PARIS — As Paris gears up for a busy couture week, French fashion’s governing body warned that town’s logistics have gotten increasingly ungovernable, and the situation will likely worsen next 12 months when the capital welcomes the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“Paris is gridlocked,” Bruno Pavlovsky, president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, said in an interview the day after the top of the lads’s shows, which ran from June 20 to 25.

The official men’s spring 2024 calendar featured 43 shows and 38 presentations, coinciding with the presence of world leaders for the Summit for a Latest Global Financial Pact; the Paris Air Show; the annual Fête de la Musique street music festival; the Longines Paris Eiffel show jumping competition and the Garmin Triathlon — not to say a heat wave and an explosion that destroyed the Paris American Academy school, mobilizing lots of of emergency personnel.

To say that traffic chaos ensued is an understatement.

With 32 houses revealing their fall 2023 collections on the runway between Monday and July 6, the Paris Couture Week schedule can be certainly one of the largest yet. Thom Browne and Paris-based Ashi Studio are latest to the calendar, while Charles de Vilmorin will return together with his first runway outing.

In a joint interview with Pascal Morand, the federation’s executive president, Pavlovsky said while it was positive that its efforts to advertise Paris because the capital of fashion are bearing fruit, organizing the shows has turn into very difficult.

“The momentum is incredibly good, in order that’s the encouraging part: it’s necessary to focus on the position of Paris, and all of the work that’s been done here,” he continued, noting the return of huge spenders of all nationalities.

“At the identical time, the conditions for doing this have gotten increasingly difficult, not a lot when it comes to the shows, however the moments between shows, to make sure the sleek running of events and a minimum of serenity when it comes to organization. It’s at all times a balancing act,” he added. 

The federation must also cope with brands’ desire to secure ever more exclusive and spectacular locations. For instance, luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton shut down a complete neighborhood for Pharrell Williams’ debut menswear show for Louis Vuitton on the Pont Neuf.

There are roadworks all around the city because it gears up for the Olympics, and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo continues to steer one of the crucial ambitious policies worldwide to wean people off cars by restricting access to some streets, including the Rue de Rivoli, a serious thoroughfare that’s home to the LVMH-owned La Samaritaine department store.

This season presents a further challenge: Valentino is unveiling its collection on the Château de Chantilly, positioned 30 miles north of Paris. The show at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday is on the identical evening as Louis Vuitton’s gala dinner for the launch of its latest watch collection.

For the federation, the problem lies in giving brands the liberty to stage events in step with their strategies, while ensuring that everybody has their moment within the sun. 

“Brands are inside their rights, and others have done it before, so this is just not in any respect a criticism of Valentino,” said Pavlovsky, who’s president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS. “But having a show in Chantilly really adds to the problem.”

He warned that unless the situation improves, the Paris couture calendar can have to expand.

“Our challenge is to have the ability to welcome a maximum of shows for high fashion over 4 days. Perhaps in the future we’ll should go to 5 days,” he suggested. “We’re in a virtuous cycle and we must absolutely maintain that virtuous cycle.”

Morand noted that in recent seasons the federation has increased the time between slots on the calendar to as much as one-and-a-half hours to permit guests to travel between locations and likewise attend presentations for prime jewelry and other collections. 

“It’s an ongoing dialogue with the brands, since the brands wish to have freedom of movement, but we’re not there simply to register their wishes,” he said.

“At the top of the day, it’s as much as us to set the agenda. We determine the calendar, which doesn’t mean we don’t take heed to brands. That’s why it really works, despite the issues we’ve highlighted, and that’s why Paris is getting stronger,” Morand added.

The committee that selects the couture week participants is receiving a growing variety of applications, he said. Browne got here with a well-rounded pitch that took under consideration the complex rules that govern high fashion, the official designation for the activity of manufacturing made-to-measure clothes. 

De Vilmorin, by comparison, operates on a shoestring budget but in addition makes all his designs by hand, earning him a position among the many guest members, who don’t should respect the identical stringent government-supervised rules as larger houses. 

Ashi Studio, meanwhile, is an element of a wave of Saudi Arabian designers who’re making their presence felt in Paris amid a bunch of regional design showcases and pop-ups.

As a way to earn the high fashion designation, brands must employ a set number of individuals and present a minimum variety of looks each season, amongst other criteria. 

Morand said young designers value craftsmanship and personalization in an increasingly digital world, while Pavlovsky noted that high fashion acts as a magnet for designers from all around the world. 

“It’s the head of the occupation, so that they strive to achieve that. Some have the means, others don’t. It’s true that developing a high fashion collection stays expensive,” he said. “We attempt to support them and to adapt to their possibilities with the intention to keep them under this umbrella of high fashion.”

Although Paris has passed through yet one more difficult period, with protests against the federal government’s pension reform that culminated in a garbage collectors’ strike, wealthy tourists from the U.S. and Asia are back, he reported. 

“Because it’s still hard to get visas, the individuals who obtain them are likely to be probably the most privileged,” Pavlovsky said, referring to Chinese tourists particularly. “It’s less mass tourism and more high-quality tourism.”

Nevertheless, based on his experience at Chanel, he said couture clients still expect houses to travel to satisfy them where they’re, a practice that grew throughout the pandemic. 

Likewise, many jewellery houses — which traditionally present their foremost collections for the 12 months in summer — have already staged presentations in glamorous locations, including Italy and Greece. 

“The angle of the Olympic Games, all the development work, implies that Paris is difficult to get around and doesn’t at all times offer the very best conditions to host these clients,” Pavlovsky noted.

As reported, the federation has moved forward the dates of the autumn 2024 edition of Paris Couture Week to avoid a clash with preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Officials fear the disruption could last throughout summer and impact trading for luxury brands, and possibly hamper preparations for the spring 2025 womenswear shows in September 2024.

“The difficulty is access to stores, each for workers and for clients,” Pavlovsky said. “We already know that the middle of Paris will probably be car-free and really hard to access. How will deliveries happen?”

The federation is coordinating its efforts with the Paris police, city hall, the Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee and the Interministerial Delegation for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“Today, we’re in the dead of night, and we expect we are going to remain in the dead of night until September or October,” Pavlovsky said.