Paris Fashion Week Historical Overview

Paris Fashion Week: A Historical Overview

• Paris Fashion Week is a series of designer presentations held twice a year in Paris, France.
• The event dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation and are held at venues throughout the city.
• Paris Fashion Week consists of ready-to-wear shows, men's and haute couture shows, which are held semiannually for the spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons.
• Famous brands like Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Kenzo, Givenchy, and Céline host their shows in historical places such as the Carrousel du Louvre and the Grand Palais.
• In order to participate in the event, fashion houses must fulfill the criteria set in place by the Chamber of Haute Couture. One criterion involves a requirement of 35 looks per year that need to include day and evening wear.
• Paris Fashion Week is part of the global "Big 4" fashion weeks, the others being London Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, and New York Fashion Week.
• The first fashion week was held in New York, but the event itself derives from "salon shows" ("défilés de mode" in French) in Paris couture salons.
• The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture was created in 1868 to set the specifications to determine what constituted a 'couture house'.
• In 1921, fifty-three years after the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture was created, the French press created L’Association de Protection des Industries Artistiques Saisonnieres, or PAIS, to protect couture designs from being copied.
• The first recognized Paris Fashion Week was held in October 1973 and organized Haute Couture, Ready-to-Wear, and Men's Fashion into one grouped showing by the Fédération Française de la Couture.
• The event was a fundraiser held at the Palace of Versailles to restore the palace. The amount aimed to reach to repair the palace was estimated at US$60 million which converts to 53,026,956 Euros.
• Paris Fashion Week has rules that prohibit models under 18 years of age and with a body mass index size zero to attend.