France’s fashion houses are returning to the catwalk today for Paris’s men’s fashion week after more than a year of crisis left some wondering if the traditional calendar would ever return.
Only six of 72 brands that make up the official Paris fashion calendar will present live shows this week, though they include two big names in the form of Dior and Hermes. It follows a similarly tentative return in Milan, where only three of 47 – Dolce and Gabbana, Etro, and Armani – offered live events for this week’s spring/summer 2022 show, AFP reports.
New York won’t be back in physical form until September, while the newly gender-neutral London fashion week has also remained fully digital up to now. In Paris, many big names are staying within the confines of computer screens, including Louis Vuitton, Dries Van Noten, Loewe and Tom Browne.
Pascal Morand, the president of France’s Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion, told AFP there was “a very strong appetite to return to the physical”. But he was not ashamed to deploy the word “phygital” for the current state of affairs.
Another major absentee from Paris this week is Hedi Slimane, head designer at Celine. Even before the pandemic, he had declared the fashion calendar “obsolete”, telling Le Monde: “These days, creating a sense of event and rarity seems more essential than an obligatory exercise at a fixed time.”
The Brazilian designer Francisco Terra, from young label Neith Nyer, is also among those not keen to return to the traditional way of doing things, and will be organising his own catwalk followed by a pop-up store “to directly test clients’ reactions”.
“I don’t think we really need the calendar,” he told AFP. “The image of a young brand is made on Instagram, with celebrities and above all outside of the seasons.”
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading, wherever you are the in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Martin Belam. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.
