Between Balenciaga’s show in an enormous theatre space in front of Les Invalides draped with red velvet curtains and Valentino’s show at les Beaux-Arts that featured an emotive dance and vocal performance by FKA Twigs, the mood at Paris Fashion Week on Sunday was highly theatrical. But strip away the more performative elements, and what both collections offered was a lot of great wearable clothes.
The Front Row:
It’s been unseasonably warm in Paris this week; yesterday the temperature hit 28 degrees. You wouldn’t know it, though, by looking at photos from the Balenciaga summer 2024 show, where celebrities including Isabel Huppert, Ashley Graham, Naomi Campbell, and Erykah Badu turned up in Demna’s strong shouldered, floor-sweeping outerwear. Drag queen Alexis Stone, famous for her Jennifer Coolidge impersonations, came dressed as Glenn Close as Cruella de Ville in head to toe Dalmatian spots. You have to admire her commitment to a theme.
Later in the day Florence Pugh, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Simone Ashley, and Maude Apatow arrived at the Valentino SS24 show looking a bit better dressed for a heat wave in bow-shaped bralettes, miniskirts, short sleeved dresses, and floaty capes.
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The Casting:
Balenciaga was a family and friends affair. Demna’s mother, Ella, opened the show wearing a car coat with four sleeves made from three upcyled garments, and his composer husband, BFRND, closed in a veiled bridal look made from an amalgam of seven upcycled wedding dresses. Casting notes were helpfully provided, which IDed each of the 88 models by profession and provenance. Among the many students and artists it was quite charming to find Kim Kardashian glossed as ‘Kim - Entrepreneur - Los Angeles. ’
Kaia Gerber, who opened Valentino’s AW23 couture collection in blue jeans and a white shirt, did the honours again in a white cut-out minidress with intricate 3D baroque foliage designs resembling a bas-relief sculpture. She was joined on the catwalk by Valentino regulars Mona Tougaard, Vittoria Ceretti, and Adut Akech.
The Performance:
Dance has been a key theme of multiple collections this week from Gabriela Hearst’s samba farewell at Chloé and the défilé-cum-dance performance at Christian Louboutin to the Degas-inspired pieces at Victoria Beckham. Pierpaolo Piccioli put dance at the centre of the Valentino runway — literally — by inviting multidisciplinary artist FKA Twigs to perform whilst the models walked. She was accompanied by four dancers who performed hard-hitting synchronised movements and added grace notes to her track ‘Something Is Coming*’ by digging knees and feet into large white boxes filled with rocks, sand, or peat.
The Easy Elegance:
Upcycling and sustainable fabrics were a continued focus for Demna at Balenciaga, with several pieces bricolaged together from vintage garments and a floor-length robe coat offering the first use case for a new leather alternative called LUNAFORM made from cellulose. At Valentino, Piccioli offered easy elegance in the form of tailored cotton poplin separates and draped silk evening dresses that had the effortless of a T-shirt.
