Conversations You'll Hear (or Have) Around Women's PFW

This article was originally published in International

Ah, Paris Fashion Week! So many street style stars, deconstructed jackets, and gangly models. Staying current isn't just about knowing the encyclopedia of designers: every season the fashion crowd discusses a few recurrent topics. What are those topics, you ask? Here’s a sizable sample—not a sample size, that’s a different thing!—of what’s buzzing.

How “exhausting” fashion weeks are. When you have to zigzag across the city, from a breakfast meeting in the center to a new label’s showroom to a Rive Gauche presentation across the Seine, followed by a quick stop at Colette, with no time for lunch… it just really takes it out of you. And this is all already after Milan, you know.

Exclaiming a runway is “the best collection ever” for just about every show. No one loves hyperbole more than fashion people: they celebrate designers to godly levels when they connect with their vision. But beware: the alternative—a disappointing runway—is a Fashion Week sin. 

How many different looks can “meet” in a single collection. Fashion loves to pull from multiple references—the more specific, the better. Western-meets-homeless-meets-bohemian-meets-zombie-meets-military: it's the newest combo. There are no wrong adjectives for visionaries.

Feed the newsfeed. Now that we measure authority in units of social media followers, it’s not just about who’s wearing what, and when… It’s also about who is going to listen to the latest influencer and run out to buy the newest frayed Vêtements look. Keep an eye on everyone’s online take. And don’t forget to Instagram everything, tweet behind-the-scenes details, and generate the fabulous to stay in the game. Hashtag doing Paris Fashion Week right!

Debating whether collections (or labels) are too artistic or too commercial. Everyone loves a visionary, but clothes gotta end up on someone’s back, you know? We can't all be Margielas. On the other hand, no one wants to be quite H&M-accessible either. The line is as thin as a model’s silhouette! Should fashion be pushing us forward into unexpected provocative places? Or should it be something we can satisfyingly buy into right away?

Why do we wear what we wear, why we buy what we buy? PFW is about the visuals, but it’s also about the conversations.