Paris
by Camille Beaumont
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Camille Beaumont reports from Paris Fashion Week for Not Nothing.
On-the-Ground Dispatch
The week closed on the sixth of October, and what stays with me is less an image than a temperament: optimism, held carefully, like something carried across a crowded room. Paris had every reason to be anxious. The economy is uncertain, luxury demand uneven, the retail mood fragile. Yet the city arrived at its shows with an unmistakable current of energy, and I felt it from the first morning.
That morning belonged to Matières Fécales, in the open air of Place de la République. Ninety-nine looks, every one worn by a person of colour, offered as a statement about the ninety-nine percent. I found it hard to separate the poetic from the political, and I suspect that was the intention. Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman heard the same thing: something personal, beautiful and political all at once. A week that begins with such conviction earns a certain latitude afterwards.
Then came Celine, and with it the quiet certainty that something had been settled. Michael Rider found a way to hold French polish and casual ease in the same hand: oversized tailoring, delicate chains, great belts, embellished shirting. Vanessa Friedman, in the New York Times, placed it above everything else the season had offered. I was moved by how little the clothes seemed to argue. They made a contradiction look like grace. Later, a remark by Thakoon Panichgul stayed with me: that “commercial” need not be a lesser word. I came away believing him.
At the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Alessandro Michele’s Valentino asked guests to bring books for local libraries. There is a tenderness in a gesture like that, and Michele’s unease at the thought of real books being fed to machines gave it a faint ache. He called a library a masterpiece, and in that room I did not feel inclined to disagree. Elsewhere, Carven’s soundtrack carried its own anxiety about artificial intelligence. Across the week, designers seemed to turn toward the hand, toward literature, toward the handmade.
Saint Laurent was the evening that gathered the week’s feeling into one place. Anthony Vaccarello’s tenth anniversary was gilded and glamorous, and it closed with Charlotte Gainsbourg singing, the same lyric returning like a tide: you are so much, Yves Saint Laurent. The performance gave the show the charge of a farewell. Afterwards the gold snake shoe was everywhere in conversation.
And then there was the skirt. Prada made an entire collection of them, and Dries Van Noten, before a notably starry front row, gave the silhouette its most expressive styling. Beneath it ran a softer current: lace, sheer layers, a longing for lightness. Louis Vuitton closed the month with clothes made almost weightless, in a futuristic city of hovering cars. Nicolas Ghesquière spoke of a second skin, and it was a fitting last image, expansive and unhurried.
What left me cold was not failure but caution. Several collections seemed to hold their breath, prizing immediacy over risk. Glenn Martens, at Maison Margiela, frankly acknowledged that speaking to a wider clientele makes it harder to be severe with concept. At Jean Paul Gaultier, Duran Lantink allowed a little more wearability, though the cone bras remained. I understood the reasoning, and still I missed, now and then, a little danger.
Outside the shows, Celine Dion was the week’s most gracious ghost. She did not take the front row one might have expected, but she performed at the L’Oréal Paris show and was photographed outside the Royal Monceau in several looks, among them Sarah Burton’s Givenchy tailoring. Lucien Pagès, with a smile in his voice, called her hotel the new runway.
Paris did not dazzle me this season; it reassured me, which is a different and perhaps rarer thing. The clothes wanted to be worn. That, I think, is the allure of the moment: a city making reality desirable.
Camille Beaumont reports from Paris Fashion Week for Not Nothing.
Curated Round-Up
Spring/Summer 2027: The Season of Grounded Grace
Paris closed its Spring/Summer 2027 week on 6 October in a mood the industry seemed to agree upon: commercially alert, yet unusually energetic.
The mood
Pascal Morand, executive president of the FHCM, found the atmosphere “very positive,” with “an intense energy and a desire among designers to express and showcase everything they have to offer.” Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman was more emphatic still: “The week has been superlative… The stakes were really high, and I think the houses and designers more than met the challenge.”
The PR figure Lucien Pagès read the same season through the lens of uncertainty: “Designers are striving to make reality desirable.” Business of Fashion, in its day-six review, “The Magic of Reality,” considered how Saint Laurent, Dior and Maison Margiela each coped with the moment, and found the strongest houses were those making conceptual fashion commercially usable.
The peak
At Celine, Michael Rider drew the season’s warmest critical praise. The New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman called it “the best show of the Paris season thus far (even, possibly, the whole fashion season).” Thakoon Panichgul offered a generous framing: “‘Commercial’ isn’t a bad word.”
The skirt, and what lay beneath
Prada’s skirt-only collection became the season’s clearest emblem. Luxury consultant Roopal Patel observed, “It’s definitely the season of the skirt.” Fargo singled out Dries Van Noten as “very important” to the direction, while the New York Times noted the movie stars in its front row.
Beneath the skirt ran a current of intimacy. Bras, corsets and sheer layering appeared at Tom Ford, Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain, Miu Miu and Ester Manas, which Fargo read as a desire for “inside love, an inside intimacy.”
Lightness and the future
At Dior, Jonathan Anderson offered a silvery, future-facing softening of the house codes. Vogue Runway’s Amy Verner placed it within a wider mood of “futuristic versions of what we have always worn.” Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière, who closed the month with a hovering-car cityscape, described clothes “almost like swimwear, like a second skin.” Chanel, under Matthieu Blazy, pressed the case for wearability with refreshed Charvet shirts and eighty-three looks, each with a different heel; Vogue counted it among the week’s strongest arguments that wearability need not be bland. At Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli brought couture technique to white shirts, T-shirts and bias-cut jeans.
Craft against the machine
At Valentino, held in the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Alessandro Michele asked guests to donate books. His reasoning was plain: “A library is a masterpiece.” Verner noted that designers were “rejecting creatively” artificial intelligence in favour of innovation. Dazed, for its part, found its SS27 beauty story in uncanny eyes, SFX horns at Matières Fécales and bold glitter.
The question of caution
If the week had a reservation, it was caution rather than failure. Buchanan put it bluntly: “Everyone has to create immediacy. Otherwise it’ll sit on those racks.” At Maison Margiela, Glenn Martens acknowledged, “We have to speak to the world, so it’s a bit difficult to go as hard on concepts.” Duran Lantink, at Jean Paul Gaultier, allowed, “There’s a bit more wearability in this collection.”
Beyond the runway
Celine Dion, in Paris for her residency, was photographed outside the Royal Monceau in several looks, including Sarah Burton’s Givenchy SS27 tailoring. “Her hotel is the new runway,” Pagès joked. Vogue’s Phil Oh documented guests across the shows, with anticipation especially high around Dior and Louis Vuitton.
Sources
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Pascal Morand, executive president, FHCM
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Linda Fargo, Bergdorf Goodman
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Lucien Pagès, PR figure
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Business of Fashion, “The Magic of Reality” (day-six review)
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Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times
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Thakoon Panichgul
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Roopal Patel, luxury consultant
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Amy Verner, Vogue Runway
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Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton
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Alessandro Michele, Valentino
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Buchanan (as quoted in the research brief)
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Glenn Martens, Maison Margiela
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Duran Lantink, Jean Paul Gaultier
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Vogue / Vogue Runway, including Phil Oh’s street-style coverage
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Dazed, SS27 beauty coverage