I’ve never seen anything quite like Paris Fashion Week 2024. Fashion shows of this prestige are not meant to show off an actual line but instead provide a sneak peak at the newest collections. They’re meant to be seen as art pieces and are usually only worn by celebrities to big events. 

Despite knowing why the pieces are not meant to look like wearable fashion, I was still distraught by how far the designers were attempting to push the limits of “art.”

The Rick Owens show left me wondering how anyone in the audience held in their laughs. Every time a gorgeous model walked down the runway, I was cringing, thinking about the amount of conditioner they’d need to revive their hair. Several had their hair sprayed and styled upwards so messily it rivaled the likes of Albert Einstein’s. Rick Owens’ interpretation of sci-fi is an example of how designers have recently been moving away from stunning the audience with fashion-forward and beautiful designs, and instead towards trying to be as shocking as possible.

I believe that Viktor & Rolf did it best at their Paris Haute Couture Week Spring-Summer show. Models were seen walking down the runway with sideways and upside-down gowns clinging onto them. It is not only an impressive feat of the designers to challenge our understanding of how a dress is meant to look, but it is also memorable and amusing. The audience is left surprised, but unlike Rick Owens, they did not aim to stun their audience with the sheer ugliness of their designs but by incorporating outside-the-box thinking.

Vivienne Westwood is unlike many of the big fashion houses. Westwood herself expressed anti-capitalist ideas, yet it is questionable whether or not her values are shared by her brand, as they are most definitely not reflected in the prices. Because of Westwood’s progressive ideals,  it’s especially shocking that the designers of this show seem as if they’ve taken the clothes of the lower class and layered them on models as if to make a spectacle of them. It’s an extremely confusing display against a modern all-white room with fluorescent lighting. If there’s a point to be made, other than being extremely condescending of lower-class fashion, it has been lost on me.

Valentino had a very successful and beautiful show this season. With their theme being all black, they explored a different use of the color often associated with modernity and sadness. Instead of these connotations it often comes with, Valentino used it to redefine what regal looks like in the modern age. The background for their show looks as if it were straight out of a castle, which is an interesting contrast for their designs. The designs themselves were modern but clearly took inspiration from European royalty, which serves to modernize and redefine the look of regal.

Overall, Paris Fashion Week 2024 was a disappointment. Many fashion houses did nothing new. It seems as if many were following the recent trend of androgynous fashion, and while I personally really like this look, it gets boring when every show is the same. There are so many more aspects of fashion for designers to explore: fabric, history, color, culture and more. I hope designers learn to take a risk so fashion week next season isn’t full of jewel tones, boring silhouettes and purposeful shocking fashion.