Fashion

With intense creativity and unrestrained artistic expression, Paris Fashion Week brings a taste of freedom and impertinence to the world of fashion. Chanel showcases plastic-clad silhouettes walking through the Gorges du Verdon at the Grand Palais; L’Oreal celebrates beauty on the crowded Champs-Elysées; Austrian duo Wendy Jim play cat and mouse; while Thom Browne poetically falls back into childhood and Yohji Yamamoto plays with our perception of fashion. FRANCE 24 checks it out!

At Paris Fashion Week, French luxury giants LVMH and Kering revolutionise the runway with a charter on models' rights. At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri draws inspiration from artist Niki de Saint Phalle. For Guy Laroche, Richard René is influenced by the sensuality of late actress Mireille Darc, while Felipe Oliveira Baptista evokes polo for Lacoste’s 85th anniversary. Simon Jacquemus pays tribute to his mother, and Anthony Vaccarello celebrates the love between Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent.

Featuring the most talented Iberian designers, the Catalan capital welcomed the 20th edition of Barcelona Fashion Week in June. Although the city’s reputation doesn’t quite match those of the major fashion capitals, the collections paraded on the catwalks showed great inventiveness and creativity, while consolidating Spain’s status in the industry, well beyond the fast-fashion phenomenon.

FRANCE 24 takes you to discover the autumn/winter Haute Couture collections, including Naomi Campbell dressed by Azzedine Alaïa. Haute Couture is so synonymous with the French capital that even American labels such as Proenza Schouler know it's a good idea to unveil their high-end collections here in Paris. Belgian label AF Vandevorst uses vinyl and even plastic bags, while avant-garde designer Adeline André reveals her latest offering with a show that draws inspiration from performance art.

Luxury fashion groups know it’s in their best interest to nurture young designers. So why not launch a competition to seek out the next big thing before your rival does? The LVMH prize is presided over by a jury comprised of artistic directors from across the group. The award was created in 2014 by Delphine Arnault, the eldest daughter of fashion mogul Bernard Arnault. This year, French designer Marine Serre, who's just 25, won the top prize of €300,000 and a year of mentoring.

Haute Couture is a key component of France’s soft power, a way of influencing global fashion and propagating a specifically Parisian savoir-faire. Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld puts it best: "Other countries have cars and other things, France has high fashion and the best craftsmanship". FRANCE 24 takes you to see the best shows during Paris Haute Couture Week, with Chanel installing a replica Eiffel Tower inside the Grand Palais and Dior’s models strutting their stuff outside the Invalides museum.

FRANCE 24 visited Dior’s studio as it prepared to present its 2018 Cruise collection held in a nature reserve among the rolling hills of Santa Monica. Dior’s new creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri's designs draw heavily on shamanism, but the key inspiration is a collection designed by Christian Dior himself back in 1951. As for Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld chose to stay in Paris, but also took us to ancient Greece...

FRANCE 24 takes you to discover the Casa Moda Academy in Casablanca, Morocco. It's the most celebrated and creatively audacious fashion school on the African continent. The brainchild of the Association for Moroccan Textile and Clothing, the school has been opening its doors to eager fashionistas for seven years now. The creative curriculum was assembled by an esteemed French fashion school, l’Atelier Chardon Savard. We take you to meet some of the future designers rising through the ranks.

He loves blue and white, he loves the sun and stripes, and he also loves the French port city of Marseille. At just 27 years old, Simon Porte Jacquemus is the guest of honour at the Open My Med fashion event, the brainchild of the Mediterranean House of Fashion Specialisms. Since 2009, when he decided to create his own brand at the age of 19, the young French fashion designer has always paid tribute to his native Provence, through a deliberately naive and poetic style. FRANCE 24 takes a look.

The Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition is an opportunity for professionals and buyers to meet - but it’s also, somewhat unusually, open to the public. Cracking the Middle East market is one of European luxury’s greatest ambitions for the next ten years. Traditional savoir-faire will be key - but so too will be understanding the place that high-end jewellery occupies in the lives of the women the brands are trying to entice. FRANCE 24 checks out some of the dazzling collections on display.