May 8, 2021
French Federation planning live Paris menswear shows this summer
May 8, 2021
The Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode confirmed Friday that it is planning to host live catwalk shows in Paris this summer, during the upcoming menswear season in June.
“Fashion Houses may organize physical shows and presentations. Depending on the evolution of the sanitary situation, the physical events may welcome guests in accordance with a specific health protocol and conform to measures yet to be determined by the public authorities,” the Federation said in a release on Friday.
However, the Federation, which controls access to the official calendar to the Paris runway seasons, indicated that it still had little idea of how many brands will stage actual shows before live audiences. The season’s Provisional Official Calendar will only be published during the week of May 24.
However, the Federation stressed that all menswear shows, and the subsequent haute couture season in July, will be available for viewing on the Federation’s website. The menswear season in Paris features up to 70 brands, led by major players like Hermès, Dior, Paul Smith and Givenchy; and more fashion forward legends like Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto and Dries Van Noten.
“Their broadcast as well as all the digital events registered in the Official Calendar will continue to be showcased on the Paris Fashion Week platform and will benefit from the global amplification network of our partners,” the federation added.
For the past several season since the pandemic struck, all French runway seasons have been overwhelmingly online show videos. During the last official runway season – women’s ready-to-wear staged in early March - only two out of some 80 houses had an actual live audience at a catwalk display.
“It’s very good news that there will be physical shows. Our industry needs them to return. How many brands will participate is a difficult question. But, at least, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Plus, I imagine the bigger fashion house have studied two scenarios, live and video. Let’s see how things develop,” Ralph Toledano, president of the federation, told FashionNetwork.com.
This week, Chanel’s fashion division president Bruno Pavlovsky told the press that the house intends to stage a physical couture show in Paris in July. The French couture season has around 25 official shows including such stellar designer marques as Dior, Schiaparelli, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Giambattista Valli and Fendi.
France is gradually emerging slowly from its second lockdown, as new cases of Covid are still running at close to 30,000 daily. However, President Macron has announced a reopening of most stores for May 19, along with terraces but not the interiors of restaurants. Moreover, multiple museums and cultural centers are already expecting to open on May 19, leading many people to expect that in order to respect sanitary regulations many of the French catwalks shows will take place inside museums this summer.
The next Paris menswear season is scheduled from Tuesday, June 22 to Sunday, June 27, following the Milan menswear season, timed for June 18 to 22. One week after the French menswear season, Paris will stage the four-day haute season timed from July 4 to 8.
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