Notes on Paris Women’s Fashion Week Spring / Summer 2024

This fashion season has been one of going through way too much effort in terms of just being at the shows. Invitations went missing or showed up at the last minute or even after a show. Editors and buyers are increasingly being relegated to second row in favor of celebrities and influencers, of whom there is an ever-increasing number. Some said that this could be because of the Hollywood strike, but I think we are seeing a permanent shift, in which the only metric that matters is your Instagram following. It looks like many brands just want amplifiers of their image, and don’t care for, or are actually afraid of engaging in a conversation about their output. If it’s the latter, they are not wrong, considering what a parade of mediocrity the fashion month has become. But not in Paris, at least not yet. This season virtually all of the brands that I hold in high regard delivered – it was an uplifting fashion week and a wonderful reminder that fashion can still evoke emotion, create beauty, and make one think. And if it’s the PR agencies that spoil everything with their lack of professionalism, then, well, even though I still absolutely love being at a good show, in 2023 I can do this from the comfort of my home.

And another note to brands – and I don’t say this lightly because I know how much effort goes into putting on a show. Please reconsider holding shows on the outskirts of town at 10 a.m. or 8 p.m. Not all of us are being chauffeured around in cars and some of us will have to skip. Sorry.

My first show in Paris was that of Peter Do. It was his Parisian runway debut and the collection had the confidence of someone who belongs in the capital of fashion, with color-blocking and fabric contrasts carrying the day. If it looked more Helmut Lang than Do’s collection for the cult label, I wonder whether the fault here is more with the company than with the designer. I expressed this sentiment in my newsletter a few weeks ago, and I’ll elaborate on the StyleZeitgeist podcast with Philippe Pourhashemi, which will drop soon.

The next day I began with Dries Van Noten, where the Belgian master presented a collection of paired down beauty. It oscillated between lack of ornamentation, which only highlighted the elegance of the elongated coats, and full-on embellishment that made for a sumptuous contrast. Just like the men’s in June, this collection was shown in a beautifully ruined Parisian building, and the soundtrack made by the iconic Belgian electronic duo 2 Many DJs included a rendition of Tonight, Tonight by Smashing Pumpkins that tugged at the audience’s heartstrings. Backstage, Van Noten talked about being taken out of his comfort zone – and the collection that was sparse on his usual color clashes, certainly provided that.

Later on at Undercover Jun Takahashi – in the current vernacular – slayed. If sheerness is the trend of the season, Takahashi proved again that he has the ability to take a trend and make it his own. Instead of the on the nose sexiness that is already boring this reviewer to tears, Takashi used sheerness as an outer layer in (de)constructed tailoring that made it look ethereal and elegiac. The show ended with a jaw dropping trio of lit-up dresses that for skirts had terrariums containing roses and butterflies (the butterflies where freed after the show). Backstage Takashi explained that the butterflies were a version of him, trying to escape his own selfhood. The transparent layer on the clothes was used as a veil to erase his previous work. Takahashi is in his contemplative stage, a forever young punk who is nonetheless subject to a human life span. He talked about being at a point of his life where one starts losing friends, undoubtedly referring to the headdress maker Katsuya Kamo, who passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer. I got to examine the clothes at the Undercover showroom, and I can attest to their beauty and ingenuity of construction. I especially loved the gray bomber and the tailored blazers whose innards were on view under the sheer outer layer.

My first show on Thursday was Uma Wang, in which the Chinese designer once again showed clothes of unabashed romantic beauty, in earthy and precious metal tones. The tailoring was loose and the heels low or nonexistent, the knits cozy and cocooning – clothes to live in and live by.

Then it was onto Gauchére, my first show at this brand. These were Parisian cool-girl clothes, with oversized tailoring and low-slung jeans that provide but also require a certain kind of nonchalance that is often missing from the try-hard world of contemporary fashion. This kind of stuff gets knocked off left and right by the high street, but it’s actually hard to get right, and I think Gauchére did a good job.

In the early evening Rick Owens presented another assured collection that was somewhat of a counterpart to the mens, with extremely high and narrow waists. It was a gorgeous show as fashion, but as clothes the story was more complicated. The models were constricted by the narrow and long skirts and dresses – they had to walk slowly for fear of falling – a couple tripped. It made one wince and recall the discomfort of the corset, the high heels and other devices for impeding a woman’s movement and render her unnaturally incapacitated. I am not sure how much room there is in 2023 for clothes that prevent women from living their lives instead of helping them.

My sole Friday show was that of Yohji Yamamoto, where I have began to realize that I am running out of vocabulary to describe my reactions to his work. It was elegant, it was masterful – not much to say that you don’t already know. If there were any weaknesses they were in the pant and vest looks with low-slung metal belts that for looked quite ordinary for someone of Yamamoto’s stature and took a bit of the drama away. But in the moments Yohji did Yohji, one could not argue before such beauty.

Saturday was the Comme family day. In the morning Junya Watanabe once again proved that when it comes to pattern-making, the man is sui generis. From the opening structured looks to the reformed perfectos, it was architecture made clothes, or clothes made architecture – whichever way you want to look at it, there was a confidence of a grand master.

So it was with Noir Kei Ninomiya, where the young designer’s mind-bending construction methods were on full display. The opening look was my favorite – the extreme lacing, including that of a headpiece, was menacing, recalling the creature from Alien. It was unbounded creativity, but I have one bone to pick with the entire Comme family – all three collections were quite untethered from reality, and that’s where Kawakubo herself again eclipsed her proteges. Fashion is meant to be worn. It can be extreme, it can be challenging, but at the end of the day fashion is clothing, not sculptures that can be technically put on a body for fifteen minutes of a runway show.

Fashion/clothes is what Nadege Vanhee did brilliantly at Hermés – where she presented a collection of looks that were feminine but not girly, confident but not try-hard. Vanhee makes clothes for women who have nothing to prove and who do not live to be objectified by men (and other women). They are human first, women second. And the quality of Hermés remains unmatched. While the rest of the luxury fashion industry continues to cut corners on quality, Hermés remains committed to keeping its standards at their highest. I spent an inordinate amount of time at the showroom petting the stuff, and its tactility alone is worth admiring.

I did not make it to the Ann Demeulemeester show because I had to teach a StyleZeitgeist Academy class, but what I saw in photos did not inspire much confidence. It wasn’t exactly bad, but it wasn’t good either. I was hoping to be proven wrong at the showroom – alas, there is much work to be done to bring the brand back to its former glory, if such thing is possible at at all for a brand so deeply tied to its creator.

The Y/Project show the next day also did not provide much inspiration. It felt phoned in, and I wonder whether – between doing double duty at Diesel and his own brand – Glenn Martens is running out of room in terms of creativity.

This fashion week saved the best for last, and not for the first time, because Chitose Abe at Sacai presented a show of awe-inspiring brilliance. I am already tired of writing that Sacai goes from strength to strength with each season, but it’s the truth. It was a glorious display of creativity both in the silhouette and construction. Backstage, Abe talked about concentrating on making something new – which is perhaps the single most important sentiment when it comes to fashion, and something that is sorely lacking today. And there was newness in the cut of the garments, with the billowing sleeves, and dressed made from suiting fabric.

On the showroom front, my new discovery this season is Risa Nakamura, a young Japanese woman who works in Italy. Her clothes are ethereal, easy, and her work with color is sublime. Surely one to keep an eye on.

To go back to the beginning of this article, the entire fashion industry needs to do some serious reckoning about the celebrity-influencer circus. And I will have to think twice about whether I will continue to come to Paris for women’s shows.