Charlotte & Lu’s Paris Fashion Week Diaries
Created in partnership with SHARK BEAUTY
Day One
Paris Fashion Week runs for nine straight days, so you have to pick your dates carefully. We arrived bright and early on Wednesday morning to glorious blue skies and made a beeline for Café Marly, a justifiable tourist trap that runs along the left side of the Louvre palace and offers show-stopping views of the glass pyramid. Our social media assistant India was in town and had never been to the city before, so we were determined to give her the best possible experience – which, of course, meant starting with a spritz and lashings of Echiré butter overlooking one of the city’s most iconic landmarks.
A stroll through the Tuileries and a cab ride later, we were outside the Palais de Tokyo for Cecilie Bahnsen’s show. The Scandi designer applied her hyper-feminine, whimsical aesthetic to an unexpectedly Gorp-core inspired collection, with signature appliqué flowers and lace patchwork covering khaki and black anoraks and backpacks. There was still plenty to keep her purists happy, however, with exaggerated sparkly tulle skirts and ultra-short baby doll dresses ticking the girly box.
Next was a dash across town (and a quick Arc de Triomphe sighting for India) for the show of the week, Stella McCartney. A ‘stellevator’ whisked guests up to the sixth floor of a corporate office block, where black swivel chairs had been rearranged into a front row, some even propped against banks of desks with computers and printers. The celebrities came out in droves, with Kate Moss and Cameron Diaz creating so much attention that Richard E. Grant, Tom Ford and Olivia Coleman went almost unnoticed. The collection was – forgive the pun – stellar, with some of the most wearable runway looks we’ve seen in a long time – think power shoulders, thigh-high boots, mannish double-breasted coats and slick black tailoring paired with fluro trainers. Everything felt like it had been designed for that old fashion cliché – day-to-night. Veteran Natalia Vodianova opened and closed the show, the latter not before four dancers took to the poles dotted down the runway and treated the surprised audience to an impressive display of core strength. And, not for the first time in Lu’s life, we took a lift back down with Anna Wintour.
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We squeezed in an appointment with Chloé Harrouche, otherwise known as Loulou de Saison, to see her A/W offering. A theme of our trip was visiting brands that are creating seriously cool, grown-up pieces without a wild price tag and Chloé started that trend – we loved the chocolate brown tailoring, burgundy layers and a sizeable new collection of accessories, including jewel-hued bowling bags and kitten heel boots. Then a quick local bistro dinner of red wine, roasted duck and frites before we all collapsed into bed at the Pulitzer Hotel.
Day 2
The Shark FlexFusion 5-in-1 Air Styler, Dryer & Ceramic Straightener is my new hack for getting a glossy blow-dried look from home—it combines powerful hot air and heated ceramic plates to style hair quickly and efficiently, whether I’m straightening, curling, volumising, or smoothing. It can take hair from wet to styled with no heat damage*, cutting my usual routine in half. I use the dryer to rough-dry, the Wet-or-Dry Straightener for soft sleekness, the round Wet-or-Dry Fusion Brush to volumise, and I also use this in dry mode to create a soft, blow-dried wave. You also get Shark’s famous Auto-Wrap curlers to achieve those tighter curls and a Diffuser for coily hair types. I needed bouncy, frizz-free hair for a day of appointments, and the tool delivered in record time. The Fusion styling and straightening attachments combine heat-controlled ceramic and powerful airflow for styles that last, while Scalp Shield Mode is designed to protect new hair growth from extreme heat. Smaller and lighter than FlexStyle, FlexFusion introduces new Wet-or-Dry hair straightening, allowing for sleek, straight styles in as little as one pass. It also lets me re-style dry hair without washing, making it the perfect tool for all hair types.
*in wet-to-dry mode
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The day’s first stop was a re-see of the Dries Van Noten collection, which was full of characteristic colour and texture. Heavy beading, playful tassels and architectural scallops proved the eponymous creative director’s recent departure won’t impact the brand’s identity. Next was Róhe Frames, a newborn by fashion standards, having been conceived during the pandemic. Showcased in an impossibly chic 70s-style apartment in the third arrondissement, we fell for monochrome separates with interesting details – a double split cuff here, a tie-detail there – hanging against a backdrop of chestnut wooden walls and stained-glass windows. We popped in to see Savette, the if-you-know-you-know bag brand of the moment, before a quick dash to Merci, our favourite Parisian concept store, to fawn over cult pieces by under-the-radar brands and an ever-stylish array of crockery and coffee table books. Lunch on the pavement outside Le Marais’ Café Charlot delivered some of the best people watching yet, before we dashed to the beautiful Sézane apartment for a glimpse at SS25 (you’re going to love the new basket bags). Then, it was a front-row look at the new Bernadette Antwerp collection, whose signature silk eveningwear was taken up a notch by sequinned, floor-sweeping capes, faux fur stoles and leather maxi gloves.
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We rushed back to the hotel for a quick hair refresh – I used the Auto-Wrap Curlers to add some extra body after a day running around in the sun. Then it was dinner with the Rixo team at the soon-to-open Experimental hotel in Le Marais – we loved the double-height dramatic ceilings, sexy candlelight and contemporary European menu.
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Day 3
By this point I was firmly addicted to my new tool and used the Wet-or-Dry Fusion Brush to smooth out the overnight flyaways. India left us on Thursday night, so we set out on a duo mission to visit Arddun Agency, which represents names like Monse, Rachel Gilbert and Le Set – we found everything from jewel-encrusted minidresses to butter-soft pointelle pyjamas – before popping into By Malene Birger, who won the award for most beautiful, light-flooded show space of the week. Burgundy and pink anchored the A/W collection, with signature furry heels and chunky knitwear making us excited for September. Lunch was French onion soup and hot chocolate with whipped cream in the sunshine in Place Des Voges, before a stop at Camilla & Marc’s art-filled showroom (we can look forward to more mega shoulders from the Aussie brand next season) and a Chloé re-see, the cornerstones of which were, reliably, pastel lace, fur-lined gilets and earth-hued ruffles.
A quick change of hotel to the sumptuous JK Place in the seventh, where we snacked on fries and martinis before heading back to the ninth for Friday night’s Victoria Beckham show. In contrast to last season, which took place in a grand glasshouse in the grounds of a palace, A/W’s runway was in a derelict, cavernous building, with hundreds of candles and simple black benches – a blank slate backdrop for plum suiting, reimagined trenches, deconstructed silk gowns and an unexpected dressing-gown inspired final look. Then it was drinks at the Mandarin Oriental, followed by more drinks at Hotel Costes – and the rest of our last night in Paris was a blur.
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