With models wearing models for his latest women's collection, American designer Rick Owens managed to outdo the shocking spectacle of his Fall/Winter menswear collection, which, in the words of my colleague Tim Teeman, featured "tunic-y outfits that recall a Roman emperor or maybe a hipster monk, until you get down to the nether regions where, on a few of the outfits, the material disappears or bunches up and there it is: dick on display."
This year's performance featured women carrying one another down the runway in a gravity-defying balancing act. And we thought strutting down the runway in vertiginously high heels was a challenge.
Michel Euler/AP
Karl Lagerfeld constructed a Chanel Airways airport terminal in the Grand Palais for this season’s show, complete with male flight attendants, metal boarding-area seats, check-in counters, and even departure screens. Lagerfeld always creates a spectacular set for his shows, transforming the Grand Palais into a casino one year and the Rue Cambon another. But the models and his designs invariably take center stage. This year (as every year), Lagerfeld had his pick of It Girl top models show off his collection, including Kendall Jenner and British model Edie Campbell.
Edie Campbell, who opened the show in a multicolored pantsuit and Chanel roll-y suitcase in hand, is pictured here wearing Lagerfeld's latest take on the bouclé jacket and a whole lotta bling—just the right amount for the Chanel girl.
23-year-old Cara Delevingne may have retired from the runway, but the supermodel-turned-actress was given an important role in Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2016 show: chaperoning Karl Lagerfeld’s seven-year-old godson, Hudson Kroenig, whose father Brad Kroenig modeled in the show and has been one of Lagerfeld’s main muses since 2003.
The younger Kroenig has also modeled for Lagerfeld, who reportedly flies the child around the world in his private jet. Delevingne, another Lagerfeld muse (he once adoringly called her the “Charlie Chaplin of the fashion world”) wore a sheer tee shirt dress and patent black-and-white, Mary Jane-inspired Chanel ankle boots, and was accompanied by her girlfriend, singer St. Vincent. Delevingne snapped photos of her model friends (Kendall Jenner, Edie Campbell) while resting her head on St. Vincent’s shoulder during the show.
Delevingne’s last catwalk appearance was in March for Lagerfeld’s Fall/Winter 2016 show at the Grand Palais, which he had transformed into a brasserie for the occasion. It was the only show she walked that season, fueling rumors that she was quitting modeling. The Paper Towns actress all but confirmed them in a series of interviews this summer, speaking of her fashion career in the past tense. “I’m not sure what fashion is anymore,” she told Vogue in July, referring to the industry as a “bubble” and admitting, “I was terrified to get out.”
Though Delevingne’s less immersed in the business, she is still very much a fashion VIP. Indeed, she and Kroenig joined Lagerfeld at the end of the designer’s finale lap.
Lily Rose-Depp's top knot and thin neck scarf evoked a stewardess's uniform at Chanel's airline-themed show.
Charles Platiau/Reuters
British designer Stella McCartney accessorized her models in oversized, brightly-colored aviators for her sporty Spring/Summer 2016 collection, which was inspired by women who motivate her—"their confidence and their incredible color that they give off," she told reporters.
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Did Anna Wintour, the notoriously icy Vogue editrix, actually blow someone a kiss as she left Stella McCartney’s show? Or was she stifling a sneeze? Suppressing a yawn? As long as we’re spinning conjecture, our bets are on the yawn: jetting from New York to the European fashion weeks after putting out Vogue’s annual September doorstopper sounds absolutely exhausting, even for Wintour.
Janet Jackson made a rare fashion week appearance in Paris with her husband, Wissam Al Mana, sitting front row at the Hermès show on Monday just days after dropping her first album in six years, Unbreakable. Jackson, 49, took time off her Unbreakable world tour to check out the storied fashion house’s latest runway looks. She and Al Mana, a Qatari business magnate, have been together since 2010, and married in February 2013.
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Large pieces of agate and other semi-precious gemstones encased in resin cuffs or fastened into necklaces were among the highlights at Hermès this season.
Singer Janelle Monae was one of the front row guests at the Chanel show, along with Lily-Rose Depp, who is the face of Chanel's eyewear ads. Apparently Monae takes fashion quite seriously: she told the New York Times she'd come to Paris "for the art, and by that I mean fashion by the way, which is one of the greatest art forms there is."
Charles Platiau/Reuters
Italian designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli took inspiration from Africa and Italy—tribal prints and studded leather in a nod to gladiators—when dreaming up Valentino's Spring/Summer collection.
Yoan Valat/EPA
Remember model Agyness Deyn and her signature bleached-blonde pixie cut and punk rock-lite aesthetic? She hadn’t been seen on a runway since 2011 until Monday night, when she made a splashy return in Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent show, wearing ripped stockings and a tiara fit for Courtney Love.
Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
