Net-a-Porter, Bergdorf Goodman and Ssense.
Julie Gilhart, chief development officer and executive board member at Tomorrow London, said: “Paris is the place where you come to buy big brands but can see emerging brands from all over the world. It’s challenging for young designers to get buyers and press to see their brands if they don’t have a presentation or a buzz. For instance, seeing Pauline Dujancourt’s hand knits and beautifully crafted clothing in an architect’s space on the Île de la Cité was a special experience. There were many ‘first shows’ this season and a standout was Alain Paul’s show in Théâtre du Châtelet.” However, Gilhart echoed many in deploring: “There is really too much to see in Paris without enough time.”
With contributions from Nicole Phelps, Sarah Mower and Luke Leitch.
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