PARIS — Mirroring the runway return of expressive fashion over quiet luxury praised by retailers, buyers at the Paris trade shows and showrooms here during fashion week were looking for individualism, praising new takes on craftsmanship and brands with a story they can translate to consumers in store.
“We try to find small maker brands that sit alongside our offer,” said Charlotte Hess, founder of the Isobel & Cleo knitwear label and retail store The Atelier by Isobel & Cleo on Nantucket Island, who highlighted bags from Rabari at Première Classe and ready-to-wear from Ilk, showing at Tranoï, among her highlights. “People want to know that this dress, for instance, was made by someone I know personally. Customers are more invested in the story than ever before.”
“I feel like we’re seeing a lot of variety and newer designers,” said Stephanie Sipley, owner of SoleAmour, with three stores in Massachusetts. “It’s inspiring to see color and a lot of little adornments that give you a reason to buy it. No one needs just another white shirt,” said Sipley, who was particularly open to shopping smaller designers and quantities for customers looking for something unique.
“We’ve already done most of our buying in the U.K. and some in Italy, this is our cherry on the top,” said Angela Siemieniuk, owner of accessories boutique Hat Trick in Hereford, U.K., who believes the drive toward uniqueness is being fueled by the rise of Vinted and other resale platforms, with consumers shopping there for branded apparel and accessories, driving retailers to look for smaller labels more difficult to find secondhand. “Vinted’s a massive problem,” she said. “You really need that point of difference. The consumer needs to be excited.”
Première Classe, Tranoï and other Paris Fashion Week showcases continued to lean into curation and lifestyle activations this season, as well as a broader mix of categories, including homewares and beauty.
Première Classe, in the Tuileries Gardens, incorporated new event Jill, curated by Jean-Pierre Blanc, which focused on collaborations, unique pieces and limited editions, as well as Shoppe Object Paris’ debut Tuileries selection, the first edition of Le Rendez-Vous from Francéclat’s Emergence program for emerging brands in jewelry, watchmaking and tableware, and the Run showroom, operated by WSN in collaboration with ANDAM. Altogether, the events saw a 25 percent uptick in visitor traffic year-over-year.
Show organizer WSN, as it continues to expand its offer of cohosted events in tandem with Première Classe, is also honing the offer within the core show. “Our aim is to be more selective with Première Classe; over the past two or three seasons, we have reduced the selection by around 100 brands, with a more curated offer to highlight a new vision of our industries,” said WSN chief executive officer Frédéric Maus.
Beyond the Tuileries, Jill offered a cultural program at various locations throughout the city. “Most of our events have now shifted to include a real cultural focus, because I believe that’s what people need today to be inspired,” Maus said. Within the show, events included a live textile painting performance by artist Manon Bara of QueenKongGang, which was showing at Jill, while outside initiatives included La Nuit de la Mode, a screening of iconic fashion advertisements from the ’80s and ’90s at a cinema in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
At Tranoï, footfall was also up, by 10 percent, and buyers praised the show’s new guided layout, with a clearer delineation between sections. These included new spaces highlighting Thai designers and young creators from France, as well as the ongoing Canex initiative for African labels, and there was also a bigger focus on accessories. “I see the growth in traffic as a strong signal given the market’s uncertainty,” said Tranoï fashion manager Emilie Talec. “The show has been really dynamic, with a strong desire to buy and discover new brands.” Tranoï also offered an enhanced conference program as well as a fashion show showcasing three Chinese labels: Warrior 1927, Jun by Yangjun and Raxxy.
At the Run showroom, newcomers included Argalji from Brazil and Ukrainian label Theo, while over at Sphere, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode’s showcase for emerging designers, Victoria Valette and Meruert Tolegen joined the roster alongside J. Simone, Matho, Riz Poli, Sevali, Vautrait and Weinsanto.
Highlights From the Paris Trade Shows and Showrooms
Fish Club
Category: Ready-to-wear
Showing at: Première Classe
With Fish Club, Anne-Sophie Baillet-Poisson, founder of jewelry brand Atelier Paulin, repurposes Indian fabric offcuts to create colorful one-size-fits-all silhouettes, statement embroidered jackets and customized rock band T-shirts. Working with small workshops in India, the four-year-old brand operates on a see now, buy now basis, and has a corner at Le Bon Marché as well as its own Right Bank boutique.
Retail price range: From 180 euros for T-shirts to 599 euros for jackets
Guayaba Agria
Category: Ready-to-wear
Showing at: Première Classe
“We come from clouds and heaven” is how designer Lina Rojas, from Colombia, describes her slow fashion brand, with which she aims to inject a sense of fantasy into everyday life. The IED Barcelona graduate creates ethereal modular silhouettes using natural and deadstock fabrics, with highlights including a tie-on top that doubles up as an envelope pouch, a coat that transforms into a dress and the Cosecha dress, which features multiple pockets around the waist intended for picking flowers.
Wholesale price range: From 150 to 250 euros
Natalie Grassi
Category: Jewelry
Showing at: Première Classe
Self-taught jewelry designer Natalie Grassi, from Berlin, and her husband Johannes Voss, specialized in CAD modeling, are inspired by the city’s techno scene, to which they wanted to contribute a touch of sparkle and color. Working with recycled silver, 18-karat gold plating and lab-grown stones, their jewelry pieces range from everyday unisex looks including small creole earrings with little design twists to statement pieces like cross rings and earrings set with stone baubles. The young label has a pop-up coming up later in the year with Ludwig Beck in Munich and is looking to grow internationally.
