Paris Fashion Week starts Monday in a swirl of rumours of musical chairs at some of the sector’s most fabled brands.
Falling profits at the two luxury giants LVMH and Kering have sent a shudder through the industry, fuelling talk of a “Game of Thrones” among top designers.
Celine’s Hedi Slimane and Simon Porte Jacquemus — the young French designer who made tiny handbags and tiny everything else a thing — are being talked of to fill Karl Lagerfeld’s empty chair at Chanel after Virginie Viard, who took the reins after the Kaiser’s death in 2019, bowed out in June.
Tongues are also likely to wag at the spring-summer shows over where John Galliano might go, with his contract at Maison Margiela nearing its end.
Rising young French star Victor Weinsanto — dubbed “The Jacquemus of the East” because he comes from the eastern region of Alsace — kicks off the nine-day marathon of 66 shows, not to mention the myriad of off-calendar shows and presentations.
The starriest affair Monday, however, is likely to be sponsor L’Oreal’s show in front of the Paris Opera, with the cosmetic giant’s ambassadors Jane Fonda, Kendall Jenner and Eva Longoria likely to be among the guests.
The first of the big-hitters follow Tuesday with Dior and Saint Laurent, the packed calendar reflecting Paris’s crushing dominance over rivals Milan, New York and London.
And there is no let-up at the end: Chanel opens the final day on October 1 by returning to the vast Grand Palais, the scene of some of Lagerfeld’s most jaw-dropping shows, after an absence of four years.
The brand is shelling out 30 million euros ($33.5 million) for the right to stage its shows at the iconic Belle Epoque edifice, which reopened after a major facelift to host fencing and taekwondo at the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games.
With Viard — long Lagerfeld’s right-hand woman — gone, observers expect a collection drawn from Chanel classics.
