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At Paris Fashion Week, Big Ideas Still Rule

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At Paris Fashion Week, Big Ideas Still Rule

Over the summer, Paris played host to the Olympic Games, and after complaining about it for months, most Parisians left the city as the world watched the French capital light up the worlds of fashion, music and sport. Paris Fashion Week is not dissimilar — for most people living in the city, it happens often enough that most waiters and taxi drivers know why the traffic is worse, why crowds of school kids are screaming outside venues (Cardi B is doing the rounds this week), and why suddenly there seems to be a lot more outrageous dressing and impromptu photo shoots on the cobbled streets. As far as locals are concerned, it may as well be an episode of Emily in Paris.

And yet Paris Fashion Week is still the most important event in the global fashion calendar, largely because it is where the biggest brands and independent designers from around the world choose to show. Compared to other fashion weeks, it’s bigger, longer and often where you see some of the most interesting ideas percolate into global trends.

Take the Chloé show, for instance, the second of designer Chemena Kamali, who has single-handedly heralded a boho chic revival with her ruffled chiffon dresses, caped jackets and bouncy balayages. Or Saint Laurent, which opened the week with a collection of androgynous oversized suiting and geek-chic spectacles in homage to Yves himself, which felt like a new proposition for the fiercely sexy, svelte silhouettes that Anthony Vaccarello is known for. You can see them trickling down into the mass stores, and perhaps shifting the needle of red-carpet dressing ( or even political dressing in the case of Chloé; Kamala Harris is a fan).

There’s been a lot of chatter on the boulevards of Paris about major reshuffles going on at the big houses, but fashion’s rumor mill is nothing new and only exacerbated by online commentators, who are waiting with snipers at the ready to see the second collection of Sean McGirr at Alexander McQueen and Alessandro Michele’s debut for Valentino on Sunday. But no one seems to know for certain who’s going where, and I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

What seems clear is that Paris fashion seems to be going through a period of reconfiguration. In the last couple of years, we’ve seen the return of spectacularly theatrical shows, runway gimmicks, entertainment crossovers, more and more collaborations. Collections feel more frenetic than ever, often with lots of disparate ideas rather than singular narratives, and designers are often quick to complain about struggling with commercial pressures at a time when luxury spending is slowing.

The appointments of Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford and Sarah Burton at Givenchy have offered glimmers of hopes for those who love designers’ designers. Especially because, despite the grandeur of all the purpose-built venues and dreamscape sets, what Paris does best is capital-D design. The reason why it’s the epicentre of the fashion world is because the city feels reverential of big ideas and bold risks (and sometimes those are rewarded; just look at Miu Miu’s soaring ready-to-wear sales or Alaia’s it-accessories!).

It’s why The Row can get away with asking guests to not take any pictures at its show (and people obeyed!) and why all of the best Japanese designers show here, and why so many young guns like Vaquera, All-In, Duran Lantink, Hodakova, Fidan Novruzova and Torisheju now do, too.

There are stores like Dover Street Market and The Broken Arm that support them, and even for independent magazines, there are spaces like Yvon Lambert, where Zoe Ghertner and Thomas de Kluyver launched their new zine this week. It might be niche, but it speaks to the dedicated followers of industry professionals and fashion-obsessed kids who still get excited about the prospect of new ideas. Back in the day, they congregated at the now-defunct Colette boutique—today, it’s all about these off-piste retail spaces.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to tell you about what they’re all wearing. Torrential downpours have overcast the looks on display at the shows, at least for those who don’t have glam squad in tow (the streaming pavements led me on a last minute search for a cobbler after my heels came off; I since switched to sneakers). This week, the most pervasive looks for guests were the most practical: trench coats, black boots, umbrellas.

The bag of the season seems to be Prada’s buckle-belt bag—although that might be because the Italian house gifted it to so many editors. A bunch of editors peeled away from shows to hit Milan vintage specialist Shop The Story’s archive pop-up, where stylist Nell Kalonji nabbed an impeccably sculpted Ghesquiere-era Balenciaga jacket for €600. As always, the Alaia boutique on Rue Marignan is where out-of-towners head to find the most exquisite pieces.

Still, there are some shows that attract a unique collective approach to dressing, where guests are just as much mascots as they are observers. Rick Owens is one of those, where the people-watching before the show is just as interesting as what comes down the courtyard of the Palais de Tokyo: bee-keeper face masks, heavy black makeup, sky-high boots with Perspex heels. Fans of the designer watch from across the street—you’d be even be able to see it from the Eiffel Tower across the Seine—and this season Owens invited students from Paris’ fashion schools to walk the Hollywood-inspired show, transforming them into sci-fi goddesses, which only echoed that intimate sense of community that really cuts through the noise in Paris (the bigger the shows the more transactional appearances feel).

At Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe, nothing is out of the ordinary. One guest was wearing a stiletto as a beret, another in a jacket with six sleeves. It’s shows like these where, despite the craziness of what’s on the catwalk, you see how it translates into the wardrobes of these designers’ superfans, each of whom is unified by these shows.

One of the most talked-about moments this week wasn’t even a show, but testament to the city’s appreciation of cult designers. Stefano Pilati, the former Zegna and Saint Laurent creative director, launched his collaboration with Zara with a party in a former bank in the second arrondisment, complete with a banquet of food, hundred of candles and an exotic floral arrangements on ebonised wooden tables. The room was one of the week’s starriest, both megawatt household names and insider-y fashion people: Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Pat McGrath, Guido Paolo, David Sims, Pieter Mulier, Debra Shaw, Karen Epsom as well as the models-of-the-moment milling around, dressed in the collection, which revisit some of his greatest hits at YSL at affordable prices.

The next day, at Zara’s dim-lit flagship homeware store on Rue du Bac (it’s modeled on an apartment, filled with Pierre Jeanearett furniture and the staff are far more attentive than regular Zara stores) I bumped into stylist Katy England and several editors stocking up on the perfectly flared black trousers, slouchy pinstripe suiting and perfect halter-neck blouses. I left with nine piece of clothing, and a tax refund! By lunchtime, most of the collection had sold out—they’re working on getting more for the week ahead.

rosie huntington whiteley with party guests toby huntington whiteley, who is her brother, and noa murcia

German Larkin

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley with party guests Toby Huntington-Whiteley (her brother) and Noa Murcia.

It’s a smart approach that wasn’t lost on others: make a splash and make it available to buy immediately. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was also in town to toast her collaboration with Wardrobe NYC, the line of luxe wardrobe essentials started by Aussie stylist Christine Centenera and designer Josh Goot. The three of them threw a dinner at Caviar Kaspia, which is heavy on the vodka and light on the caviar. I guess I didn’t get the memo, arriving in a brown outfit, because almost every guest was dressed in caviar-black pieces from the collection, sharp-shouldered blazers layered over macro-fishnet bodysuits and a pair of a legging-inspired trousers that Rosie describes as the piece that every woman needs—“they are the most flattering stretch trousers that you could fly in, or wear on days when you don’t feel so great but want to look chic,” she told me.

It turned into a dance party, with Rosie and Christine dancing into the wee hours. Chances are you saw it on Instagram, and good news: You can order it on Net-a-Porter to arrive before the end of Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday. And therein lies the perfect Paris balance. Come for the big ideas and the star designers—and leave with something that makes you feel great in everyday life.

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