No library card was required for entrance to the Kenzo show Thursday night — just a ticket and the will to bypass tons of screaming fans camped out for a glimpse of Zayn Malik, making a rare appearance at fashion week. The show was held at the national library, Bibliothèque Nationale de France Richelieu.
Eric Nam was sporting a varsity jacket and cargo pant look, completed with the Asics trainer. But the singer stumbled on his words trying to explain the look. “I’m so jet-lagged,” he said.
He’s been bouncing around the globe on tour for his album “House on a Hill,” which came out last September. It also included a short film that worked through each song.
He is off to Mumbai to play Lollapalooza India next weekend, before resuming the European leg of his tour.
Nam’s YouTube food tours have led to some unusual cuisine, but landing in Paris he was craving the basics. “I got in and was like, ‘I really want a crepe.’ I know they’re not the healthiest things but you’re in Paris, and you have to indulge every once in a while,” he said. “I think I’m gonna go find that later.”
He was duly impressed by the vaulted ceilings of the reading room inside, all dark woods, Art Deco arches and glass reading lamps.
“This feels like Hogwarts in real life in some magical way,” he said of the location.
Rita Ora was perusing the pages of a 250-page tome, “Kenzo by Nigo,” a hardbound book sent as either the most clever or most wasteful invitation of the week. Each page just printed the brand’s name over and over hundreds of times.
“I don’t think I ingested anything I read,” she joked, while posing for pics with the book.
Pusha T, who walked in Monday’s Louis Vuitton show and sat in the front row at the Dior show earlier in the day, kept it in the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton family and made an appearance at the Kenzo show, too. Malik made his first appearance of fashion week to see models snake through the books in kimono-sleeved jackets, boxy coats and cardigan dresses.
