Paris Fashion Week was held this year from February 28 to March 8, showcasing the future women's trends for Fall-Winter 2022-2023. This is an opportunity for us to look back at the history of this event eagerly awaited each year by fashion fans.
THE BIRTH OF FASHION WEEK
Although Paris is nicknamed " the capital of fashion ", fashion week was born in the heart of another major city across the Atlantic: New York . It was in 1943 that Eleanor Lambert , a famous fashion advertiser, launched " Press Week " with the aim of putting fashion and its fantasies in the spotlight.
The " Press Week " was initially reserved only for American journalists with a strong reputation. On the French side, the influence of the American fashion industry was viewed with suspicion. This was without taking into account the country 's breeding ground for couturiers , giving a name to the greatest couturiers of the time: Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Balmain, André Courrèges ... Who would work to greatly evolve fashion and ready-to-wear .
THE FIRST PARIS FASHION WEEK
It was not until 1973 that the first fashion week took place in the capital, thanks in particular to the creation of the Fédération Française de la Couture. The parade inaugurating this new kind of "spectacle" was called the Battle of Versailles . It then staged the different rivalries between New York fashion and Parisian fashion , represented by five French couturiers ( Saint Laurent, Ungaro, Dior, Cardin and Givenchy ) and five American couturiers ( Klein, Halston, de la Renta, Blass and Burrows ).
Many celebrities such as Grace Kelly, Andy Warhol, Jane Birkin will attend this strange fashion war . Joséphine Baker will start the show and then give way to the models posing in front of grandiose sets ( Cinderella's carriage, the Sputnik rocket , etc.). A unique show, which will unanimously give the Americans as winners.
FROM PARADES TO “SHOW”
As a result, designers will continue to reinvent each of their shows so that they become a real experience, each more original than the last. The 80s therefore saw a wave of changes and became the decade of extravagance . Jean-Paul Gaultier invented his famous conical bra , Karl Lagerfeld revived Chanel ...
The icons change, all eyes turn to Lady Diana, Georges, Michael, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Boy George … But it is also the emergence of Supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and co ., revolutionizing the world of fashion and popularizing it as a result.
FASHION WEEK TODAY
Paris Fashion Week has become an unmissable event . At each show, hundreds of people wait in front of the gates in the hope of being able to sneak in to admire these new creations with their own eyes, or in the hope of meeting their favorite model or celebrity . Because yes, if originally only journalists were invited, it has become the meeting place for the most influential stars in the fashion world .
It has also become the meeting point for those who want to make a place for themselves in the name of fashion. Many come dressed in their most beautiful pieces in order to be spotted by photographers and then repost on the social networks of different magazines, in order to attract traffic to their own social networks.
As for the shows , they have continued to become more and more spectacular and original . We remember the Jacquemus fashion shows in lavender fields and then wheat fields ; Chanel fashion shows transforming the Grand Palais into a supermarket , an ice floe , wind farms, Parisian boulevards or even a ski resort. Brands no longer skimp on the means to completely immerse their spectators.
Do you like watching Fashion Week shows?