Retail price range: From 120 to 350 euros
Diatomaé
Category: Jewelry
Showing at: Première Classe
Axelle Garnier, a general practitioner by trade, has long been passionate about Mughal glass bracelets, but bemoans the fact that they break so easily. For her five-month-old passion project, she worked with a partner near the Taj Mahal to craft a more resistant version in reinforced glass, resulting in chunky bangles featuring the likeness of elephants, peacocks or seashells, symbolizing grace, protection and harmony.
Retail price range: 85 to 95 euros
Batchig
Category: Fragrance
Showing at: Première Classe/Shoppe Object
After several years in product management and merchandising at Sézane, Clara Boyadjian launched her solid fragrance brand last year. “My ambition was to bring [the fashion] world’s sense of style, storytelling and desirability into fragrance and to do it through a format that felt both modern and deeply personal,” she explained. Inspired by her Armenian heritage, she named her brand after the Armenian word for kiss. The three fragrances in the line, in their refillable jewel-like metal cases set with semiprecious stones, are made in France, alcohol-free and vegan. The brand is carried at Sézane and Merci in Paris and is launching at Printemps New York and Goop for the holiday season.
Retail price range: $145 (case and refill), $85 (refill)
Elisa Parpinelli
Category: Jewelry and ceramics
Showing at: Première Classe
Elisa Parpinelli worked in fashion in Italy for a number of years, with stints at both Versace and Prada, but her eye was always attracted to accessories more. On returning to her native Brazil a few years ago, Parpinelli started working with ceramics, inspired by feminine forms, sculpting faces like theater masks by hand and turning them into imposing jewelry pieces in combination with chains of semiprecious stones and pearls. Her collection also includes squiggly wax-carved letter pendants, vivid silk scarves inspired by her mother’s battle with breast cancer and colorful porcelain sculptures.
Wholesale price range: From 300 to 1,000 euros
Rabari
Category: Bags
Showing at: Première Classe
Named after a matriarchal indigenous tribe from northwestern India and its rich needlework traditions, this accessories brand was established in 2023 by Ruchi Mehta, a painter and yogi in Rajasthan. She works with women artisans to create bags combining different layers of adornment including crochet, beading and embroidery and needlework. Each purse starts with a printed fabric designed in-house, used as its lining, which informs successive layers of embellishment, with the made-to-order designs taking between 10 and 30 days to create.
Retail price range: From 500 to 3,000 euros
Moco
Category: Jewelry/watches
Showing at: Tranoï
Self-taught designer Takaomi Nakano, based in Tokyo, wants to “dress up the time” with his delicate collection of miniature watches for the fingers. Launched in 2010, the brand offers handmade timepieces in silver and 10-karat gold, with a range of chain or leather straps. “I believe time is more valuable than any jewel,” the designer said. “I think that people who have their own time can enrich their lives.”
Wholesale price range: From 285 euros to 2,490 euros
Chérietta.O
Category: Bags
Showing at: Tranoï
Paris-based accessories designer Nami Hubble calls on her Japanese roots as inspiration for her high-end leather goods informed by the art of origami. Her designs are crafted in France using leather farmed in France and tanned in Italy, and are constructed entirely without stitching, using an innovative system of folding, assembly and rivets.
Retail price range: From 300 to 400 euros
Maison Flore Paris
Category: Ready-to-wear
Showing at: Tranoï
Paris-based Flore Mouren works with repurposed homewares, crafting contemporary silhouettes using delicate patchworks with offcuts of embroidered tablecloths or handkerchiefs. She views her work as an act of transmission, honoring traditional crafts and her own heritage — her grandmother and great-grandmother were embroiderers. Since launching in 2020, she has staged pop-ups at Le Bon Marché and Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Mitsukoshi in Japan, and was participating in Tranoï for the first time as she seeks to grow her footprint.
Retail price range: From 75 euros to 750 euros
The Loom Art
Category: Ready-to-wear
Showing at: Tranoï
With the tag line “happy clothes made by happy hands,” Aarushi Kilawat, from Jaipur, aims to preserve and maintain ancestral embroidery and hand-weaving techniques and ensure fair wages for artisans with her The Loom Art brand, created nine years ago. She works with a range of silk weights and other handwoven fabrics and codesigns with local artisans.
Wholesale price range: From 70 to 200 euros
Fatma Mostafa Jewelry
Category: Jewelry
Showing at: Tranoï
Winner of the Fashion Trust Arabia award in 2022, Fatma Mostafa, based in Cairo, learned embroidery from her mother when she was just six before going on to study fine art and jewelry making. She combines all three skills in her distinctive elaborate demi-fine jewelry pieces, like miniature three-dimensional embroidered paintings set into gold-plated silver.
Retail price range: From 300 to 900 euros
Ilk
Category: Ready-to-wear
Showing at: Tranoï
Based in India, this label showing in the Craft section of Tranoï champions a contemporary approach to ancestral craft, twisting traditional smocking techniques to create unusual textural effects. For spring 2027, the 15-year-old brand was inspired by the sea, informing bright pastel color palette and distinctive textured sequin embroideries.
Wholesale price range: From 100 to 300 euros
Victoria Valette
Category: Ready-to-wear
Showing at: Sphere
Victoria Valette, who trained at Central Saint Martins and has worked at Louis Vuitton and Cacharel, created her namesake brand two years ago. The starting point for her delicate designs is her own paintings of flowers, which she digitalizes to transform them into textiles and prints. Transparency and raw external seams played a key role in her spring collection, and certain designs featured real flowers pressed onto fabrics thanks to eco-printing.
Retail price range: From 145 to 1,200 euros