Paris Fashion Week starts Monday with big shows, new names and absentees

Paris Fashion Week Women will take over the baton from New York, London and Milan on Monday September 23, with a promising programme despite several absences. As usual, highlights abound in the week’s calendar, notably the eagerly awaited debut show by Alessandro Michele for Valentino, as well as various come-backs and interesting new names. However, several emerging labels, which had become fixtures in the Parisian fashion scene in recent years, will miss out on this new round of runway shows for the Spring/Summer 2025 women’s ready-to-wear collections, scheduled until October 1. 

From 71 shows on February’s official calendar, this September’s Paris Fashion Week Women is dropping down to 66, plus the Coperni extravaganza. Including those making presentations, Paris will host 106 labels in total, with a dozen notable absentees. The first is Victoria/Tomas, which is no more after the company was wound up in June, owing to the tough economic climate. The label was founded in 2012 by Victoria Feldman and Tomas Berzins, and had featured on the Paris Fashion Week calendar without interruptions since 2017. 

Left without its iconic designer Glenn Martens, who recently announced he was leaving after 10 years as creative director, Y/Project will not be showing this season, having already cancelled its show at the week’s previous edition. Avellano, the label that won the Pierre Bergé prize at the Andam competition in 2023, is no longer on the calendar, and the same goes for AZ Factory, which ceased to operate as a brand in May, becoming a training programme. In March, AZ Factory ceded its calendar slot to Lutz Huelle, which will retain it this season, and will show on September 30. 

The fashion market is under pressure, and as a result other labels that are nevertheless thriving have opted to avoid the costly investment required by a show, concentrating instead on presentations, regarded as more effective. This will be the case for Dawei, Gauchère, Undercover and Ludovic de Saint Sernin. The latter was set to return to Paris Fashion Week after showing in New York in February, but instead prefers “to present its collection in a different way this season, in line with a long-term strategy designed to bolster the company’s fundamentals and promote growth.” 

The last three labels giving this edition a miss are Givenchy, which recently hired a new creative director, Sarah Burton, whose first collection will be unveiled at the Parisian week’s March session; Off-White, which has showed in New York; and Marine Serre, which presented its summer collection with a co-ed show during the June session of Pitti Uomo, where it was one of the guests of honour. 

Chanel will show again at the Grand Palais on October 1, after a four-year hiatus during which the historic building was renovated. For the first time, the Parisian luxury label will be without a recognised leader, presenting a collection by the in-house design studio, as Creative Director Virginie Viard was dismissed in June. The same applies to Dries Van Noten, whose eponymous founder jumped ship last season. The label will show a collection designed by its in-house team on September 25.

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Besides the other top names, like Christian Dior, Saint Laurent, Hermès, Balmain, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton, two US labels will feature again on the Parisian runways this season. The first is Gabriela Hearst, by the eponymous Uruguay-born designer and former creative director of Chloé, which will show again in France on Monday September 30, after a four-year absence. And the label by Vietnamese designer Peter Do, which debuted in Paris last year, but gave the last winter edition a miss. Peter Do will stage its come-back show on Tuesday October 1.

On the week’s opening day, Monday, the students of the French Fashion Institute (IFM), who will stage another collective show next February, have ceded their slot to Weinsanto, to New York duo Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee with their label Vaquera, and Japanese label CFCL (Clothing For Contemporary Life), already on the calendar for some seasons. The first show by a new entry is scheduled on Tuesday 24, with the official debut of Alainpaul, a label that blends couture and ballet-inspired looks. 

Alainpaul was launched in 2023 by former dancer and designer Alain Paul, who has worked among others at Vetements, under the aegis of Demna Gvasalia, and at Louis Vuitton with Virgil Abloh. For this new adventure, Paul has teamed up with his husband Luis Philippe, a former store manager and visual merchandiser at Colette. Another promising new name will debut on Sunday 29, Italian designer Niccolò Pasqualetti, one of the eight finalists at this year’s LVMH Prize. Pasqualetti likes to reinterpret wardrobe essentials with an inventive, inclusive avant-garde style.

Ganni too will première in style, the first time in Paris for the Danish label usually showing at Copenhagen Fashion Week. It will feature outside the official calendar, but its Parisian runway debut on September 24 is expected to draw quite a crowd. Ganni is a cool bijoux label backed by the L Catterton investment fund, linked to LVMH, and in the last few years it has grown in size and greatly expanded internationally. 

A plethora of new names and emerging labels will be surging through the French capital with their off-calendar shows and presentations, as well as via several French and international showrooms.

Like Sphère, the showroom operated by the French Fashion and Haute Couture Federation with the backing of public body DEFI, open from September 25 to October 1 at the Palais de Tokyo. Sphère will showcase Charles de Vilmorin, Alphonse Maitrepierre, Antwerp-based designer Florentina Leitner, Lucille Thièvre from France, French-Canadian duo Paolina Russo and Lucile Gilmard, and two new entries: Weinsanto and Abra, the label launched in 2019 by Abraham Ortuño Perez.

Among the other Paris Fashion Week highlights, the seventh show organised by L’Oréal, this time held at the Opéra theatre, on the evening of September 23, to mark the week’s opening. Also, Valentino will start a new chapter with the first runway show by Alessandro Michele, the star designer formerly at Gucci, featuring women’s and men’s looks on Sunday 29. The fashion week will close in style the evening of October 1, when Coperni will stage a show-event that will take its guests to Disneyland Paris. 

To further enliven the week, there will be plenty of after-parties, cocktail evenings and other events, notably the ball at Maxim’s restaurant on Wednesday 25.