Paris Fashion Week 2024 Best Shows

The highly anticipated Paris Fashion Week season is in full swing as designers debuted their collections. Listed below are my top five favorite collections straight from the runways in Paris.

Photo by Rayden Prasetya from Unsplash

Balmain’s Fall Winter Men’s Fall Winter 2024 Fashion Show was nothing short of colorful. The collection was inspired by the Sociéte des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes which translates to “Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People". According to Extraordinary Journeys, the La Sape culture originated in Congo where French colonial workers arrived in the 20th century. Influenced by the settlers' fashion, Congolese houseboys mixed the elegance of French silhouettes with their native vibrant African design, birthing a subculture that continues to capture attention on the streets of Kinshasa, Harlem and Paris today. According to Hypebeast, Balmain collaborated with Ghanaian visual artist Prince Gyasi to produce the designs for the collection. Rousteing selected a number of Gyasi’s artwork to make them come to life on the runway. Although this was a menswear collection, Naomi Campbell crashed the runway as she closed the show, reminding everyone that she is one of the original queens of the catwalk.

Under the creative direction of Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2024 Collection debuted a wardrobe incited by the American West. According to LVMH, the collection is a nod to Native American culture through garments including embroidered denim, leather jackets and tapestry on coats adapted from original cowboy paintings. To ensure the collection stayed true to the culture it was inspired by, the runway featured music and accessories from the Dakota and Lakota nations provided by DeeJay Two Bears who is of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Schiaparelli’s Haute Couture Spring Summer 2024 collection entitled “Schiaparellian” debuted looks that were inspired by otherworldly entities. According to the fashion house, the collection pays homage to the founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s uncle Giovanni, an Italian astronomer who discovered a series of channels on Mars coining the term “Martian.” Creative director Daniel Roseberry drew inspiration from Elsa’s love of astrology, remixing her avant-garde style with his Texan background to create a collection that combines Earth with something not of this world, perhaps heaven-sent.

Stéphane Rolland’s Spring Summer 2024 Haute Couture Fashion Show was a beautiful display of breathtaking hues to recreate the transition from dusk to dawn in the desert. According to Kendam, in addition to collaborating with Pierre Martinez, the collection showcased hands-on work designed by students from ESMOD, a technical fashion school, and Institut Français de la Mode.

Maison Margiela’s Spring Summer 2024 Artisanal Show was one to remember. According to AnOther, the fashion show recreated a 1920s dive bar under the Pont de Alexandre III Bridge's left bank in Paris, submerging the audience back in time. Unlike other fashion shows, Margiela’s models moved down the runway with unsettling movement posing as broken doll-like characters. According to Fashionista, creative director John Galliano took inspiration for the set design from the Hungarian-French artist Brassaï who famously photographed Paris at night. The theatrical display of the location only enhanced the clothing worn by models with glass-like skin to resemble porcelain dolls. To give the show its dramatic end, actress Gwendolyn Christie closed the show in an all-white ensemble.