Paris mega-party mixes fashion and sport

Vogue World, one of the major fashion events of the year, hits Paris on Sunday, bringing together top French designers for a rare joint show themed around the Olympics.

The event, to be attended by 500 hand-picked guests in the glitzy Place Vendome, comes midway through Paris Fashion Week’s menswear and haute couture shows.

Here’s what we know about the event in this summer’s Olympic host city:

The concept

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour told AFP back in February that the outdoor show will be “a mixture of fashion show, entertainment and performances… and a few surprises.”

The date was not chosen at random, June 23 being International Olympic Day.

The idea is to match different sports — such as cycling, gymnastics, tennis, taekwondo and breakdancing — with eras of French fashion since 1924, the last time the Games were held in Paris.

There have been two Vogue World events in the past — a New York street fair in 2022, and a homage to London’s theatre scene in 2023.

With Vogue’s magazine business struggling to stay relevant in the online world, Wintour is looking to entertainment spectacles to keep the brand alive.

Front row tickets for the New York event cost $3,000. Prices have not been revealed for this week’s show.

The guests

The guest list is also a secret, but the promotional video features top models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, and actress Isabelle Huppert, trying their hands at several sports.

Most of the 500 seats are reserved for A-listers, with the proceedings hosted by British model and actor Cara Delevingne, and directed by Sam Wrench, who has overseen Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

It is a rare move for labels to present fashion shows alongside each other, but the event will see almost all the big names of French fashion at once: Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Courreges, Dior, Fursac, Givenchy, Hermes, Jacquemus, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lacoste, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, Marine Serre, Rabanne and Saint Laurent.

Pharrell Williams, hip-hop mogul and creative director for Louis Vuitton, told the press conference in February: “Taking over the Place Vendome I have to say is pretty legendary.”

He added that the show would spotlight “true French style — what we see on the podium, what we see in the boulevards — in an inclusive spirit.”

Congestion

Place Vendome, home to the French justice ministry, was an ideal location for the organisers since it is also known as the heart of high-end jewellery in Paris.

But police were reportedly less keen given that central Paris is already facing considerable congestion as a result of preparations for next month’s Games.

Vogue World hopes to ease the burden by offering a one-million-euro donation to a charity, French Popular Relief, which tackles poverty and discrimination.