7 things you might have missed at Paris Fashion Week

French style isn’t always understated.

A model wears a creation as part of the Mugler Fall/Winter 2024-2025 ready-to-wear collection presented Sunday, March 3, 2024 in Paris. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) (AP)

There was a lot of rain and colour at Paris Fashion Week, and even some surprises, including doppelgangers.

Here are some of the highlights you may have missed from the week…

Sprinkles of rain at Hermès

It was raining outside the Hermès show at the Garde Républicaine in Paris. But this worked perfectly for creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, who brought rainfall inside the venue too.

As models walked the runway in riding and ankle-length boots, wearing variations of soft earth tones, including red, brown, grey and nude tailored coats and skin-tight leather dresses with glossy finishes, an elaborate sprinkler system sprayed them with raindrops.

Some garments were even finished off with fur, studs and buckles, and proved they were water-resistant.

Chloé and Alexander McQueen debut new creative directors

There’s nothing that leaves fashion audiences at the edge of their seats more than when a new creative director makes their debut – especially at a reputable luxury design house.

During PFW, a former JW Anderson employee, Dublin-born Sean McGirr, took over from his predecessor Sarah Burton, who made her departure from Alexander McQueen after 20 years.

For his debut collection, McGirr gave a nod to McQueen’s 1995 spring/summer collection called “The Birds” – most evidently in the first look of the show. A model was seen wrapped in a compressed black latex midi dress, which almost looked like clingfilm, and paired it with black heeled boots.

Chemena Kamali – an alumna of Saint Laurent – made her creative director debut for Chloé, with a collection inspired by the bohemian aesthetics of the 1970s. There were blouses with frills, wool capes, faux fur, and trousers with subtle flares.

Famous faces walk the runway

Sam Smith made a surprise appearance at Andreas Kronthaler’s experimental Vivienne Westwood show on Saturday and walked the runway twice.

He first wore a draped tartan knicker creation styled with a plaid cape, platform-heeled boots, a tartan hat and a wooden staff.

The English singer-songwriter then came out in a black shredded gown, which paid homage to Renaissance artist Giovanni Battista Moroni, whose work inspired the collection.

A jersey isn’t the first thing you would expect to see at PFW, but Argentine model Georgina Rodriguez, who is also the girlfriend of Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, graced the runway for the Swiss fashion label Vetements.

Rodriguez wore a red jersey maxi dress, where the top half resembled Ronaldo’s signed football jersey.

Schiaparelli brought surrealism to life

Since 1927, Maison Schiaparelli has been known for its whimsical designs and for bringing surrealism to life, and their PFW ready-to-wear collection show at the Hôtel de Boisgelin – which was masterminded by creative director Daniel Roseberry – was no different.

Canadian model Shalom Harlow opened the show in a structured boxy black blazer with a measuring tape embroidery down the plunging neckline. Another model, also wearing a suit, paired it with a tie that looked like it was made from plaited hair.

All black everything at Valentino

Valentino stood out and turned its back on the hot pink shade it has incorporated into its designs over the last couple of years.

In an entirely black collection called Le Noir – in comparison to the many colours seen across various shows – the Italian fashion house saw its creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, take a risk and prove that the colour black also represents “an entire spectrum of shades, infinitely nuanced, within one,” the brand wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The collection included shift dresses with furred hems, flowing and a-line gowns, balloon sleeves and black accessories, including shoulder bags and dark make-up.

Former American tennis player Serena Williams was in attendance, alongside Bridgeton’s Simone Ashley, and model and beauty founder Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, to name a few.

Kate Moss doppelganger at Marine Serre

People were unsure of whether they spotted Kate Moss walking across the runway at the Marine Serre show. But it wasn’t her, it was her doppelganger, Denise Ohnona.

She wore an oversized black leather jacket and matching over-the-knee boots, with the brand’s classic crescent moon-shaped logo all over. She paired it with a white shirt and a shoulder handbag with a gold-chained handle.

Coffee cups, vegetable baskets, shopping bags and even a mother carrying a baby were all spotted, and pulled the audience into an ambiguous marketplace at a former railway shed in Paris called Ground Control, which fostered a sense of intimacy and community, with chic clothes you could probably run errands in, alongside grand designs such a black dress with built-in wings.

Winnie Harlow also walked the runway and wore a ruched black spaghetti-sleeved dress and tights with the crescent logo in red.

Fashion drama at Mugler

It’s safe to say Mugler’s creative director Casey Cadwallader put on a grand and superfluous show at PFW.

The French fashion house used silhouettes and vignettes, and dropped curtains from centre stage to progressively unveil the new collection, which included slinky dresses, sheer corsets, moulded leather and garments that looked like they were melting off the models’ bodies. There were also asymmetrical skirts, belt buckles and printed pieces – designed in partnership with Canadian surrealist painter, Ambera Wellmann.

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz sat next to Alexander Edwards and Tyga. Julia Fox, who wore a sheer feathered salmon dress with ethereal glitter makeup, sat next to Emma Chamberlain and Lisa Rinna.

Models sauntered across a darkened room, with spotlights illuminating the slinky collection, as they stepped through dry ice to reach the media pit, where they posed for flashing lights.

Louis Vuitton goes big

To mark 10 years since his first collection for Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière turned their autumn/winter show into a huge celebration, with almost 4,000 people in attendance.

With the help of visual artist Philippe Parreno and producer-designer James Chinlund, Ghesquière blended fashion and art, while turning the Louvre’s Cour Carrée into a futuristic greenhouse, which also included 13 large chandeliers that resembled a data and electrical supply system.

The star-studded audience included Kelly Rowland, Phoebe Dynevor and Emma Stone, who watched as models walked the runway in dresses that had the fashion brand’s classic logo all over it, and long and sheer evening wear that gave a nod to classic futurism of the collection.

They also wore white coats inspired by sportswear, big fur coats, playful sequins, metallic gold suits and textured blouses.