Paris Fashion Week kicks off with a "historic" edition

Paris Women's Fashion Week debuted this Monday with the youngest brands and a Saint Laurent show full of stars, before the most anticipated events, such as Dior, Chanel or Loewe which, with new creatives at the helm, are making for a "historic" edition. After New York, London and Milan, a hundred firms will present their spring-summer 2026 collections until October 7th.

This edition will be decisive after the unprecedented changes in some of the most prestigious brands, with a dozen new creators, in an attempt to boost the luxury sector that is facing economic difficulties. "It's a historic fashion week," Claire Thomson-Jonville, editorial director of Vogue France, told AFP.

Famous ambassadors

Victor Weinsanto and Belgian Julie Kegels kicked things off on Monday. Kegels, in her first appearance on the official catwalk program, presented a collection with lots of transparencies mixed with satin fabrics and shiny details, in a pastel palette. At the show, under the tracks of the Parisian aerial metro and attended by the Spanish singer Rosalía, the designer's thong socks were not missing. The Belgian designer is known for her stockings that leave the heel exposed and are held up with a strap between the toes.

At night, Saint Laurent caused a sensation in the Trocadero gardens. In front of the Eiffel Tower, Anthony Vaccarello presented his new collection to a star-studded audience, including Madonna, Carla Bruni Sarkozy and Renée Zellweger.

Presented were wide dresses with ruffles, transparent trench coats and silhouettes entirely in black or brown leather, with straight skirts and large jackets, in shades of blue, red or deep orange, contrasting with white hydrangeas which formed the brand's initials YSL.

And outside the official calendar, L'Oréal Paris presented a fashion show free and open to the public in the town hall square, in the center of Paris, with its most famous ambassadors: from Jane Fonda --in silver and with the raised fist--and Andie MacDowell, to Eva Longoria and Viola Davis, passing by Kendall Jenner and Ariana Greenblatt.

High bar

In the coming days, the most anticipated moments will be the first fashion show from Matthieu Blazy for Chanel, on October 6. Blazy, a 41-year-old Franco-Belgian who left the creative helm of Bottega Veneta takes over from Virginie Viard, Karl Lagerfeld's right hand woman, who assumed the artistic direction of the French firm in 2019.

Jonathan Anderson will present his first women's collection for Dior on October 1st. This 41-year-old Northern Irishman was for 11 years the artistic director of the century-old Spanish brand Loewe, which he radically rejuvenated.

Loewe will be another of the most anticipated debuts, by the duo formed by Americans Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, appointed to replace Anderson. The founders of the New York firm Proenza Schouler have large shoes to fill after their predecessor turned the Spanish brand into a sales and design success. Loewe, a leather goods house dating back to 1846, founded in Madrid and currently integrated into the French luxury group LVMH, has combined up to now craftsmanship and avant-garde. For years, Loewe shows were a rendez-vous for stars from Timothée Chalamet to Pedro Almodóvar, passing through Tilda Swinton. Several of these stars were ambassadors of the brand.