Paris fashion week was never boring

Paris, you were tiring, a little disappointing, occasionally jaw-dropping, but crucially: you were never boring.

Dior’s day one outing further fuelled the creative director musical chair gossip. Maria Grazia Chiuri enlisted a pterodactyl – no, really – to oversee the show, which comprised Virginia Woolf-inspired lace dresses and dramatic pannier skirts. But what suggested Chiuri might be exiting the storied house was the closing track: What Else Is There? by Röyksopp and Fever Ray.

There was a real battle of showmanship, too: Daniel Roseberry turned out another gobsmacking Schiaparelli collection, harnessing the power of craftsmanship and his Texan roots via gold-dipped Western belts and a sleeveless number made from mosaiced mirrors. Plus, Alessandro Michele paid homage to David Lynch by turning the catwalk into a public bathroom bathed in a Twin Peaks-y red glow. Courrèges had confetti cannons blasting, as Tems, VTSS and Petra Collins sat front row, and Stella McCartney brought pole dancers to a makeshift office.

Want more? No problemo. Here’s everything we watched, listened to and overheard at PFW.

“I always spend the entire time thinking about what I’m going to buy,” an editor said as she walked into the crumbling concrete venue of the Vaquera show on the first night of PFW. And they’d be totally right. Blown up dresses – a recipe that founders Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio have perfected – almost kissed the knees of every person they swept past, and whizzed to the top of many a wish list. Some might say you know what you’re going to get at a Vaquera show: ​’80s silhouettes and obnoxiously large accessories. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Jonathan Anderson uploaded a captionless Instagram reel before the AW25 Loewe presentation. It was an supercut of the last decade of shows and ambassadors, from Jennifer Coolidge pronouncing ​“Loewe” to Rihanna’s Super Bowl look. A barrage of hearts and messages spammed the comment section, further fanning talk of Jonathan’s Loewe departure and impending Dior appointment. All these pesky rumours, eh?

Anderson ditched his usual show space, the Château de Vincennes, for Hôtel de Maisons, Karl Lagerfeld’s former mansion. Described as a ​“scrapbook” of Anderson’s work, womenswear took precedence on the ground floor. There was also a collaboration with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation on show, which spawned knobbly woven coats and screen-printed skirts. There were showstopping dresses in vermillion, burnt orange, lavender and turquoise organza. Upstairs was home to a series of playful sculptures and a room of mannequins in slouchy knits and knee-length boots. Even sans show, there was a magic to the collection that made you want to pluck it off the dummies and take it all home.

Inspired by action figures, fluid identities and the Wild West, Duran Lantink’s ​“Duranimals” walked an intimate runway space in prints that ran the gamut from zebra and cowhide to camo and snake print. The mood shifted as assless trousers appeared and bouncing silicone tits on a male model elicited gasps and giggles, eclipsing all conversation about the rest of the collection. In fact, reception was split right down the middle. As FACE Music Director Davy Reed put it: ​“That’s too silly, that.”

Coperni bookended the day with a jaw-dropping LAN party inside the Adidas Arena. Not quite Disneyland, but still a major get. Two hundred gamers live-streaming and playing Fortnite were placed between show seats moments before the show started. Lila Moss and Alex Consani both walked: Lila wore a rollneck, shorts, a garter with studs and boots, while Alex closed the show in a leotard and hooded blazer. Similarly to last season, all anyone talked about was the show’s location – an indication that the collection lacked substance. Just one Fortnite reference would have been nice.

Among the glitz and the glamour, we’ve also seen a return to more conservative dressing on the runway. In the midst of what feels like an alarming political climate, the fashion industry found its own way of immortalising the moment. On the more serious side of fashion’s coin, we the ​“Boom Boom” aesthetic play out in real time. A term coined by trend forecaster Sean Monahan, it speaks to the return of noiseless, cautious – tepid, even – corporate clothing. An ​’80s power suit renaissance has the masses in a chokehold – ahem, Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, MM6, to name a few. To add to matters, there’s been an unbridled celebration of (real?) fur – you’d be hard pressed to find many designers who didn’t explore the trend this season. Essentially, it’s all indicative of the hairy situation we’re currently facing.

Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s collection partly reflected this trend. Inspired by skewed boardroom dynamics and after-dark antics, he opened with ensembles that would slot into the Industry and Severance realm, rather than a fog-filled club in the middle of Paris. Shaggy belted coats, camel suiting and exaggerated shoulders made for a more subdued mood.

A minimised set and unassigned seats awaited guests inside Balenciaga’s literal maze of a runway, and pounding footsteps echoed throughout the space before nary a face was seen. Slouchy tracksuits, bulbous trainers and dark visors – we’ve seen all of this from Demna already. Perhaps he, too, got bored of his tried and tested formula, as the first few looks to waltz down the blackened runway were suits that seemed to spell a new, head-scratching era (and more Boom Boom). Eventually, though, Demna reverted to his old ways and eschewed tailoring for trackies, footie kits, tops slapped with the Puma logo (a new collab), and a floating coat/​dress hybrid. At the time of writing, it’s been announced that Demna will become Gucci’s artistic director, following a final couture show on 6^th July. Startlingly, nothing in the show alluded to the fact that it would be his last for the (also) Kering owned brand. How will the Georgian designer approach tailoring at Italy’s biggest house? Watch this space.

Laura and Deanna Fanning’s midnight wanderers were as quirky and rebellious as they are. The venue, Brasserie Mollard, housed the Kiko Kostadinov AW25 women’s collection which saw the co-creative directors unleash a maelstrom of ​“fucked up” silhouettes and colours, as one showgoer put it. See: ASICS tabis paired with cigarette trousers, rope belts, brassieres and teddy bears.

In the same vein, Miuccia Prada was also ruminating on a world filled with dishevelled party girls. Gigi Hadid, Nettspend, Cortisa Star, Sarah Paulson all walked the Miu Miu show, which featured youthful, offbeat styling. Models sported mussed up hair, bullet bras, bowler hats, off-the-shoulder dresses and sturdy bags. Try as she might, the Miu Miu girl is always a bit whimsical and yearning for sophistication – but that’s her USP, and we’re glad to see it stay that way.