What to expect at a controversial Paris Fashion Week 2023: Balenciaga’s comeback after that bondage bear scandal, and Vivienne Westwood and Paco Rabanne hold their first shows since founders’ deaths

Mar 1 , 2023

A model showcases the autumn/winter 2023-2024 women’s ready to wear collection show for Saint Laurent during Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

Paris Fashion Week 2023 launched on Monday with touches of scandal and grief, as Balenciaga tries to move past recent controversies while Vivienne Westwood and Paco Rabanne hold their first shows since the founders’ deaths.

The womenswear week in the French capital caps a hectic February for the fashion world, following on the heels of New York, London and Milan.

Kim Kardashian and Demna, wearing a T-shirt in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, at the Balenciaga autumn/winter 2022-23 fashion show in Paris. Photo: Instagram

All eyes are on Balenciaga whose hot streak ended abruptly late last year with a spectacularly ill-considered ad campaign that appeared to reference child abuse, featuring children with teddy bear bags that had studs and harnesses surrounded by adult items including wine glasses.

Balenciaga also had to cut ties with Kanye West who modelled for its last show in Paris in September – after the rapper’s controversial comments about Jews.

US rapper Kanye West (centre) attends the Givenchy spring/summer 2023 fashion show during the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week in Paris, France, in October 2022. Photo: TNS

The scandals hit the bottom line. Coupled with a slump at Gucci, parent company Kering saw fourth-quarter revenues fall by seven per cent.

Profusely apologising in the pages of Vogue, Balenciaga’s creative director Demna has vowed to abandon his provocative approach and get back to basics at this week’s show on Sunday.

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“I have decided to go back to my roots in fashion as well as to the roots of Balenciaga, which is making quality clothes – not making image or buzz,” he said.

There is also interest in how Schiaparelli, led by US designer Daniel Roseberry, follows its eye-catching haute couture show in January, when the use of fake animal heads sharply divided audiences.

Kylie Jenner attends the Schiaparelli haute couture spring/summer 2023 collection in Paris in January wearing a giant lion’s head. Photo: AP

Before then, the opening day focused on young designers, for whom sustainability is now second nature.

“I don’t want to enter the vicious cycle of fashion that we’re all scared of,” said Shanon Poupard, one of 25 students from the French Institute of Fashion taking part in Monday’s presentation.

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Her knitwear, featuring patterns of bombs, broken hearts and nuclear mushroom clouds, speaks of a generation permanently attuned to the apocalypse – and she wants to join a major fashion house “to be part of the change”.

The youngsters are followed on Tuesday by big hitters including Christian Dior and Saint Laurent.

French fashion designer Paco Rabanne stands with one of his models at the finale of his show at the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow, Russia. Photo: STR

Wednesday sees the first show from the house of Paco Rabanne since his death at the age of 88 in early February.

And the first Vivienne Westwood show since the dame’s death in December will be held on Saturday. Her label’s designs have been overseen by her widower, Andreas Kronthaler, for several years.

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British designer Vivienne Westwood next to her husband, designer Andreas Kronthaler after a Vivienne Westwood ready-to-wear show in September 2019. Photo: AFP

Pierre Cardin is also returning to the official calendar for the first time in 25 years, following its founder’s death in late 2020.

The new collection has been put together by the label’s in-house team rather than collaborating with an outside designer, so as not to “distort Pierre Cardin”, director Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin told AFP.

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French designer Pierre Cardin presents his 2007 spring/summer collection at a fashion show in Beijing, China, in 2006. Photo: AFP

Fashionistas are also excited to see the first collection from hot young French designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin in his new role at Belgian house Ann Demeulemeester, previously known for its minimalist and monochrome aesthetic.

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Paris Fashion Week

Balenciaga’s creative director has pledged to ‘go back to his roots’ after the Kering brand’s ill-considered bondage bear ad campaign last year, which seemed to reference child abuse
Critics are also keen to see what Schiaparelli will do after its previously controversial animal head looks as worn by Kylie Jenner, and Vivienne Westwood’s husband goes it alone after her death