Paris Fashion Week Spring Summer 2024: Week 1

Daniel Scheffler seeks air, and comfort at Paris Fashion Week Spring Summer 2024.

Tuesday: Over-sized bellowing knits with violins of violet and coffee ground browns encompass the new store collection at Kenzo. The défilé that started this Paris fashion week off was big, floral, and champagne. Attracting intimates from the Rive Droite, the brand, now owned by powerhouse LVMH since 1993 is standing strong and looking signatured and cultured.

Wednesday: Premiere Vision (featured photos) The world famous fabric fair and textile show just outside Paris brought new ideas, concepts and challenges concerning labour issues, sourcing and production to an industry that is rag-drag but bubbling with techno fabrics, ranging from the latest poly, moly, woly to high gloss, semi gloss, and anti-gloss. Sulky sales people covered the boxes of grey luring in the fabric desires of the fashion world.

Friday: The album launch of Vivienne Westwood, our great dame of fashion and leader in off-trend innovation, was taken to the streets of rue Charlot at the Farida boutique. With a bird cage for insanity and hints of sexuality, the great designer has entered a rather authentic area and boutique, a far cry from the department stores that scare us. The album includes hits and classical tracks, all loves of the ex-SEX boutique owner. 

Saturday: A slow, lazy warm breeze beats gently against my wallet, as the Salon du Vintage fills the nose with the scent of old ladies wearing their grandmothers' YSL bracelets entangled with semi precious stones and knick-knacks. The visions of them sitting patiently at train station waiting rooms with Louis Vuitton luggage (before the monogrammed luggage became cheap, mass-produced and pretentious). The salon attracted thousands of people to the bottom of the Champs Elysées.

Ivana Helsinki is here from Finland, representing Slavic and Scandinavian beauty in a rustling ensemble of landscapes and prints inspired by visual and unanswered questions. The collection presented at the showcase, under the bridge inspired by tigers and wilderness combined newness in cut and sultry soft colours speaking of spring and over-sized magics.

Still Saturday: The Portugese (Madeira born) designer Fatima Lopez, had the venue of the stars. The night provided a beautiful setting, embraced with flowing staircases and fantasia ceilings at Folies Bergere for her 10 year anniversary in Paris. Known for her expensive bikini (in 2024), Lopez's show was a bedizened version of angular shapes, refulgent colours, extra high heels and matching the clothes the artificial orange juice and abject vodka.

Sunday: The Belgian duo-tic dramatic duet A.F.Vandervorst (featured below) splashed  the show in black and white. With the married couple AF Vandevorst and Filip Arikcx showing some of their most beautiful belgian roots, dramatically swimming towards forest greens mixed with racing greens and then paddling water with two toned oranges.

The Marlies Dekkers show screamed of fairy tales and many twirls and frills. Ingenuity not on sale, the Dutch designer elaborated on her usual style with even more straps and elongated straps that attached to bras and tight french knickers. As Holland's business woman of the year a year ago, her ingenuity comes in creating the obvious sexy, not the suggestive. The after party at Baron proved to be a disco deacon of light, with open bar and dancing until the lights were red. Guest Mischa Barton looking cooky in a black hat with stockings, heels and massed jewels.

Comments

[susie]

Westwood albumn launch was low-key but brilliant. Good looking crowd made up of interesting Parisian tribes and fashion week visitors

Catwalk Breakdown comprises a selection of Westwood’s favourite music that has accompanied her shows over the years.
The track-listing for Catwalk Breakdown is as follows:

Magazine "Permafrost"
Rodrigo "Concierto de Aranquez"+ Vivienne Intro
Luca Mainardi "Barock"
Dirty Stop Out "Cave Girl"
Pierne` "L'ecole des Aegipans"
Pierne` "La Lecon De Flute De Pan"
Prokofieff "Dance of the Knights"
Billy.Fury "Last Night Was Made For Love"
Offenbach "Valse Lento"
Tchaikovsky "Sugar Plum Fairy"
Tchaikovsky "Coda"
Link Wray "Georgia Pines"
Tchaikovsky "waltz of the flowers"
The New York Dolls "personality crises"
Mae West "great balls of fire"
Larry Williams "slow down"

Vivienne Westwood “Catwalk Breakdown” available at FARIDA Boutique 61 rue Charlot, Marais, 75003