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Couture Week Comes to Paris amid Riot Fears

From Schiaparelli's show in July 2022. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/File
From Schiaparelli's show in July 2022. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/File
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Couture Week Comes to Paris amid Riot Fears

From Schiaparelli's show in July 2022. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/File
From Schiaparelli's show in July 2022. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/File

The fashion world is on edge as haute couture week kicks off on Monday in Paris, which has seen nights of violent riots over the police killing of a teenager.
French label Celine canceled its menswear show -- scheduled outside the official calendar -- on Sunday due to the riots, with designer Hedi Slimane saying it was "inconsiderate" to hold a fashion show when Paris was "bereaved and bruised".
Hundreds have been arrested across the country as mostly young protesters have torched cars and attacked infrastructure following the death of 17-year-old Nahel M., who was shot dead when he tried to flee a traffic stop on Tuesday.
Violence appeared to be ebbing somewhat in and around the French capital over the weekend, and the haute couture shows -- celebrating the most expensive, tailor-made end of fashion -- were due to go ahead as planned, the French fashion federation told AFP on Sunday.
First up is Schiaparelli, with fashionistas wondering if it can beat the social media meltdown caused by last season's fake animal heads.
The heads, sported by the likes of Kylie Jenner, were another publicity coup for Schiaparelli artistic director Daniel Roseberry, who has overseen a revamp of the brand and attracted the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyonce as clients.
Animal activists seemed unsure what to think.
The US branch of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) called the heads "fabulously innovative", while PETA's French branch said a thought should be spared for the silkworms and sheep "who have really suffered".
Couture week will see first-time appearances by the United States' Thom Browne and France's Charles de Vilmorin alongside regulars like Christian Dior.
De Vilmorin, just 26, will present for his own brand after a short-lived tenure as artistic director of Rochas.
"I'm super happy to have lived through all this and to do my first show," he told AFP in his apartment-workshop last week while finalizing the collection.
Fellow couturier Stephane Rolland is presenting his latest collection, dedicated to legendary singer Maria Callas, at the Opera Garnier.
It will be filmed by veteran French director Claude Lelouch for his next movie.
Rolland said it was vital to merge fashion and other art forms.
"It's very important in our profession. I find that from time to time it lacks a bit of refinement. Money is not everything," he told AFP.

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Fashion

Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance to Dolce&Gabbana for Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI
US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI
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Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance to Dolce&Gabbana for Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI
US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI

Celebrities swarmed Milan Fashion Week on the last big day of runway shows on Saturday, sending crowds of adoring fans from venue to venue.
Madonna sat in a front-row seat at Dolce & Gabbana, along with Naomi Campbell and Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin. Her bandmate, Maneskin frontman Damiano David, showed up at Diesel, one of the season's hottest tickets, across town. Jacob Elordi took a seat on a bunny-shaped bean bag chair to take in the Bottega Veneta show.
Highlights from Milan Fashion Week's mostly womenswear previews for next spring and summer on Saturday, The Associated Press said.
Dolce & Gabbana Celebrate Madonna
Madonna attempted a semi-stealth entrance to the Dolce & Gabbana runway show draped in a black veil for a runway show referencing her 1990s heyday and celebrating the cone bra.
Models in bleach-blonde wigs strutted in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s signature corsets and fitted jackets, each featuring the aggressively feminine cone bra, in a collection that notes said “pays homage to an ironic and powerful female figure.”
Madonna wasn't cited specifically, but the stars of the Milan designers and pop star have been aligned ever since they made costumes for her 1993 Girlie Show tour. The tour promoted Madonna's “Erotica” album launched alongside her taboo-breaking coffee table book, “Sex.”
“Madonna has always been our icon. It’s thanks to her that a lot of things in our lives changed,'' the designers said in a note.
The collection, dubbed “Italian Beauty,” perfectly captured that moment in time. Cone bras peeked out of cropped jackets with a pencil skirt, garters swung from corsets and coats sculpted the body. Floral prints returned, accenting a color scheme of black, nude, red and white. Oversized cross earrings finished the looks. Heels were unapologetically high.
After taking their bows, the designers walked down the runway to greet their guest of honor. Madonna, still covered by the Chantilly long lace veil fastened by a gold and crystal crown, stood to embrace them both.
Bottega Veneta taps wonder Bottega Veneta's sometimes misproptioned, sometimes crinkled, always provocative collection explores the intersection between the real world and fantasy, adulthood and childhood. Creative director Matthieu Blazy's meaning is simple: To delight.
“We need beauty. We need joy,'' Blazy said backstage. ”We need that experimental act. It is also an act of freedom.”
In this universe, a dental clinic receptionist wears a skirt with a trouser on just one leg, which Blazy asserts as a playful act. In a familiar scene, a well-dressed father carries his daughter's pink and purple school bag. “Do we like the bag? I don’t know. Does it tell a story? Yes,'' Blazy said.
Each detail is deliberate, from a flat collar on a dress shaped like bunny ears to big colorful raffia wigs, even if their ultimate purpose is just for fun. Crinkled clothes signify a child's attempt to dress up, only to be ruined by the end of the day.
Blazy's characters carried what appeared to be ordinary plastic grocery bags, but which were made out of nylon and leather — part of the brand's ongoing technological innovations. The faux plastic bags signified everyday life, and were accompanied by brand’s trademark woven bags, one for a violin, another a wine bottle.
Ferragamo’s freedom of movement Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis celebrated the freedom of movement inherent in ballet in his new collection, inspired by archival photos of brand founder Salvatore Ferragamo fitting African American ballet dancer Katherine Dunham for shoes.
Dunham often trained and worked in the Caribbean, which allowed the British designer’s with Jamaican roots “to find a link between Ferragamo’s Italian-ness and my heritage.”
The collection recalls a 1980s way of dressing, with strong shoulders and oversized tailoring, also an homage to Russian ballet star Rudolf Nuryev, another historic Ferragamo customer.
To emphasize movement, Davis created long parachute dresses in silk nylon, suede and organza with a billowing bubble shape. The ballet dancer is honored in cashmere dancer wraps color-blocked with layered leotards. More subversively, shorts with frayed denim suggested a tutu.
Diesel elevates denim Diesel models tramped a field of 14,800 kilograms (nearly 33,000 pounds) of denim scraps “to highlight the beauty of waste, creating a dystopian backdrop for the brand’s latest collection of elevated denim.
The Veneto-based brand under creative director Glenn Martens has become a laboratory for textile experimentation. Short-shorts are embroidered with a cascade of extra-long fringe, for a skirt-like effect. Jeans are lasered to look destroyed; necklines on cotton sweatshirts look distressed but the effect is actually a jacquard with the cotton burned away to the tulle.
Marten's said the brand's “disruption” goes beyond its design. "We are pushing for circularity in our production,'' he said. In that vein: A coat was made from leftover spools of denim thread, while oversized jeans were from recycled cotton, some from Diesel's own production. And the scraps piled on the floor were to be repurposed after the show.