FASHION SHOWS

Paris Fashion Week is a series of designer presentations held

biannually in Paris, France with spring/summer and autumn/winter
events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion
Federation. Fashion Week is held at venues throughout the city.

In addition to ready-to-wear shows, there are men's and haute

couture shows, which are held semi-annually for the spring/summer
and autumn/winter seasons.

The Big 4
Paris Fashion Week is part of the global "Big 4" fashion weeks, the
others being London Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week and New
York Fashion Week. The schedule begins with New York, followed by
London, and then Milan and ends in Paris.

Fashion week's origins

Although the first fashion week was held in New York, the event
itself derives from "salon shows" ("défilés de mode" in French,
literally "fashion parades") in Paris couture salons.

A fashion week consists of a week of organized events of multiple

designer’s collections. Before this organized event was recognized in
New York City, fashion showings were being held in Paris as early as
the 1700s. These early showings were only to clients purchasing
items and were shown on mannequins. In the 1800s, showings began
to change. Charles Frederick Worth, noted for haute couture, began
showing multiple pieces together and of a higher design. Jeanne
Paquin is the first designer to make her showings public and Paul
Poiret is the first to host parties after his events. The first Paris
Fashion Week.

In 1945 the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture established

another set of rules to regulate and determine Haute Couture
houses. In order to meet the criteria, the house had to ensure they
followed the updated rules with one of them being that in each
season, a couture house must present a collection of at least 35 runs
with both daytime and evening wear to the Paris press. Others
included having at least 20 members on staff, and that every design
must include fittings and be made-to-order for the clientele. The
following biannual events of Haute Couture houses in accordance
with the new guidelines set by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute
Couture have been seen as the first pair of fashion weeks in Paris.

The Fashion World's Heavyweights

The big boys - Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy - exhibit their

collections in iconic Parisian locations such as the Grand Palais or the
Espace Eiffel while the smaller fish are left with less high-profile, but
often cooler, locations such as nightclubs and warehouses.

Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week, has the objective to show the fashion industry
what's in in the season and what is definitely out. Paris Fashion Week
and it is divided into three categories: Men's Fashion, Haute Couture,
and Prêt-à-Porter.

The term haute couture is protected in France so that only the very
few fashion houses the meet the strict criteria can claim to have
Haute Couture collections.

These collections are shown at a different time to the prêt-à-porter

(meaning ready-to-wear) collections which is what most modern
fashion houses exhibit during Paris Fashion Week.

An International Flavour
Paris's cultural diversity as a city is often highlighted by the fashion
weeks as designers from all over the world choose Paris as the city to
host their shows.

There are always designers from all over the world, for instance Elie
Saab from Lebanon or Issey Miyake from Japan, that show in Paris.
Ethnic accents show up on the clothes too whether it be Russian furs
strutting down Impasse de la Defense or braided Grecian belts and
bright African patterns dominating in the Louvre.

Since its inception in 1973 Paris Fashion Week has been a Mecca for
the flash pack, and naturally these fabulous people need fabulous
parties. As well as all the serious work (runway events and trade
shows), PFW is also a great excuse for grand openings, promotional
events and lavish celebrity-studded parties thrown by anyone who's
anyone.

Paris, being one of the cultural metropolises of the fashion world,

has no shortage of experience in throwing big parties (think Louis
XIV) or a lack of luxurious party locations so it is a match made in
heaven really.

The History of Paris Fashion Week

For a while in the fashion industries' youth, French fashion eclipsed

much of the world with its beauty and elegance and it was for this
exact reason that the first big pre-cursor to a fashion show took
place in August 1914.

Vogue's American editor-in-chief, Edna Woolman Chase, realized

that work in the French couture ateliers could very well come to a
standstill because of French involvement in World War I.

At the time Paris was fashion's leading light so without French

designs to buy or copy, there would be no fashion in America and
therefore nothing to fill the pages of Vogue.

Mrs Chase took matters into her own hands and encouraged the best
dress-makers to come up with their own designs to show at a charity
show in the Ritz-Carlton ballroom. Mrs Chase persuaded high class
women to buy tickets and go to the show. She also took models to
the dressmakers' shops and taught them to walk the walk, sway their
hips and swish their hair.

It was a hit. Though most French couture houses didn't close during
the First World War, and Mrs. Chases' apprehension was unfounded
during those years, it did happen some decades later.
War Strikes Again
In 1943 the fashion world found itself in the same predicament, only
this time more serious.

It was during the Second World War and fashion workers were
unable to get to Paris, the fashion capital, due to the Nazi occupation
of the city.

In a bid to distract the world from French fashion, uber-publicist

Eleanor Lambert organized a "Press Week" in New York to showcase
American designers that had been previously spurned or ignored by
fashion journalist who had been blinded by the bright Paris lights.

The "Press Week" was a roaring success that even won Vogue over,
who began to feature more and more American designers in their
previously French-dominated magazine.

Paris Fashion Week started in 1973 and Milan was the next to follow
in 1979. Just over a decade later London joined in with an event
staged in a West London car park. And as they say, the rest is history.