This season marks 50 years of fashion weeks in Paris. What, for you, makes Paris Fashion Week® unlike any other?
The variety, the global/international mix from every corner of the world. There may be other fashion weeks, but this is the pinnacle, and there’s so much to view you can’t get to everything. So then it’s the edit. Grand established luxury to madcap eccentricity – that’s Paris Fashion Week®.
What excites you in fashion right now?
As ever, the new collections, debuts, solo launches, the fresh and the off-schedule. The designer, who someone like Lucien Pagès sees potential in, comes as a surprise: A Star is Born. I’ve seen first collections from many and it’s a thrill to then watch how they move forward. They don’t all become big; but that’s the fun – guessing who’s got that extra something.
What is one reason to be optimistic about the state of fashion going forward?
Fashion reflects the world we get dressed in; so in spite of war, political upheavals and climate change, we have to get up and get dressed. This year, as always, things will change; and we will get excited about a new shoe, a different jacket, or a colour we suddenly see everywhere. It’s not the time for a major shift; but we will always find beauty, excitement, surprises and both elegance and bizarreness, all side-by-side. It’s simply fashion.
Who or what will drive the greatest change in fashion this year?
It’s the balance between the established, big luxury international names focusing on sales with experienced designers focussing on product – think long term investment dressing; and on the other side, the small, fresh new talents working closely with their clients on exclusivity, the special and the local. Today, hand-crafted is also often linked with local, cultural heritage artisans, which is wonderful.
What impact might you hope to have on fashion this year?
To continue communicating the good and the best of fashion that is well thought through. Fashion which observes the classic, and demonstrates the important processes from fabric, design, fittings, editing, the teamwork, and the sheer, passionate commitment and hard work involved. To continue talking about innovation and daring. However, sometimes this involves telling readers, and the designer, what isn’t quite right: fabric, colour choices, fit or a sense of proportion, even suggesting it was the wrong location for the show. It’s talking to the readers – both the fashion lovers, and the expert insiders.
Can you suggest a fashion mantra as we look ahead to ’25?
Make less make better has to be essential. And remember brilliant, original versions of great classics and basics are much harder to create than a vast, weird tulle ballgown, or an off-kilter ripped punk jacket.
This interview has been lightly edited.
