The Biggest News From Paris Fashion Week
Paris Fashion Week was a head-spinning affair, with the number of shows swelling to well past 100. Vogue Runway has clicked through them all to collect the season-defining news into one handy list. Catch up on the highs of the week here.
Photo: Marcus Tondo / Indigital.tv1/6A Big-Deal Debut at Balenciaga
Speculation about how Vetements’s Demna Gvasalia, the king of the hoodie, would fare as the new creative director of Balenciaga reached a fever pitch as guests entered the show venue, a former Canal+ television studio. Once the blaring music from DJ Clara Deshayes began, those questions were answered with Gvasalia’s shapely daywear and fusion of street staples with couture silhouettes. The puffer jackets, shoulders sloped so as to give wearers that haute hunch, were a particular favorite.
Photo: Luca Tombolini / Indigital.tv2/6’80s Babies Ruled the Runway
The ’90s may have been the decade of choice in New York, but Paris is looking further back into the past this season, picking up ’80s references in droves. Isabel Marant found inspiration for her patent pants and zebra stripes at punk club Le Palace and Les Bains Douches, while the stirrup pant saw a second life at Paco Rabanne and Balenciaga. At Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane took the most shocking trends of the era and reworked them into a showstopping demi-couture collection that mixed Guy Bourdin drama with über-strict tailoring.
Photo: Marcus Tondo / Indigital.tv3/6A Studio Spirit Prevails
Aside from experimentalism and technical prowess, the thing we’ve come to expect from Paris Fashion Week are shows of the most grandiose nature. Sure, there was still some of that this season, but the message en masse seemed to be one about access and authenticity—spectacle was just a side effect. At Chanel, a half-mile-long runway was erected inside the Grand Palais, allowing every guest to have a front row seat for Karl Lagerfeld’s 93-look collection. Chanel’s atelier scene echoed Saint Laurent’s show the night before, held in the house’s actual atelier on the Rue de l’Université. There was no music, no cross-legged teens on the floor (though Olivier Zahm did position himself on the marble for a better photo angle), just an announcer rattling off look numbers in English and French. Even Givenchy’s labyrinthine set, inspired by Egyptian mythology, felt like a more personal approach, with every guest getting a front row bench to see Riccardo Tisci’s labored-over leather jackets.
Photo: Marcus Tondo / Indigital.tv4/6Are Runways Diverse or Not?
Runway diversity was a hot topic of conversation backstage. But where some houses failed to include even a single model of color, others offered up diversity of ethnicity, shape, and age. H&M Studio’s show included trans, plus-size, and over-50 models alongside current supes, while Undercover’s Jun Takahashi sent out teens and women in their 70s at his presentation. Bombshell curves ruled at Miu Miu, with models like Lara Stone, Irina Shayk, Adriana Lima, and Emily Ratajkowski flaunting their figures on the runway.
Photo: Luca Tombolini / Indigital.tv5/6The Rise of Paris’s New Talent
For years, the likes of Nicolas Ghesquière, Riccardo Tisci, and Phoebe Philo have ruled Paris Fashion Week. But that’s changing. Led by such brands as Jacquemus and Vetements, young designers are cropping up around the city and making headlines with their thoughtful and boundary-pushing collections. Standouts this season included Aalto, Atlein, Koché, and Nehera.