Victoria Beckham, new creative directors: What to expect as Paris Fashion Week opens new chapter
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British fashion designer and singer Victoria Beckham takes to the catwalk on crutches after presenting her Women Ready-to-wear Fall-Winter 2024/2025 collection as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on 1 March 2024.
JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
by Marine DO-VALE and Adam PLOWRIGHT
Shows by Saint Laurent and Weinsanto will kick off a hotly anticipated Paris Fashion Week following a blockbuster celebration of Giorgio Armani in Milan after his death earlier this month.
Attention will switch from the Italian fashion capital to the French one where a historic Spring-Summer 2026 season is set to underline the massive changes underway in the top ranks of the global luxury clothing industry.
VIPs and fashionistas are all jostling for the hottest ticket in Paris, the debut of Franco-Belgian Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, which has been held back until the penultimate day on October 6.
Monday will see collections from Saint Laurent, France's Weinsanto and Belgian Julie Kegels, a newcomer, with the first day of Paris Fashion Week typically packed with VIP and celebrity sightings.
Many A-listers from Cate Blanchett, Glenn Close to Richard Gere turned out on Sunday evening for the Giorgio Armani show in Milan, the final collection the Italian designer worked on before his death earlier this month.
It had originally been intended as a celebration of 50 years of Armani's fashion house, but the show became a tribute to a legend, who died on September 4 aged 91.
Attention in Paris will be on a new younger generation of designers taking the reins at major labels, with the sector as a whole banking on the changes to infuse fresh excitement and hopefully boost flagging sales.
"We're opening a new chapter, not so much for Fashion Week itself, but for what fashion will be over the next 10 years," Pierre Groppo, fashion editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair magazine in France, told AFP.
Blazy was poached from Kering-owned Italian brand Bottega Veneta to take over at French powerhouse Chanel and he faces the daunting task of turning the page on Karl Lagerfeld's decades-long dominance.
The "Kaiser" defined the hugely profitable brand up to his death in 2019 and was succeeded by his longtime co-worker Virginie Viard, who was seen as a successful continuity candidate.
Blazy, who first caught the eye as a designer at Maison Margiela, took one of the most sought-after spots in the fashion business in December and has given almost nothing away about his intentions.
Another hotly awaited moment in Paris will be Jonathan Anderson's first women's collection for LVMH-owned Dior, on 1 October, after the Northern Irish designer presented a well-received debut men's line in June.
Attention will also focus on Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga, who is succeeding the provocative streetwear-loving Demna, who has switched to struggling Gucci.
The Georgian, who uses one name, went big on the red-carpet glamour with his first collection for Gucci during Milan Fashion Week which wrapped up on Sunday.
It won praise from Simon Longland, head of fashion buying at London megastore Harrods, but he said "without doubt the highlight of the week" was British designer Louise Trotter's first bow at Bottega Veneta.
Dutch designer Duran Lantink will be hoping he can make a similar mark when he sends down models for the first time in Paris for Jean Paul Gaultier as the brand's first permanent artistic director since its founder retired in 2020.
For Claire Thomson-Jonville, editorial director of Vogue France, "the massive arrival of new creative directors is the sign of a new era: they bring a more global, inclusive and responsible vision, while reinventing the heritage of the houses".
The week will also see the debut of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe, Miguel Castro Freitas at Mugler and Mark Thomas at Carven.
"We can call this a historic Fashion Week," added Thomson-Jonville.
Some major designers will be showing only their second collections -- often considered by industry insiders as more meaningful than the debuts.
They include Sarah Burton for Givenchy, Glenn Martens for Maison Margiela and Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford.
Alongside the newcomers will be collections from Louis Vuitton and Hermes, and the return of long-absent labels such as Celine and Thom Browne, promising a Fashion Week "without downtime", said Elvire von Bardeleben, fashion editor at French newspaper Le Monde.
Victoria Beckham will also unveil her latest designs on 3 October, just days before the airing of a new three-part Netflix documentary about the former Spice Girl.
The Paris event comes at a turbulent time for the luxury industry, facing slowing demand in China, US tariffs on exports and uncertainty over the global economy.
