Paris Fashion Week is an apparel trade show held semi-annually in Paris, France with Spring / Summer and Autumn / Winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation. Currently, Fashion Week is held in the Carrousel du Louvre, as well as at various other venues throughout the city.
Paris Fashion Week is part of the Big 4 fashion weeks internationally, the others being London Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. The schedule begins with New York, followed by London, and then Milan, and ending the events in Paris.
In 2013, Paris Fashion Week (Fall / Winter season) starts February 26 with Moon Young Hee, and will be followed by shows from major fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, and more. These runway shows are held to show the fashion industry what the various labels will be releasing and to increase sales for the brands. The best models are featured in the shows, and catwalks must be perfected for them.
In addition to Ready to Wear shows, there are Men's and Haute Couture shows, which are held semiannually for the Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter seasons.
Famous quotes containing the words paris, fashion and/or week:
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Fashion is primitive in its insistence on exhibitionism, which withers in isolation. The catwalk fashion show with its incandescent hype is its apotheosis. A ritualized gathering of connoiseurs and the spoilt at a spotlit parade of snazzy pulchritude, it is an industrialized version of the pagan festivals of renewal. At the end of each seasonal display, a priesthood is enjoined to carry news of the omens to the masses.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)
“Family values are a little like family vacations—subject to changeable weather and remembered more fondly with the passage of time. Though it rained all week at the beach, it’s often the momentary rainbows that we remember.”
—Leslie Dreyfous (20th century)