Paris Fashion Week program teems with new names, welcome returns and major debuts

Paris Fashion Week will take over the baton from New York, London and Milan on Monday February 26, featuring an extremely rich programme.

The highlights of the week dedicated to women’s ready-to-wear collections for Fall/Winter 2024-25 will include maiden shows by CFCL and Zomer, grand comebacks by Vetements, Lacoste, Off-White, Lutz Huelle, Marine Serre and Ester Manas, and debut collections by a string of new creative directors, at Chloé, Rochas and Alexander McQueen. Plus, of course, a plethora of gala evenings and special events.

 
The forthcoming Paris Fashion Week Women is scheduled from February 26 to March 5, and will feature 71 runway shows and 38 presentations by 109 labels in total. A collective show by the students of the French Fashion Institute (IFM) will set the ball rolling on Monday afternoon, followed by Belgian designer Marie Adam-Leenaerdt, New York-based duo Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee with their label Vaquera, and CFCL (Clothing For Contemporary Life).
 
The latter was founded in 2020 by Japanese designer Yusuke Takahashi, formerly with Issey Miyake, and will be staging its first runway show on the Parisian calendar. The same goes for Zomer, which will bring the week to a close on Tuesday, March 5. Characterised by a cheerfully experimental style, Zomer was set up in 2023 by the Dutch designer duo of Danial Aitouganov (formerly with Burberry and Chloé) and Imruh Asha, who worked for Moschino, Pucci and Jacquemus, before being named fashion director of Dazed magazine in 2021. 

The spotlights will also be turned on two eagerly awaited debut shows. On Thursday, February 29, German designer Chemena Kamali will stage her first show for Chloé, having replaced Gabriela Hearst, and on Saturday, March 2, it will be the turn of Seán McGirr, who has taken over from Alexander McQueen’s second-in-command Sarah Burton. The latter left the label after 14 years in charge, following the death of the brilliant British designer in 2010.
 
Another must-see event is the start of a new chapter for Rochas, under the aegis of Italian designer Alessandro Vigilante, who will unveil his first collection for the Parisian label with a presentation on Wednesday, February 28. Also on the presentation calendar, comeback events by Irish designer Róisín Pierce, and Chinese label Chen Peng, alongside two new names, Italian designer Gabriele Colangelo and South African designer Laduma Ngxokolo with his knitwear label MaXhosa Africa.
 
Charles de Vilmorin, who left Rochas last year, will be back at Paris Fashion Week to unveil his first ready-to-wear collection at the Sphère showroom, operated by the French Fashion and Haute Couture Federation (FHCM) with DEFI’s support. Sphère will run from February 28 to March 5 at the Palais de Tokyo, and will also include Alphonse Maitrepierre, Antwerp designer Florentina Leitner, French designer Lucille Thièvre, Di Du from China with her label Didu, and French-Canadian duo Paolina Russo and Lucile Gilmard.

 
Paris Fashion Week will showcase as usual the collections of luxury giants like Christian Dior, Saint Laurent, Balmain, Hermès, Balenciaga, Chanel, Valentino and Louis Vuitton, as well as those by several labels returning to the French capital this season. The first is Ester Manas, who will stage her comeback show on Tuesday, February 27, after a hiatus during which she won the ANDAM competition’s special prize in 2023. Off-White will be back on February 29, and on March 1 it will be the turn of Vetements, spearheaded by Guram Gvasalia.

On Monday, March 4, Marine Serre will make her Paris womenswear week return, having lately shown on the menswear calendar. On March 5, Lacoste will be back on the Parisian runways, having withdrawn a year ago following the departure of creative director Louise Trotter, now at Carven, who was replaced by Pelagia Kolotouros.
 
In a surprise twist, Lutz Huelle too will be making a grand runway comeback on March 4, helped by AZ Factory, with which he started collaborating in October 2022. The label owned by Swiss group Richemont, for which Huelle designed three collections, has left its slot to the German designer, and will not be showing. AZ Factory said that, “as an incubator for talented independent designers,” it has decided to help Huelle by funding his show. Huelle has notably worked at Martin Margiela and had been showing in Paris since 2000 after setting up his own label, although the pandemic forced him to withdraw from the calendar in March 2020.
 
Besides AZ Factory, three other labels have withdrawn from the Parisian calendar: Marni, now back in Milan, Peter Do, and Maison Margiela, which showed at the haute couture week in January. Paris is still the world’s undisputed fashion capital however, as shown by the endless list of showrooms and events planned during the fashion week by a plethora of international design organisations.
 
Among them, the Chinese labels featured at the Shenzhen Futian Fashion Day on February 26; the HKFG project organised by the Fashion Farm Foundation on February 27; the showroom promoted by the Indonesian government via the Talent Indonesia incubator programme, on March 1; the presentation on March 2 by a Serbian designer collective for Serbia Fashion Week; and the evening dedicated to K-fashion on March 4, featuring three Korean labels backed by the Council of Fashion Designers of Korea.
 
Finally, an array of eagerly awaited cocktail parties, gala events and trade shows will enliven the week. Among them, the gala evening organised by ANDAM and Première Classe to celebrate their 35th anniversary on February 29 at Maxim’s; on the same evening, the opening party of the Tranoï show with the Creative Africa Nexus; and the inauguration of a new Issey Miyake store the following day.