Paris Fashion Week: Highlights from the Spring-Summer 2024 runways

By Samantha Tse, CNN

Paris, France (CNN) — It was an emotional nine days in Paris. The energy was high even though many attendees were tired after a long season of shows across New York, London and Milan — and with unpredictable weather in each city.

Paris proved to be no different. Bursts of rain were a nice welcome amid muggy heat; in many venues, invitations were used as make-shift fans — and some showgoers carried handheld electric ones to keep cool. These proved to be a shrewd accessory choice in particular at shows which ran late, some by almost an hour. (In other words, not just fashionably late.) To be fair, the tardiness was partially due to the hordes of fashion fans gathered outside. At some of the bigger shows, it was near pandemonium and some in the crowds were seemingly at risk of getting run over by oncoming traffic.

There was much anticipation this season for designers making their Paris debut, including Peter Do, fresh from showing his inaugural collection for Helmut Lang in New York, Francesco Risso of Marni and Stefano Gallici for Ann Demeulemeester, having been appointed the brand’s new creative director in June.

“Paris is a dream come true,” Do said after the show. “I feel really grown up and I wanted to make grown up clothes and I feel like Paris is the right place for the new 32-year old PD sensibility to exist.”

But there were also fond farewells, none more emotional than Sarah Burton’s leaving Alexander McQueen, a fashion house where she had spent her entire career. Burton worked as Lee McQueen’s right hand for years and, after his untimely death, took over as the brand’s creative director. Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz’s large-scale woven textiles, featuring tightly wound coils with rope detailing trailing below, were placed around the room as a backdrop to the show, which included rose-printed silk dresses, intricate knitwear and impeccable tailoring seen in fitted blazers with cut-outs adapted from earlier McQueen designs.

Naomi Campbell closed the show in a silver beaded dress with a heart-shaped breastplate, tears streaming down her face as the room rose to a standing ovation. Burton then took her final bow, hugging and thanking many in the front row, including Anna Wintour and Tim Blanks. She dedicated her final collection to her mentor, McQueen himself, and her team.

Taking a different timbre, Gabriela Hearst celebrated her last collection for Chloe with live music from a samba school flown in from Brazil — everyone in attendance was up and dancing. Meanwhile over at Miu Miu, it was a heartfelt adieu to Fabio Zambernardi after more than four decades with the Prada Group; as in Milan, Miuccia Prada came out and took a bow with him one last time.

Glittering front rows

Paris Fashion Week has always drawn a high-profile crowd but this season, with the SAG-AFRA strikes in Hollywood seemingly freeing up actors’ schedules, the front rows felt even more packed than usual.

Famous faces popped up on and off the runways: Paris Hilton, Angela Bassett and Fan Bingbing, who all walked in the Mugler show; Jared Leto, Sigourney Weaver and Cher sat front row at Givenchy. Usher, in town for a series of sold-out concerts, stunned at Marni in a red and black polka dot ensemble. The singer was also seen at Chanel wearing a bespoke tweed and pearl blazer accessorized with strands of naval-grazing pearls, alongside Riley Keough, recently announced as the brand’s newest ambassador, and Jennie Kim of Blackpink, among others.

Pamela Anderson forewent makeup at the shows she attended in favor of a clean complexion and wrote in an Instagram post, “There is beauty in self acceptance, imperfection and love.” She was ethereal at Victoria Beckham’s show in a lightweight floral dress, while at Vivienne Westwood she donned an oversized wool check-print trench coat and matching slouchy hat from the brand.

Actor Issa Rae attended shows including Francesco Risso’s first outing at Marni, Chloe and Mugler, where she wore a black ruched body-con dress. At Miu Miu, Sydney Sweeney, Emma Chamberlain, Zaya Wade and Mia Goth made for an eclectic, très-trendy front row; Cate Blanchett appeared at Louis Vuitton alongside Zendaya, who wore a dramatic white double-zipper dress that has gone viral.

