It looked like a normal fashion show: the models wore tweed suits like in the eighties, long coats for autumn and winter, dresses like for a cocktail reception.

But should it have been at Chanel?

No comment on the war?

Business as usual?

Just keep going?

It just didn't work.

Even if the prêt-à-porter, which ended after a week on Wednesday, used all the arts of illusion, with street-style photographers in front of the door, with the scent of huge bouquets of flowers, with sparkling champagne in the glass - it just didn't work.

Because the news gets everywhere, even in the Espace Ephemère, the tent on the Fields of Mars opposite the Eiffel Tower, where Chanel shows its shows while the Grand Palais is being renovated.

Alphonse Kaiser

Responsible editor for the department "Germany and the World" and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin.

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"I read the news today, oh boy", Chanel sound designer Michael Gaubert suddenly played towards the end, "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles.

And one was almost glad that Virginie Viard did not dismiss the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the cynicism customary in the industry.

Giorgio Armani simply had no music recorded in Milan.

But this was also a way not to simply ignore everything: "I saw a film today, oh boy / The English army had just won the war".

It was an anti-war anthem for John Lennon, as is arguably Virginie Viard - who grew up listening to the Beatles before turning to punk and eventually joining Chanel, where on Tuesday she unveiled a retro collection whose understatedness picked up on the mood, though she was made before the war started.

If only everyone had heard the shot!

Then maybe Matthew Williams could have improved on Givenchy, not having to send all the camouflage looks down the catwalk, which must now be taken as an evil allusion, not the martial appearances, which are labeled "cool" here, although they are in the actual meaning, which has been brutally emerging for the last two weeks, are just murderous.

Not every Matthew Williams is a Demna Gvasalia who can twist fashion beyond recognition.

In the end, a name was missing from the Prêt-à-Porter calendar.

Russian designer Valentin Yudashkin's fashion show has been cancelled.

The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode had asked him to distance himself from Russia's war against Ukraine.

He didn't.

After all, Russia is his most important market, so he doesn't want to alienate the rich and beautiful.

After all, he is close to war simply because he designed the uniforms of Russian soldiers.

Ralph Toledano, the president of the fashion chamber, had no choice.

He had called for the shows to be organized "with due seriousness".

He asked the 110 members of the Federation to donate to Ukrainian refugees.

You can't just go on like this, "during two hours away from Paris, monstrous things are happening".