STAR STUDDED: An eclectic mix of celebrities caused a commotion outside of the Dior show Friday, with crowds lining the streets for Tomorrow X Together (TXT) and NewJeans’ member Haerin.
K-pop royalty TXT and Haerin arrived just as British Princess Eugenie was trying to find her seat. Kate Moss sat next to TXT’s Yeonjun, but the two didn’t interact, instead both turning their cameras on the runway show.
Kim Jones created a magical, mirrored world inside Paris École Militaire for Dior’s Paris Fashion Week show with a spinning stage and a starry sky that dazzled guests.
It was a way to wrap a week of celebration for Moss, who marked her 50th birthday with dinner at restaurant Laurent and an after party at The Ritz hotel. She might be used to the paparazzi outside those events, but it was the photographer scrum inside that got a scolding from the supermodel as she asked them to step back and chided them for being rude.
Still, she chatted with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton head of image and environment Antoine Arnault as she tried to get some space.
Rita Ora was also in town celebrating a big birthday, the 60th of her mother Vera Sahatçiu. Her mom accompanied her to fashion week.
“This one is special,” she said of bringing her mom as her date. Her plans for the week are taking in shows, eat, drink “and have the best time.”
Ora was dressed in a cozy knit personally picked by Jones. “I was just like, ‘Kim, I’m freezing, and he decided this would be perfect for me — and I agree,” she said. The singer is working on a new album and will star in the upcoming “Tin Soldier” opposite Jamie Fox.
“I’m just doing everything I can do at once to be honest,” she said of her packed schedule.
The collection was inspired by Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, which spoke to Paris Opéra Ballet principal dancer Germain Louvet. “He was really someone who had a very precise aesthetic. He has an idea of what the male body has to move, to dance, to wear. He was a fashion icon,” he said.
Louvet, who has walked in the Ami Paris show in 2022, said presenting yourself on stage and on the runway require a different approach to movement.
“I have to say, it’s not that hard walking compared to dancing, but also it’s very interesting because you’re not here just for the movements; you’re here for the fabrics. And you’re here for the clothes, to give life to them and creating something just by walking, to create an impact for the audience without doing a movement,” he said. “The clothes are doing the interpretation.”
Dance does not come naturally to Jay Chou, he joked. “I’m not very good at dancing in particular, but I think music and dance are closely connected,” said Chou. The Taiwanese singer known as the “King of Mandopop” is one of the biggest stars in the world, and just played sold-out arena shows in London and Paris last week.
“It was so very meaningful to me,” Chou said about the European concerts. Though he can take to the stage in front of thousands of people, he said joining the Dior family is “exciting, but I’m a little bit nervous.”
Actor Nicholas Hoult is prepping for a bad guy Lex Luthor role in James Gunn’s upcoming “Superman: Legacy” film.
“I like to think I’m getting wound up like a little toy but then I can be unleashed when we start filming,” said Hoult of getting ready for the film.
He prepped for the show in the easiest of ways, he said, and “popped by the shop” in London Thursday after a photoshoot there to select his outfit.
Pusha T, who walked in Pharrell Williams’ Louis Vuitton rodeo show Monday night, was sitting this one out. Instead, he was taking it all in from the front row.
“You know, you realize that the job is a lot tougher than what you probably have thought it was. It takes a lot of focus,” he said of his first turn on the catwalk. Did he have a chance to relax after the runway when Williams took to the stage with Mumford and Sons? “You know, I don’t even remember the after party. That’s how much I enjoyed it.”
The rapper declared Monday’s Vuitton show Williams’ “best” yet, and sang the praises of Jones too. “Kim always kills it. Dior is always top notch.” He was wearing a brown overcoat personally selected by Jones for the day, which he had tailored by the Dior atelier, accented with a pearl brooch.
Singer Chase Hudson has become a regular at the Dior shows, but said he was still feeling a little nervous getting ready. Couldn’t have helped that he’d already had two cups of coffee and was contemplating a third when suiting up.
He calmed himself with a pre-show playlist of Frank Sinatra, Frank Ocean, some French pop and ’80s hits. Some of that might infuse its way into his next project, he said.
“I really like this slow music so I’m trying to take some references from there; I’ve been taking a lot of references from classical rock and the ’80s in general. I like their lyricism and I feel like it was a very open world back then,” he said of the pre-phone eras. “I’m really into the style of the ’80s, the hair and all of it, learning more about it and just falling into that rabbit hole.”
The show made Hudson one of the first to wear the relaunched Chiffre Rouge men’s watch, which isn’t available to the general public until next month. Its black-and-red design added a gravitas to his light suit and sheer top. “I don’t usually wear watches, but I’m going to be staring at this all day,” he joked. — RHONDA RICHFORD
CITY OF LOVE: “Oh, je t’aime,” said Fran Drescher to the City of Light as she arrived for the fall Ami Paris show on Thursday evening.
The SAG-AFTRA president took a moment to take in the set, a typically Parisian Haussmann-style facade recreated inside the Tennis Club de Paris.
“The weather’s been sometimes cold but always evocative and always beautiful,” she enthused. “I’m a Francophile and I’m always just so happy to be here with my bestie Judi,” she enthused as said friend, interior design consultant Judi Mann, beamed next to her.
The pair had been in town for a couple of days and when asked if Drescher would stay more, the answer was a resounding “oui.”
She wasn’t the only one exercising their Gallic skills.
One late arrival quipped that it was “a good thing we are all Ami here,” playing on the brand’s name, which is French for friend, as they slipped into their seats on an already teeming bench.
Earlier, guests had arrived at a brisk pace, eager to escape the cold snap that descended on the city at the same time as the fashion pack.
Fans, however, didn’t seem to mind the chill as they clamored for “Parasite” star Wooshik Choi.
Ed McVey, who portrayed Prince William in the final season of “The Crown,” rubbed his hands to warm them up as he waited for his turn at the photocall alongside fellow Brit Luke Newton, best known as Colin Bridgerton.
As the distant ringing of a church bell marked the imminence of the show, China’s Crystal Zhang, who rose to fame with the 2015 period fantasy drama “Go Princess Go,” took her seat alongside French actresses Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Adjani.
Further down, a particularly glowing Mélanie Thierry, who is expecting her third child, and her smouldering compatriot Vincent Cassel were among those who took in Alexandre Mattiussi’s fall show, carried off by the likes of Guinevere Van Seenus, Lou Doillon, Liu Wen, Diane Kruger and Laetitia Casta. — LILY TEMPLETON
