A crowd began to form in the rain on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m., outside of the Grand Palais Ephémère in Paris. Onlookers lined the barricades, stood on concrete pillars, and flooded into the street, awaiting the Chanel spring 2024 runway, which began at 10:30 a.m. A little drizzle wasn’t going to stop these people from experiencing the event, if only from the street. “Paris is puking fashion,” Elisa Hurtado, a 24-year-old spectator and Chilean sous-chef living in Paris, said. “And it’s the Chanel show. Come on. This doesn’t happen every day.”
Hurtado is right: Paris Fashion Week prompts a city-sweeping dégueuler de la mode. The nine-day extravaganza was jam-packed with shows, presentations, dinners, and events. Editors, writers, buyers, stylists, creators, and celebrities flocked to the City of Light for a myriad of reasons (work, networking, the thrill of the scene). But surrounding the excitement, exhaustion, and occasional jadedness from industry insiders was another group of fashion week attendees: the fans. Collectively, they are as much of a fixture at fashion week as editors, celebrities, and photographers. Undeterred by the lack of formal invitation and causing a slight nuisance (occasional screaming, crammed walkways), fanatics from around the world came to Paris just to feel like part of it all. While the traditional fashion hierarchy would suggest that outside the shows is not the place to be, the warm energy inside the crowds suggested otherwise.
One might assume that the hordes at Paris Fashion Week were first and foremost waiting for the celebrities: front-row regulars like Jennie Kim, Zendaya, or Kylie Jenner. And certainly, some were. But the throngs of people in Paris were just as full with fashion enthusiasts who wanted to get as close as possible to the designers and their worlds. Some attended just to people-watch; still others were content creators snapping photos.
“It’s not just about the celebrities, like some people may think,” said Malek Elimam, a 22-year-old designer who came to Paris from Algeria to bear witness to Louis Vuitton’s show—or at least the exterior of the new, under-construction Champs-Élysées store where the catwalk was held on Monday. Dressed in a bubblegum-pink silk wrap dress and a leather corset Malek made herself, she explained that she came to Paris (with her brother, also a fashion fan) to promote her work and to find inspiration for her own line. “This is my first year. We went to Dior, Coperni, Schiaparelli, Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood.”
Elimam finds the locations easily on TikTok and Twitter. “When I’m here, I feel like I’m part of a team. I bond with people who share my passion. I get inspired and make friends… She’s one of them!” She gestured to a fellow fan she met earlier that week outside of the Dior show (they started talking because they liked each other’s outfits). Among the Louis Vuitton crowd, spectators wore signature Pochette or Speedy bags. Others disregarded house codes in favor of personal style. “When you’re here, you feel understood,” Elimam explained. “You can express yourself. We don’t have that as much at home.”
Other fans have the same desire to belong, but different dreams. “My biggest goal is to walk in a Louis Vuitton show,” said Vic Cayo, a 20-year-old who flew in from New York for runway castings. She didn’t book, but she decided to stay in Paris for the experience and slight chance that she gets a last-minute callback. “I love the environment. When I’m surrounded by people who also love fashion, it makes me feel like I’m learning about the industry,” she said. While the runway is still in the distance, she sees being in Paris as a good step. “I didn’t end up getting to walk this season, but I know that I have to keep my mind really positive and keep showing up.”
Suddenly, interrupting our conversation, there were screams—VIP-arrival screams. “Jaden! Jaden Smith!” someone yelled. For Cayo, Smith isn’t a focus. “I’m here to network. Sure, people can scream and get excited about famous people,” she commented as the crowd settled again. “But they’re just people. At every level in this industry, everyone is a fan of something. I think that when you show up for whatever it is you love, good things happen.”
