Paris Fashion Week Giving back to this art what belongs to it

"Paris is there to let the world know that fashion is an art. In essence, this was the focus of the major presentations during the fall-winter 2023–2024 fashion week, which was held in the city from January 17 to 22.

While Milan has just wrapped up its men's fashion week with a generally traditional and commercial proposal, New York and London have given up on the idea of having a separate men's fashion week, and France appears to want to establish itself as the champion creative city. Additionally, it displays changing areas in impressive settings, created with the help of renowned artists, with little regard for the material needs of common people.

The LVMH group's brands are particularly enthusiastic about physical activity. Everything is exceptional at Louis Vuitton, the leading brand in the market.

The 1,200 visitors find a sizable apartment that has been meticulously restored inside the enormous box positioned in the center of the Cour Carrée du Louvre, right next to a yellow Cadillac. The French directors Michel and Olivier Gondry also created the short film that was projected on the walls and the set design.

Pop singer Rosalia uses the car as a podium and carries the microphone throughout the parade. It is difficult to concentrate on the clothes because of the performance and the decor, but the extensive collection grabs people's attention.

Virgil Abloh, the former artistic director who passed away from illness in November 2021, was worked with by members of the studio who continue to carry on his poetic and playful touch. Examples include costumes embroidered with handwritten love letters, coats decorated with colored apples, unstructured formal jackets, and motorcycle jackets reassembled. Colm Dillane, a designer from KidSuper who was invited to collaborate this season, imagined pixelated patterns and embroidered costumes that look like surreal pain. Each item is branded with the name Louis Vuitton, a logo, or the company's distinctive checkerboard, such as a denim-on-denim look covered in "LV" rhinestones that are as bright as a disco ball.

Dior pays homage to Saint Laurent again We discover the same splendor at Dior. A wild crowd ecstatically welcomes the members of the K-pop group BTS in front of the XXL tent set up at the Tuileries.

The nine hundred visitors inside are also entitled to a film that is projected on the walls and features actors Robert Pattinson and Gwendoline Christie who are also present in the room reading passages from the poem La Terre vaine by TS Eliot. The film was directed by Baillie Walsh and features music by Max Richter. Yves Saint Laurent signed a collection deal with Dior in 1958, and he served as the brand's designer until 1960. This influx of luminaries is converging towards that goal, which is to highlight Kim Jones's work, which was inspired by that collection.

"This season, I wanted to explore the concept of renewal and regeneration while researching the archives, especially the transition between Monsieur Dior [who passed away in 1957] and Monsieur Saint Laurent. According to Kim Jones, "there is a new form of relaxation in the 1958 collection, especially through the tailoring; it's a softer silhouette. Her signature can be found in the delicate embroidery, the pastel hues, the sweaters draped like togas, and the very opulent fabrics that are contrasted with sporty elements (multi-pocket cropped trousers, boots for hiking in the rain).

More subtly, as seen in soft-material suits or a tweed coat with a tie collar, the Saint-Laurentesque heritage is represented. Since 2008, Yves Saint Laurent has passed away; however, the house that bears his name has continued to exist within the Kering group, a rival of LVMH.

Since Anthony Vaccarello was named artistic director in 2016, Saint Laurent hasn't presented a menswear collection in Paris, and this season's presentation is a notable debut. The exhibition is held in François Pinault's art collection, which is housed in the Bourse de commerce, where Kering was founded.

Paul Prier and Charlotte Gainsbourg alternate playing turns on a black lacquered grand piano in the central rotunda that Tadao Ando's architects redesigned, beneath the glass dome. The collection as a whole, which is elegantly striking and unaffected by a hooded sweater, is dominated by this color as well.

There aren't any sneakers in sight; instead, there are low-heeled patent shoes. Anthony Vaccarello also cites Jacques de Bascher, the prince of Parisian nights in the 1970s, as one of his sources of inspiration. Saint Laurent men look like dandies from another time in cape coats, ascot blouses, fitted trousers with a belted waist, and velvet, silk, cashmere, and satin are used as raw materials.

According to the designer, "I wanted to elevate the men's wardrobe to the same level as the women's, and I feel like I'm getting there now.". James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, and even the Maharaja of Indore were among the 20th-century artists who drew inspiration from Paris, and Grace Wales Bonner unveils her score beneath the gold of the Hôtel d'Evreux on the place Vendôme.

Jazz trumpeter Hermon Mehari, a Grammy-winning artist, performs with the production while dressed in silk suits he co-designed with Savile Row tailor Anderson andamp; Sheppard, jackets with raised collars stitched with shells, exquisitely knit dresses and sweaters, and student jackets imprinted with "Sorbonne 56" to commemorate the first Congress of black artists and writers that year at the Parisian university. The founder of AMI, Alexandre Mattiussi, who was an apprentice dancer in his youth, gives his guests a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go up on the Opéra Bastille stage and watch him perform what he describes as a stripping exercise.

He begs, "I wanted to start everything from scratch with humility, as if this collection was the very first. I tried to be as pure as I could.

He is known for his flattering basics and offers a variety of shades in grey, beige, cream, and bluish tones that are only slightly roused by a few items that are embroidered with crystals and pointed mules. Charlotte Rampling, who closes the parade in a big navy suit, and singer Moses Sumney both perform live to accompany the outcome, which has been so carefully honed that it runs the risk of becoming somewhat monotonous.

With Pharrell Williams and Burna Boy among his audience of celebrity friends who came to support him, Kenzo features a quartet performing Beatles hits that Nigo performed in the Salle Pleyel with majesty. The third collection of Japanese artist Kenzo Takada, whose vibrant beginnings have always captivated them and which he attempts to re-enchant, is given energy by the upbeat soundtrack.

A few successes—such as half-moon bags, denim bombers, structured cardigans, and jackets with martial arts influences—remain despite a statement that is frequently too patchwork. Nigo's imagined Kenzo silhouette starts to take shape, looking less unlikely than it did during his first two tests.

It is undoubtedly mature to use Jonathan Anderson's Loewe. He declares that the program "must become a pure creative laboratory, without compromise.".

Last season, he grew grass and grafted touchscreen tablets to his ready-to-wear. This season, he creates a wardrobe that alternates between wearable pieces and sculptural audacity, drawing inspiration in particular from Renaissance painting and contemporary work by Julien Nguyen, whose reproduced canvases are used as decorations for the parade. Vellum, the parchment canvas familiar to early plastic artists, is used to create textured T-shirts. Jackets that appear to move on the body are actually made of copper or steel. Suit jackets remain stiff and coats appear bulbous, while young men with white or red eyes sprout leather archangel wings from their backs.

According to Anderson, "I'm at a point where I want to develop the materiality of pieces between sensuality and hardness, and radicalize the silhouette.". This idea was brought to a head with the performance of American visual artist Daniel Arsham at the Perrotin gallery, which proved that fashion is an art form just like any other.

The artist broke the envelope holding some plaster-covered clothing that blended in with statues, then dressed the mannequins in partially fossilized shirts after releasing them. The consecration of Paris as the city of unbridled creativity is complete with this occurrence, even though the story does not mention how comfortable it is to wear.

Jazz trumpeter Hermon Mehari, a Grammy-winning artist, performs with the production while dressed in silk suits he co-designed with Savile Row tailor Anderson andamp; Sheppard, jackets with raised collars stitched with shells, exquisitely knit dresses and sweaters, and student jackets imprinted with "Sorbonne 56" to commemorate the first Congress of black artists and writers that year at the Parisian university.