Sculptural fantasies

Many a runway show this season featured conceptual looks and ‘wearable art,’ with designers incorporating new materials and couture techniques into their collections.

Jun Takahashi of Undercover presented one of the buzziest moments of the season, with three sculptural, soft-lit looks closing the show complete with live butterflies. The dresses’ skirts were revealed to be terrariums, with real flowers.

Francesco Risso punctuated his collection at Marni with a series of floral dresses made using tin cans, meanwhile, and Junya Watanabe looked at architecture this season, actualized in an angular collection featuring prism-like shapes jutting out from the garments in every direction.

Sheer beauty

There was dark drama at Mugler, but created using the sheerest of fabrics. Casey Cadwallader told journalists backstage he was inspired by “things under the sea like jellyfish, octopi and squid — things that have fluid motions.” Long veils of chiffon trailed models like seaweed, to stunning effect, as they walked down the runway wearing resin body plates, bustiers, structured blazers and bodycon dresses with corseted waists.

Rick Owens also sent out veiled models, but with face covers reminiscent of beekeeper’s masks; Zimmermann had a more romantic approach to using the lightweight fabric sending voluminous floral georgette and charmeuse dresses with ruffled detailing down the runway. Tulle opera gloves, featherweight dresses in silk chiffons and double layered silk skirts with floral motifs at Givenchy gave the collection an ethereal sensibility that was elegant and refined.

Eclectic runway spaces

Shows were scattered all over the city, and at all sorts of venues — Sacai at a car park space, for example, while both Dries Van Noten and Y/Project presented their shows in an abandoned post office, a space required guests to hike up three flights of uneven stairs.

Karl Lagerfeld’s former apartment in the picturesque seventh arrondissement was also a venue twice over: Marni and Victoria Beckham both used the gilded space to present vastly different collections. On the one hand, it was the perfect juxtaposition for Marni’s effervescent and colorful collection but it was equally majestic when Victoria Beckham presented more minimalistic, dance-inspired designs this season. (Even the tardiness of Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, who kept everyone waiting for nearly an hour, could not detract from the charm of the occasion.)

And who could forget the construction site on the Champs Elysee turned runway venue for Louis Vuitton? The space is currently under renovations by LVMH; its interior was covered in orange recyclable plastic for the show to give the ambiance of a hot air balloon.

The power of performance

Amid increasingly crowded fashion calendars, performances and stunts that supersede the traditional runway format are a way for designers to stand out from the pack. Issey Miyake continues to explore movement in its runway shows, this season with musicians imitating chirping and other sounds found in nature. Dancers clad in black and white took over the show space, manipulating fabric suspended from the ceiling as models presented a collection inspired by the founder’s 1998 collection with swaths of sheer fabrics ruched into figure-hugging dresses.

Valentino invited FKA Twigs and a group of contemporary dancers to perform in skin-colored separates — the end result proved almost more memorable than the collection itself — while at Balenciaga, Demna transformed the Cour du Dôme des Invalides into a theater, covering it with red velvet drapes and an elevated runway where people who have inspired him, including his mother and fashion journalist Cathy Horyn, walked the runway. Noticeably absent, however, was his younger brother Guram Gvasalia, who co-founded Vetements with Demna but now runs the business solo.

And, well, an issue of sanitation

Perhaps the hottest topic — and biggest stunt, if you will — to come out of Paris Fashion Week has nothing to do with fashion, but everything to do with fabric, unfortunately: bed bugs have been plaguing the city, and potentially crashing the runways. Just as the shows started, reports of bed bug sightings on public transport, homes, hotels and cinemas spread across the city (and around the world). Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced, “No one is safe.”

An insect infestation is the Spring-Summer 2024 trend no-one was asking for; attendees at the shows are surely hoping these blood-sucking freeloaders won’t be going home with them.

Keep scrolling to see more highlights from the latest shows.

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