This Fashion Week will also be an opportunity to celebrate the "fashion metalworker" Paco Rabanne and the queen of punk Vivienne Westwood, whose houses will be on parade for the first time since their disappearance.

Before the heavy artillery (Dior, Saint Laurent, Hermès, Chanel...), the first day will be dedicated to young creation.

The parade of masters of the French Institute of Fashion (IFM) will open the ball on Monday afternoon.

But all eyes will be on Georgian designer Demna's show on Sunday.

The master of dark staging with a provocative aesthetic hinted that the next Balenciaga show would be a departure from previous ones.

Paco Rabanne fashion show in Paris, February 27, 2022 © FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP

"I want to change my approach, in the way I make my collections but also in the way I show them," he said.

"I rely on the essentials: the collection, the sound, the light" and "the parade will be above all an opportunity to show the collection, rather than to make an event", he insisted.

It was Kanye West who opened the last Balenciaga fashion show, in the mud, in the fall.

The house had to cut ties with the rapper in October after his anti-Semitic statements.

"Taming creation"

But it was an advertising campaign in November that caused the outcry featuring children with bags in the shape of stuffed bears, strapped in black belts inspired by sadomasochistic sexual practices.

The campaign was quickly pulled and all Balenciaga officials personally apologized.

The brand "was penalized in the Anglo-Saxon markets mainly but in a rather serious way", revealed in mid-February François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering to which Balenciaga belongs, presenting the annual results.

American singer Cardi B at the Balenciaga show in Paris, October 2, 2021 © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP/Archives

For him, the show will be "the restart point" for Balenciaga, which has kept a low profile.

"Seen from today, I have the impression that the damage is quite limited and this episode has been almost forgotten," Arnaud Cadart, portfolio manager for asset management company Flornoy Ferri, told AFP. .

But "there is a lot of work right now listening to the market" and it will be necessary "to forget for a moment the dark atmosphere (of the parades) and tame the unbridled creation", adds the analyst.

Schiaparelli will return to ready-to-wear on March 2 following controversy over haute couture dresses adorned with fake animal heads.

Schiaparelli fashion show in Paris, July 4, 2022 © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/Archives

These looks were divided, including within the Peta animal rights association: the president of the American branch Ingrid Newkirk found them "fabulously innovative" while the French branch called for a thought for the animals which "have really suffered" like silkworms and sheep.

The American artistic director Daniel Roseberry, who has brought the house up to date with his surreal creations, will he still choose to be daring?

Orphan of its visionary founder who died at the end of 2020 at the age of 98, the house of Pierre Cardin will return to the official fashion calendar on March 5 after more than 25 years of absence.

Pierre Cardin fashion show in Venice to celebrate the couturier's 100th anniversary, July 2, 2022 © ANDREA PATTARO / AFP

The collection will be made by the studios, the house having no intention of inviting an outside stylist so as not to "distort Pierre Cardin", according to Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, the managing director of the management company.

The Belgian brand Ann Demeulemeester, known for its minimalist black and white aesthetic and whose collections had been designed by the studios for the past three years, has instead appointed the young French designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin as artistic director.

The designer noticed during the last Fashion weeks in Paris with sexy and non-gendered collections will present his first collection on Saturday.

© 2023 AFP