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Fashion Week Brings Another Layer of Chaos to Paris

Pharrell Williams returns a year after his lavish debut as Louis Vuitton creative director. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Pharrell Williams returns a year after his lavish debut as Louis Vuitton creative director. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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Fashion Week Brings Another Layer of Chaos to Paris

Pharrell Williams returns a year after his lavish debut as Louis Vuitton creative director. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Pharrell Williams returns a year after his lavish debut as Louis Vuitton creative director. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Paris Fashion Week returns on Tuesday, bringing some much-needed light relief to a country in the throes of political chaos.
Menswear week runs until next Sunday, followed immediately by the haute couture shows until June 27.
France has been in turmoil since President Emmanuel Macron called surprise legislative elections after a surge by the far-right in European polls, said AFP.
But for fashionistas, the biggest issue might be getting around Paris, which is also finalizing preparations to host next month's Olympic Games, with a tenfold increase in traffic congestion due to road and site closures.
The Olympics have brought the menswear and couture weeks forward from July (womenswear takes place in September).
With fashion already working at a punishing pace, that has forced some houses to abandon this season, including Olivier Rousteing's Balmain, which told AFP it had pulled out at the last minute.
Valentino and Givenchy are also skipping this week's shows.
As for the big names who are appearing, hip-hop mogul Pharrell Williams will continue his high-profile leadership at Louis Vuitton, marking a year since his ultra-lavish debut show when he took over the Pont Neuf bridge and painted its paving stones gold.
But the highlight will be a mega-party organized by Vogue on Sunday bringing together the doubly lucrative worlds of sports and fashion.
It is the third edition of Vogue World -- a sort of traveling Met Gala that has already seen events in New York and London -- and comes as the brand seeks new ways to stay relevant in a world of dwindling magazine sales.
Several top brands will display collections, including Dior, Jacquemus, Hermes and Balenciaga, each paired with an Olympic discipline from athletics to breakdancing.
Chanel shock
There have been some big movements at the heads of fashion houses.
The biggest shock was the announcement last week that Chanel has dropped Virginie Viard, who worked for 20 years alongside her predecessor Karl Lagerfeld and took over after his death in 2019.
It appears the split was less than amicable, since Viard will not be present for Chanel's couture show on June 25, despite overseeing record sales for the brand last year.
"It will be a studio collection and Virginie Viard will not be present," a Chanel spokesperson told AFP.
The end of the Lagerfeld era has set off fashionistas' favorite pastime: speculating on who comes next.
Among the names circulating: France's Marine Serre, Hedi Slimane of Celine, Pierpaolo Piccioli (who recently left Valentino) and Simon Porte Jacquemus, whose eponymous label has been one of the big independent success stories of recent years.
While Valentino awaits the debut of its high-profile new creative director Alessandro Michele (formerly of Gucci), Givenchy is still looking for a lead designer since the departure of Matthew Williams last year.
This week will also see the final show by Belgian designer Dries Van Noten on Saturday.
Though not a household name, the 66-year-old is retiring as a favorite among serious fashion fans for his avant-garde styles and expert tailoring.

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Fashion

Goosebumps and Stars as Paris Fashion Week Kicks Off

Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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Goosebumps and Stars as Paris Fashion Week Kicks Off

Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Hollywood stars braved the rain to open Paris Fashion Week at L'Oreal's giant outdoor show Monday as rumors swirl of musical chairs at the top of fabled French brands.
The cosmetics giant persuaded Jane Fonda -- in snazzy silver sneakers -- Kendall Jenner, Eva Longoria and several of its other brand ambassadors to walk in a spectacular public show in front of the gilded glory of the Opera Garnier.
With invites to the big luxury shows strictly limited to the glitterati and fashion insiders, L'Oreal said it wanted to democratize the glamor of fashion week.
Introduced by singer Celine Dion, the "Walk Your Worth" show also featured Andie MacDowell, Indian star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, models with prosthetic limbs and Brazilian supermodel Luma Grothe proudly showing off her bump.
"The idea is to let the public see for themselves the beautiful clothes, settings and people that they would never normally have access to," L'Oreal's Paris director general Delphine Viguier told AFP.
Fashion's young guard had earlier endured a stormy start to the nine-day extravaganza -- Rising French star Victor Weinsanto staged his spring-summer show on the wet and windy roof of the Pompidou Centre museum, his fishnet and mesh ensembles created around Croatian drag queen Le Filip being tested by the elements.
The Paris shows started as falling profits at the two luxury giants LVMH and Kering have sent a shudder through the industry, fueling talk of a "Game of Thrones" among top designers.
Celine's Hedi Slimane and Simon Porte Jacquemus -- the young French designer who made tiny handbags and tiny everything else a thing -- are being talked of to fill Karl Lagerfeld's empty chair at Chanel after Virginie Viard, who took the reins after the death of "the Kaiser" in 2019, bowed out in June.
Hotly anticipated
Tongues are also likely to wag at the spring-summer shows over where John Galliano might go, with his contract at Maison Margiela nearing its end.
The first shows from the big-hitter French houses will come Tuesday with Dior and Saint Laurent, with a packed calendar confirming Paris's crushing dominance over rivals Milan, New York and London.
And there is no let-up at the end: Chanel opens the final day on October 1 by returning to the vast Grand Palais, the scene of some of Lagerfeld's most jaw-dropping shows, after an absence of four years.
The house is shelling out 30 million euros ($33 million) to stage its shows at the iconic Belle Epoque edifice, which reopened after a major facelift to host fencing and taekwondo at the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games.
With Viard -- long Lagerfeld's right-hand woman -- gone, observers expect a collection drawn from Chanel classics.
In contrast, there could well be fireworks from Alessandro Michele, the mercurial Italian designer who transformed Gucci, who may be keen to make his mark with his debut show for Valentino.
Equally anticipated is French duo Coperni, who are staging their show at Disneyland Paris on the final night, with an after party in the theme park that promises to go on into the wee hours.
The brand's founders, Arnaud Vaillant and Sebastien Meyer, pulled off a coup with their outfit for Belgian singer Angele for the Olympics closing ceremony, and are clearly in a mood to celebrate.
Another hot duo, the Olsen twins, the Los Angeles child actors turned designers, have kept their place for their luxury line The Row in fashion week proper thanks to a cash injection from the owners of Chanel and L'Oreal.
Paris will, however, be without Givenchy this time, with its new British designer Sarah Burton, a stalwart at Alexander McQueen for a quarter of a century, just made creative director.