Magasin’s pop-up Fashion Week newsletter-within-a-newsletter, where we go on the ground to suss out hot shopping gossip from scenes of interest: Paris Fashion Week, Days 5 + 6.
Weather report
68ºF / 20º C — It’s a Report Back backlog! I spent the latter half of PFW experiencing more than I was writing, which means as I finally file my last few days of reportage, there’s ripe goss and intel to share. Which you’ll be getting from me today…tomorrow...the next day…basically until you unsubscribe or I die.
Itinerary
Oct 3
12p Schiaparelli re-see
1p Issey Miyake show — they teased an upcoming Camper collab by sending a model down the runway carrying a shoebox like a clutch.
2p Desert Vintage Paris store opening day visit — New York’s favorite overpriced archival vintage situationship opened up in Paris, where old European luxury is abundant, and yet the store’s pricing remained just as astronomical. They clearly amassed an impressive haul to make good first impressions in their new Left Bank space: much Romeo Gigli, a Yohji leather puffer corset jacket, JPG- and Margiela-era Hermés, Geoffrey Beene, Alaïa, etc.
6p Miss Claire Sullivan cocktail at Dover Street Market Paris — I missed the cocktail, but I did go by to see the pieces the following day. Some very cute/cool girls were trying on the big puffer skirts, of course, and I finally got a sense of pricing, which wasn’t apparent before as it’s all made-to-order: a silk headscarf in the $400 range, corset tops around $1,000, and the ballgown skirts a little less than $1,500 if memory serves.
7p Yohji Yamamoto show — a remarkable moment: Yohji sent a model down the runway wearing a t-shirt featuring the late Giorgio Armani’s image on the front and an invitation inviting Yohji to Armani’s final show on the back. I would absolutely collect this piece.
9:45p Holli dinner with Kaia Gerber at Sugaar
Oct 4
11a Bernadette Antwerp show — foiled by Paris’ rain traffic…womp womp
1p Lunch at Bistrot Paul Bert
2p Proenza Schouler re-see — I’m an anticipating fan of the new era under Rachel Scott, but a good lunch ran long, and who am I to fight that?
3p Haider Ackermann’s Snow Goose by Canada Goose preview — can’t say much on this embargoed situation, but the most incredible takeaway was how involved and exacting Haider is with all of his projects. Also fun how, in not immediately obvious ways, his Canada Goose work echoed what we all saw and loved from the Tom Ford runway this season, which he also designs.
4:30p Ralph Lauren presentation — the styling work is truly, deeply bar none, even up against whatever Lotta Volkova and Brian Molloy are touching. Karen Flora Brody isn’t just designing Polo, but putting together the final looks that show up on models and end up permanently in my reference folders…
7:30p Completedworks x Marfa Journal cocktail
8p Dinner at Aux Deux Ami
some skips
Outfit rundown
AM
Khaite Saphra Coat, $3,040 $3,800 / Phoebe Philo Gathered Flat, $890 / Métier Private Eye Bag, $5,250
PM
Cawley Flying Jacket, $1,593 / Alaïa Hooded Pique Dress (similar, $2,550) / Dehanché Mini Hutch Belt in Piny Hair, $275 / Alaïa Studded Le Teckel Bag, $3,390
AM (next day)
Polo Ralph Lauren Oversize Cotton Twill Car Coat, $479 $598 / Polo Ralph Lauren The Iconic Relaxed Fit Oxford Shirt, $168 / Polo Ralph Lauren Cable-Knit Wool-Cashmere Sweater Vest, $168 / Polo Ralph Lauren Cotton Corduroy Wide-Leg Pant, $298 / Polo Ralph Lauren Polo Play Leather Tote, $598
PM (next day)
High Sport Black Veronica Sweater, $480 $640 / Flore Flore Diana Polo, $200 / vintage Helmut Lang Leather Pants (various) / Demna for Gucci Python Horsebit Heels, coming soon (similar, $210) / Alaïa Studded Le Teckel Bag, $3,390 / Gucci Horsebit Accent Square Eyeglasses, $200
Shopping gossip
- , a person I would decidedly like to visit Florence with, told me at the Ralph Lauren presentation about the city’s old school rowing club that’s still in use by athletes (yes, we talked about my WaterRower). She toured the venue on one of her visits there, where she got a look at some vintage rowing uniforms that she said had informed some future designs for her women’s tailoring company, Clementina. This page offers some visual cues (including a pair of Horse Sport-looking hot pants), and a cursory shopping scan turns up an Italian-made boatneck jersey and a similarly striped unitard…do with those what you will, I’m waiting to see what inevitable magic Emilie makes of of it all.
