Paris Fashion Week Men disrupted by Olympic Games preparations

After Milan, it is Paris’s turn to host the fashion week marathon from Tuesday, in peculiar circumstances. Paris Fashion Week Men will in fact be held on the eve of the Olympics, which will take over the French capital from July 26 to August 11. In other words, a major logistics, traffic and security headache. Yet, despite several withdrawals, most leading labels are featured on the programme. Top billing goes to the farewell show by Dries Van Noten on Saturday June 22, and to the Vogue World event “celebrating 100 years of fashion and sport,” that will be held on place Vendôme on the evening of June 23, just before the haute couture week, scheduled until June 27.
 

Preparation work for the Games’ facilities means that several iconic show venues, like place de la Concorde, the Trocadéro, the Grand Palais and the Alexandre III bridge, are totally or partially closed. Organising the menswear fashion week, scheduled on June 18-23, has required a great deal of planning ahead in order to make the journey between shows as easy as possible for all concerned.

Traffic conditions are the fashion week’s main unknown. Some labels, together with their show invites, have sent out very detailed instructions on how to reach their venues. But the situation has discouraged many designers, especially emerging ones. In total, 72 labels will be showcasing their Spring/Summer 2025 collections, via 35 presentations and 37 runway shows, as opposed to 41 shows in January.

Among the latter, the most eagerly awaited is the Dries Van Noten show, scheduled on Saturday evening at La Courneuve, the same town in the Seine-Saint Denis district where the label held a memorable dinner-event to fête its 50th show in October 2004. The Flemish designer, who recently turned 66, announced in March he would be stepping down as creative director of his eponymous label, founded in Antwerp in 1986. The label was bought by Spanish group Puig in 2018, and will continue under a new creative director who will be announced “at the appropriate time.” Dries Van Noten has been showing in Paris since 1993.
 
Of course, all the top luxury labels are on the programme, starting with Louis Vuitton, which will kick off proceedings on Tuesday with the highly anticipated new runway show by Pharrell Williams. A year after his successful maiden even on the Pont Neuf, the US rapper is hoping for a repeat performance, this time at the Unesco headquarters. Also on the programme as usual, Kenzo on Wednesday 19, Rick Owens and AMI Paris on Thursday 20, Dior Homme on Friday 21, and Hermès and Loewe on Saturday 22.

Alongside the heavyweights, there will be the habitual full line-up of Japanese designers: Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe Man, Sacai, Kolor, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, White Mountaineering, Auralee, Doublet and Taakk, as well as Undercover by Jun Takahashi, finally back on the Parisian menswear runways after dropping out of the calendar during the pandemic.
 
Also back is British designer Bianca Saunders, who has been absent from Paris for the last few seasons. Saunders, winner of the ANDAM prize in 2021, and recently awarded the BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund 2024, is backed by the French haute couture federation, which selected her for the Sphère showroom, dedicated to emerging designers. Hed Mayner, who did not show in January, will also be back.

The 032c label, launched in 2016 by designer Maria Koch for the eponymous Berlin fashion store, will instead be making its Parisian debut on Thursday. Emeric Tchatchoua’s 3.Paradis label will feature on the official presentation calendar as part of the Sphère showroom.

However, these three come-backs and one new name are only partly compensating for this season’s nine absentees. The first of them is Balmain, which returned on the menswear calendar in January after many years. Balmain was initially on the programme, but cancelled the show at the eleventh hour, opting to unveil its collection in September.

Valentino, in the midst of a creative transition after the departure of Pierpaolo Piccioli, has also decided to wait for September to showcase the first collection by new creative director Alessandro Michele. Givenchy, without a creative director after Matthew Williams’s departure, is also giving this season a miss.

 
Rising prices and the complications caused by the preparations and the building of facilities for the Olympics have also dissuaded several smaller labels and emerging designers from taking part. Many buyers, especially from Asia, have said they won’t be travelling to Paris, and some labels have decided not to invest in a show. Like Botter, EgonLab, Officine Générale, and Winnie, which have opted for presentations, while GmbH decided to show in Berlin.
 
Paul Smith chose to feature in Florence, as guest designer of the 106th edition of the Pitti Uomo menswear show, which ended a few days ago. As did Marine Serre, which staged an eye-catching show in the Florentine countryside. Finally, labels like Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Koché, and Etudes Studio, which did not feature at Paris Fashion Week in January, won’t be back on the runways this season either, some of them opting for a presentation format.
 
However, the week will be no less intense, as several runway shows have been scheduled outside the official calendar, in addition to showrooms and trade shows. There will also be a plethora of parties, store openings, cocktail evenings and other events, like the one organised by Aigle with Sarah Andelman, or by Ephemera, which is turning into a permanent fashion library, and the Fursac exhibition with artist Lionel Estève. The week will also be busy with after-parties and gala evenings, for example the garden party organised by Paul Smith and, for its grand finale, the Vogue World: Paris event.