Paris Fashion Week: Breaking the Pattern

Paris Fashion Week 2022 is here, and is taking the world by storm…Shoes, bags, accessories, coats, patterns, colors and most importantly, love everywhere!
Ursula Rita Matta
Jeudi 24 Mars
Organisateurs

All our life, the main focus behind fashion shows was the designs to be displayed and the trends to be set. But this year, Paris Fashion Week broke the pattern and rather focused on peace and love through a series of homages.

Here are some of highlights from this year’s Paris Fashion Week:

  • Balenciaga’s honor to Ukraine

“We cannot use weapons and go fight but we can use our voices.” This is what the creative director Demna Gvasalia said during this year’s Fall 2022 show.

Having lived and endured the consequences of war and violence, Balenciaga’s creative director took it as his mission to spread awareness and love during the runway.

At first, guests were welcomed with Ukrainian flag T-shirt and later on, during the show, Demna Gvasalia explained how the past trauma he had lived during his childhood pushed him to turn this show into an homage: “the same thing happened in my home country and I became a forever refugee.”

He even commented on the situation by saying: “I thought for a moment about canceling the show that I and my team worked hard on and were all looking forward to. But then I realized that cancelling this show would mean giving in, surrendering to the evil that has already hurt me so much for almost 30 years. I decided that I can no longer sacrifice parts of me to that senseless, heartless war of ego.”

And at the end, the show was beautifully closed with a yellow tracksuit, and a bright blue asymmetric dress, representing and honoring the Ukrainian flag.

  • Off-White’s honor to Virgil Abloh

In November 2021, Off-White endured the loss of its founder Virgil Abloh. Which is why this year’s show was an homage for the late founder.

In addition to their ready-to-wear collection, models walked down the runway in a fashion line “designed by Virgil and completed by the creative teams and collaborators with whom he worked.”

Off-White is famously known for their amazing street-wear style but haute couture was always one of Abloh’s passions. In that sense, one section of the show was known as “Off-White high fashion collection” featuring couture dresses, but with their own twist as a brand. The star of this section was “the Bride,” a white silk dress, pulled up at the front to “evoke the gesture of a girl pulling up her skirt to dance at a party” with a pair of sneakers, worn by Bella Hadid holding her heels in her hand.

And finally, the house addressed the rumors clearing up the future of Off-White, and insisting on the fact that no one will be replacing the legend, Virgil Abloh.

  • Donations from the Heart

Famous models like the Hadid Sisters, Mica Argañaraz and Kaia Gerber decided to donate their profits from their PFW 2022 shows to Ukrainian refugees.

  • Collections that stood out
  • The all-pink “Pink PP” collection by Valentino that only featured different shades of pink and black on unique designs.
  • Loewe’s collection stood out with different shapes and designs like lips, cars, and balloons.
  • Ninamounah’s statement t-shirt illustrating the Russian president with horns and the sentence “No War” printed on the back.

If we can describe Paris Fashion Week 2022 in a couple of words it would be “Breaking the Pattern” in its true and metaphorical sense