The big absentees from Paris Fashion Week

This summer, the capital of Haute Couture will have to navigate between two of the biggest events of the season. Alongside Fashion Week, the city will also host the Olympics, followed in the schedule by the week of Haute Couture shows. The latter has been postponed from June 24th to 27th to avoid overlapping with the Olympic Games. The Paris Fashion Week Men’s SS25 promises to be an emotional week as it will witness the final show of Dries Van Noten before his departure from the brand's artistic direction on the evening of June 22nd. Alongside the Belgian designer, 72 brands will showcase, but the provisional schedule currently lacks the names of Paul Smith, Givenchy, Valentino, and GmbH. Louis Vuitton will boost searches for the French fashion capital again, thanks to the star-studded show by Pharrell, Dior Homme, Junya Watanabe, and Comme des Garçons.

For two of the four major absences from Paris Fashion Week, there are clear explanations for their executive choices. As announced last month, Paul Smith will participate as a guest designer at Pitti Uomo on June 11th, while at Valentino, the latest changes in the maison's creative direction have led the brand to postpone the first show. The first runway show by Alessandro Michele for the Roman house will take place next September, even though former artistic director Pierpaolo Piccioli left the atelier weeks ago. For Givenchy, the choice not to participate in PFW Men’s may have been dictated by a moment of uncertainty followed by the departure of designer Matthew Williams. No communication has been released yet from GmbH regarding their absence.

Despite the fashion industry will certainly feel the absence of the four major players of the next season, expectations for Paris Fashion Week SS25 are high thanks to the addition of new names on the schedule and the return of equally established brands. After the show by students of the Institut Français de la Mode on June 18th, the menswear of Bianca Saunders and Undercover, the Berlin brand 032c will debut on the Paris runway for the first time, followed by Rick Owens. The collaboration between Yohji Yamamoto and adidas, Y-3, returns. Couture will kick off as usual with Schiaparelli, but this summer will mark the great return of Thom Browne and Charles de Vilmorin. As every year, Dior, Chanel, Giorgio Armani Privé, Balenciaga, and Jean Paul Gaultier (led by guest designer Nicolas Di Felice) and Fendi will follow suit.