Some people had no desire to work in fashion or even to attend a show. Rather, they were interested in witnessing a cultural moment. Pieter Loopuyt, a 22-year-old firefighter and nurse living in Paris, came to Louis Vuitton to experience the universe around the brand. He is curious about the collection that womenswear designer, Nicolas Ghesquière, would present inside, but the overall scene is equally compelling to him. “This is just a very important part of French culture, of Paris culture,” he said. “Having Pharrell at Louis Vuitton [as the menswear creative director] just proves how connected fashion is to other creative industries. You can see it in the way people dress outside of shows. I mean, look at what is happening in the city right now!”
At Balmain at the Palais de Chaillot on Wednesday, perhaps the loudest screams all week were reserved for K-Pop star HongJoong, who arrived dressed in a red and black jacket with sharp shoulders and fringe details from Balmain’s resort 2024 collection. Outside the venue, fans dressed in line with the brand, wearing military-style blazers, leather jackets with strong shoulders, and even the Balmain x Barbie collection. “There’s this fusion of music and K-pop and fashion happening right now,” said Anne Lumbu, a 20-year-old student who traveled into Paris from the city’s suburbs to experience the show’s environment as a lover of the French fashion house and the musical genre. “Tonight we’re seeing it come together. I love that mix of both worlds.”
Indeed, Balmain’s artistic director, Olivier Rousteing, is at the center of Balmain’s fandom. He’s one of the few creative directors who speak directly to the fashion house’s supporters via social media, and, on the night of, he made sure they felt included. In an area beside the building designated for fans and attendees without an official, physical invite, Balmain live-streamed the event on a big screen. As a surprise after the runway show, the models walked outside of the building and to this area. Rousteing followed suit, waving to those who came to support. “Not many brands are doing this, offering gestures to the people that support the brand. It’s very considerate,” Lumbu said. She shared that Balmain released the address through a mailing list, inviting supporters to be part of the evening. “Even though I’m not inside, I feel touched that they’re doing things other fashion houses aren’t doing,” she said. “I’m not wearing Balmain, but I still feel like part of it. I feel close to and far away from it all at the same time.”
Within the fashion week crowds, there are fans, and there are super fans. Lumbu is the former—she’s calm, albeit giddy. The latter, however, is ecstatic. They have encyclopedic knowledge of the goings-on at each house and check Vogue Runway immediately after each show. They live and breathe fashion—like Paris, it is in their DNA. Jonathan Cloez, a 24-year-old who grew up and lives in the French country town of Andance, is a super fan. “I was born loving fashion. Being here allows me to share that and to express my style,” he told me. We stood outside the Givenchy catwalk at the Place de Fontenoy, where, apart from a few square G logos, the outfits were all over the map. Cloez was wearing a Canadian tuxedo. “I work in a restaurant—it’s not fashion. But when I come here, I can see that anything is possible.” Cloez said that, where he lives, people are more uptight, especially in how they dress and express themselves. This was his third time at Paris Fashion Week, and he plans to keep coming back. “Coming here opens up my world,” he explained. “If it ends like this, without going inside the show, it’s okay because I am feeling seen for being myself. That’s enough for me.”
It’s a vulnerable experience, to attend a fashion show alone, uninvited, and all dressed up. But there’s an undeniable community among those tenacious enough to do just that.
A pair of friends, Melody and Ay, attended Givenchy together. Two students from Poland met their first friends in Paris at Balmain. At Chanel, two Japanese women shared a pillar to stand on with several Parisian attendees. At Louis Vuitton, Cloez walked by and said “It’s you! My new fashion friend!”
Fashion week is all about hierarchy. The seating charts, invitations, and guests lists reinforce that at every turn. But that’s suspended outside the shows, in the crowds. Even on a rainy morning in Paris, anyone can be part of the scene. “When I come to shows, I take time to get dressed. And if I get photographed, I feel like I am somebody for maybe just two minutes,” said Melody Bots, a 19-year-old Parisian at Chanel. “If I get to attend one day, I would say to myself, you made it. You are someone…. Or, you were always someone, you just didn’t know it yet.”
