On CosmoGirl.com…
- Dressing for Paris Fashion Week
- Paris Fashion Week: Dévastée Spring/Summer 2009 Collection
- Paris Fashion Week: Cher Michel Klein Spring/Summer 2009 Collection
- Paris Fashion Week: Tsumori Chisato and Issey Miyake at the Carrousel du Louvre
- Paris Fashion Week: Sophia Kokosalaki
- Paris Fashion Week: Alena Akhmadullina
- Paris Fashion Week: Talbot Runhof
- Paris Fashion Week: Wrap-Up
On BonjourParis.com…
- The World of Paris Fashion Week (published September 30)
This week, the streets are looking even more stylish than usual. The cafés are mobbed, the nightclubs are packed and in spite of the financial crisis, it feels like everyone’s in the mood to shop. It’s Fashion Week and it’s hit Paris.
Twice a year, designers descend upon the fashion capitals of the world – New York, London, Milan and Paris – to showcase their latest collections to the press and public. This year, Paris’s Semaine des Créateurs du Mode for Spring/Summer 2009 takes place from September 27 to October 5th. Apart from the shows themselves, which number about a hundred, Fashion Week is also an excuse for lavish promotional events, exhibition unveilings, boutique grand openings and celeb-studded parties that run until dawn.
In my mind, Fashion Week has always been a distant fantasy, accessible only through runway footage on Style TV, party pics in Vogue and the DVD of “The Devil Wears Prada.” But this year, I’m infiltrating the scene for the first time as a freelance fashion journalist. This world unlike any other. It’s populated by beautiful people and brimming with creativity and ankle boots.
I kicked off the week at a Saturday morning show for Impasse de la Defense at Le Train Bleu, a beautiful Belle Epoque restaurant in the Gare de Lyon. I was nervous. I mentally checked myself at the door, threw my shoulders back, stuck my chin up and strode into the venue like a true fashionista. Unfortunately, no one was there to witness my little performance; they were still busy setting up. A little wounded, I checked my phone. I was on time, which in this world, I discovered, means unfashionably early.
After snagging a coffee and macaroon from the breakfast setup – one of the perks of attending an early-morning show – I selected a corner from which I could observe the scene. The crowd was a mix of fashion folk and journalists, peppered with the occasional misfit – disgruntled photographers, misbehaving kids and heavy-set older women in loafers.
When it seemed as if the show was about to begin, I sat and asked a nice-looking Asian journalist next to me about the assigned seating; she shrugged her shoulders and said, “There is, but nobody seems to be paying attention to it.” I thanked her, relocated to the front row and prepared my equipment for the start of the show.
Against the ornate gilded interior of the restaurant, Impasse designer Karim Bonnet showcased an energetic line of his signature hand-painted textiles. As an accordionist threw her entire body into a discordant, melancholy tune, lithe African models streamed one-by-one down a red-carpeted runway. The collection was composed of bright, gauzy sheaths and separates, accented with ethnic accessories and sexy black footwear. Some pieces incorporated a springtime floral scheme with white accents, while others used a darker palette that mixed animal prints and urban-inspired graphics.
The whole show took about fifteen minutes and at the end of it, Bonnet took a turn down the runway to rousing applause. The second he disappeared backstage, everyone sprung from their seats and hustled out the door, no doubt heading to other shows across town. I joined the crowd of people filing out, my head still swimming with the colors, the textures, the music. I was hit by the sheer reality of Saturday morning at the Gare de Lyon. For a while there, my world had been fashion.
- The Venues of Paris Fashion Week (published October 5)
When it comes to Fashion Week, location is everything.
Well okay, maybe not everything. The clothes are important too, as are the models and the ritzy after-parties and the high-profile guests. But a show’s venue can have a huge effect on how a collection is received. The right music, set and lighting can enhance a designer’s work, calling attention to every detail from the length of the zipper to the width of the hemline to the right blend of chemicals that produced the perfect shade of tangerine.
The choice of venue also speaks to the intention of the collection. Cutting-edge and a little gritty? Go for a parking lot in the 3rd arrondissement, like Estrella Archs did on Wednesday. High-shine and glamorous? The pitch black interior of the Espace Ephémére des Tuileries provided a sexy backdrop for Tuesday’s Sophia Kokosalaki show. Impasse de la Defense chose the beautiful Belle Epoque interior of Le Train Bleu as the backdrop for its brightly-painted textiles, while Dévastée went with the hot nightclub Le Showcase to exhibit its casual, youthful summer collection.
But many designers stayed safe and chose the elegant, if impersonal, salles of the Carrousel du Louvre. The Carrousel is the epicenter of Paris Fashion Week, a madhouse filled with fashion folk shuffling from show to show, photographers jostling for celebrity shots and intrepid tourists trying to sneak past the security guards. The lobby is bordered by stands selling fashion trade publications, and a chic upstairs lounge offers Lavazza coffee, Kusmi tea and Schweppes cocktails between shows. This year, the large event spaces of the Carrousel played host to many of the shows by established medium-profile designers – Gaspard Yurkievich, Tsumori Chisato, Issey Miyake, Andrew Gn, Léonard Alena Akhmadullina, Elie Saab, Wunderkind, Collette Dinnigan and Chapurin are some of the designers I caught there.
Many of the top designers opted for more grandiose settings – Gareth Pugh and Agnès B. at the Palais de Tokyo, Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel at the Grand Palais, Dries Van Noten at the Jardin de Palais Royal. The Espace Eiffel was popular this year, with shows from Nina Ricci, Isabel Marant, Karl Lagerfeld, Giambattista Valli, Hermès and Lanvin, as was the Espace Ephémére Tuileries, a huge tent erected in the Jardin des Tuileries which hosted Christian Dior, Sophia Kokosalaki, Christian Lacroix, Celine, Valentino and Chloé. While it is just one component of a successful show, these vets know that location can make all the difference.