I went back to Rubirosa’s, after finally visiting a month ago, after hearing about it first in
’s men’s week column from this summer (remember that as you read all about Rubirosa this week). Really beyond-good cotton shirts (the hand-feel moment was “whoa”) in great colors, like my Blue Jeans-blue one that I’d pre-ordered in an XS, plus PJs and leather slipper-loafers. Designer and founder Lauren Rubinski is actually a jewelry designer first, eponymously. How good is this chain? (It’s only €7,855.) But ANYWAY, I was wearing my new shirt to a dinner, when a guest whose name I didn’t catch asked about it, and upon hearing it was Rubirosa, showed me a recent picture she’d snapped of Lauren sporting a Patek Philippe watch pendant necklace. I did not realize such a thing existed—this and other pocket watch styles come up in searches but don’t seem quite right—and have texted watch knowledge-haver to get more intel.
Store scene of the day — Demna’s “La Famiglia” Collection at Gucci Avenue La Montaigne
Demna’s first collection as Gucci’s Creative Director landed in limited quantities in only 10 stores worldwide beginning the day it showed in Milan up until October 12, making it effectively a see-now-buy-now experiment not really the norm among luxury (yet standard practice for mass brands like COS and Massimo Dutti). One of those stores was Paris’ La Montaigne flagship, a short train ride from a presentation I had on my schedule this week. Obviously, I stopped in.
An earnest sales associate greeted me at the crowded entrance and asked me if I was aware of the special circumstances at the store. I said I was, and we mutually switched into nerd mode. He showed me through the looks from “The Tiger,” the Spike Jonze short film released with the collection starring Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Keke Palmer, Kendall Jenner, other biggies—the coat dubbed Incazzata was apparently the best-seller of the featured looks (worn by Demi). The reconfigured Jackie bag (made shorter and baguettier), already a favorite, was selling exceptionally well, while the Bamboo 1947, reimagined in a slimmer profile to suggest a life spent nestled between other bags in a painstakingly amassed collection (love this conjured backstory), has been slower to pick up.
My SA Hannibal and I were having a gas…he showed me the insane touring fine jewelry collection also stopping over at the store—€700,000 necklaces, €350,000 earrings—and told me about his time as a cordonnier for a couture shoe maker called Sidonie Larizzi, very rococo stuff.
When we arrived at Demna’s shoes, I fell into an irreversible contract with a pair of python heels with a horsebit upper and collapsible back, roughened and softened for a faintly lived-in look. I figured they must be Tom Ford-era inspired, and I asked the queen of such knowledge
about them:“So to my knowledge, [Tom Ford] didn’t put a horsebit on that toe shape, but obviously the toe shape is distinctively Tom Ford-era Gucci, that softened isosceles trapezoid kind of look. Looks like Demna’s the first to put a horsebit on it. [In ‘Put a bird on it’ voice] ‘Put a horsebit on it!’”
Here’s that toe shape she’s talking about. And here’s a pair of TF-era python boots with a patina earned by time that Demna is replicating with his version. The Demnas in question ran about €1,500, so let’s call it $1,500 after detax and a tariff-proofed future. I’ll have you know I bought them.
The collection leaves stores in four days—if you’re in any of these cities, I’d stop by for the shopping history of it—but will be back and with wide distribution in the spring.
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