Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
On the morning of the hottest day in France’s recorded history, Paris Fashion Week men’s proceeded according to schedule. Well, almost. The Dior show was set for 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday in a grand hôtel particulier near Parc Monseau that — like practically every residence, bistro, office, and conceivable venue for a runway show in Paris — does not have air conditioning. A few days before, as the impending heat wave forced the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower to close early, the show was moved to 9 a.m. Guests were greeted by handsome waiters holding platters of strawberries, cold towels, and iced mocktails, and folding fans engraved with guests’ names were placed on every seat. It was already 86 degrees, well on the way to a high of 105. For some, that wasn’t enough, and the vast majority of fashion people in Paris resorted to more DIY solutions.
Fanning at Dior. Samuel Hine.
Fanning at Dior. Samuel Hine.
One designer told me he doesn’t have AC in his apartment, so he had to borrow fans from his own show. The street-style photographer Tommy Ton dumped grocery-store bags of ice in his backpack. “The best part is just taking one ice cube and placing it into my underwear,” he said. “I can see other photographers visibly bothered by the heat even at 10:30 a.m., so I let them lean against my backpack.” Others scrambled to secure mini motorized fans, with group chats trading Amazon links and names of local shops that still had some stock.
James Harris of the Throwing Fits podcast had to settle for a $20 version of a horseshoe-shaped collar fan, which he wore with swim trunks when I saw him perspiring at a sushi restaurant around 9 p.m. on Wednesday. He suggested it was better than nothing. “It’s the bootleg version of the real thing, so I think there’s a 40 percent chance that it explodes and decapitates me, but anything helps at this point,” Harris said.
There is always something to complain about during Fashion Week, and most front-row fixtures are happy to oblige in kvetching about the traffic, the shows starting late, or how bad such-and-such collection was. But the first sign that we were entering unprecedented territory at the spring 2027 shows was when the French cheek-kiss greeting was universally replaced by an awkward, apologetic air kiss.
Everyone ditched their suits and loafers for shorts, tank tops, and sandals and carried on. “There are way more shorts, lots of short-shorts,” said Nick Tran, the head buyer at Dover Street Market Paris.
The weather encouraged some designers to reconsider their styling choices. A few hours before the Dries Van Noten show on Thursday, a publicist texted a warning that we shouldn’t arrive early to the 16th Arrondissement tennis-club venue: “It might be quite warm.”
Dries van Noten Menswear Spring/Summer 2027.
Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images
Dries van Noten Menswear Spring/Summer 2027.
Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images
Dries van Noten Menswear Spring/Summer 2027.
Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images
Outside it was 100 degrees and inside there were hand fans, cold beers, production assistants offering to mist our faces, cooling towels, box fans, and a Popsicle stand. But the real refreshment came on the runway. The skin-baring collection was rendered in a poetic color palette and layered together with a sensual eye, with tiny short-shorts and silky, backless camisoles; gauzy sheer blouses; unlined parkas and coats that rippled in the hot air; low-cut tank tops; and lots of flip-flops and ballet flats. When designer Julian Klausner took his bow, the weary, sweaty crowd roared like I haven’t heard all week.
Popsicles at Dries Van Noten.
“We started this season with the desire to do something light and airy and delicate,” said Klausner. “And of course, in the last few days, we stripped it back a little bit, removed some tops, and kind of went more with the shorts.”
At Dior, Jonathan Anderson showed structureless, gossamerlike suits that seemed to float off the body. And Anthony Vaccarello, marking ten years at Saint Laurent, stripped back his muscular tailoring silhouette and brought it closer to a day-to-day wardrobe (kinky see-through plastic dress shoes notwithstanding). “Especially in summer with the heat wave, you want something very easy, very light,” Vaccarello said.
Dior Men Spring/Summer 2027.
Photo: Peter White/Getty Images
The only person who seemed unperturbed by the heat was Rick Owens. On Thursday morning, I met him in the courtyard of the Palais de Tokyo, where the sun was frying everything in sight. Owens was wearing a paper-thin tank top, and there was not a drop of sweat on his brow. “Everybody’s just a little hot. Stop being such pussies. It’ll be fine!” he said.
The scene before Rick Owens.
Photo: Samuel Hine
Still, he had taken the forecast seriously and, like Dior, moved his show from the afternoon to the morning. It was staged on a catwalk suspended above the museum’s reflecting pool, with epic jets of water arcing through the sky (and misting the crowd) as the models stalked along to hardcore techno in sharply cut black blazers and tight leather. I gazed longingly at a bulbous, Michelin Man–style tracksuit made in collaboration with Adidas that was inflated by internal fans — Owens had borrowed the company’s proprietary Climacool System of garments that provides athletes with a personal air-conditioned microclimate. “Very timely, isn’t it?” Owens said.
The Michelin Man–style tracksuit at Rick Owens.
Owens explained the show’s energy and intensity was a response to his feeling of helplessness in the face of the news right now. “There’s nothing I can do without trying to sound virtuous, so I prefer to just be a stone,” he said. Stone was the collection’s title. “I’m getting older, so I’m thinking, How do I do this gracefully moving forward?”
Rick Owens Spring-Summer 2027.
Photo: Francisco Gomez de Villaboa/WWD via Getty Images
Before heading inside to do final makeup checks, Owens offered what passes for a hopeful message in his corner of the fashion universe: “This planet has survived worse, or maybe it won’t survive. But death is part of life. So we’re going to die, maybe the planet’s going to die, our race is going to die, and something else is going to happen.”
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