Contemporary fashion finds itself navigating a spectrum from avant-garde innovation to traditional conservatism. At Paris Fashion Week, runway presentations showcase a resurgence of conservative aesthetics
Cities are often divided in a way that influences culture at large. In London, the West holds the more posh neighborhoods like Kensington and Notting Hill, with its Victorian architecture. While London’s West, with Shoreditch and Hackney, has its brown brick housing, could be seen as a creative hotspot. In Rome, this is seen in the divide by the North and the South, Parioli compared to San Lorenzo. Berlin goes without saying.
The divides are historically influenced by demographic and socioeconomic reasons, which have made their mark on the neighborhoods. Some could be seen as creative, free-thinking and radical. Others are conformist, and conservative and value already-established ideals.
Paris Fashion Week – Rive Droit and Rive Gauche: the divide of Paris and fashion
In 1967, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, together with Yves Delsaut, wrote the text ’Le Couturier et sa Griffe’ (tr. The Couturier and his brand). A majority of Bourdieu’s work is related to taste formation and how it is formed sociologically (he’s also the one who coined the terms of different types of capital, such as cultural and social).
With this in mind, there’s no shocker that Bourdieu was specifically interested in fashion. In the text, Bourdieu is studying high fashion during the sixties in Paris and the changes happening in the system when brands started to produce ready-to-wear collections (more on this later).
To do so, he makes an analogy to politics. He argues that fashion designers could be placed on a left and right spectrum. On the right, some designers are traditional and conservative. On the left, some progressive designers want to innovate and create newness.
On the right brands synonymous with Haute Couture, like Dior and Balmain, could be found. On the other side, newcomers, for that time, Courrèges, Ungaro and Paco Rabanne took their place. While Yves Saint Laurent was found in the middle.
Just like in politics, these two different sides are competing with each other; which Bourdieu means is the competition of fashion capital. I.e. which designers could be seen as the most fashionable at a given moment. Brands on the right are the ones that already hold the power, while brands on the left want to overthrow their authority with new ideas.
PFW: the dichotomy of avant-garde and conservatism
This is not just a pictorial exercise, it also shows how different designers were located throughout Paris and there was a distinct divide; namely, the river, Seine. Rive Droite (the right bank), which has Paris bourgeois neighborhoods, was home to the conservative brands. Rive Gauche (the left bank) which could be seen as the avant-garde and free-thinking area of Paris, became home to the fashion designers that resonated with that.
Since Bourdieu and Delsaut wrote their text, a lot has changed in fashion. Several influences have left their mark on fashion; the Japanese wave, the Antwerp Six, the Brits during the nineties, and the corporate shift around the 2000’s. In a postmodern era, the framework of good taste has been shifting ever since. What is being valued is knowledge, rather than purchasing power.
In the past decade, or even more, a progressive fashion has been superior. A type of fashion on the Bourdieudian spectrum would be on the left and the left bank. But could we start to sense a vibe shift, which is leaning towards the right?
Paris Fashion Week Showcases Heritage and Innovation: From Dior’s Prêt-à-Porter Revival to Courrèges’ Futuristic Vision
In the past week, over 100 brands have been showing their upcoming fall/winter collections in Paris. A cacophony of styles and types of fashion. In one of the first shows of the season, Maria Grazia Chiuri presented a collection that took hold on the first prêt-à-porter line presented by Dior in 1967, called Miss Dior. Happening during a time when fashion shifted to become more commercial, Dior launched its RTW line accompanied by a slew of brands. Dior wasn’t the first, before Pierre Cardin and André Courrèges had already launched their versions. But under the guidance of Marc Bohan, Dior became the first Haute Couture house to abide by the new rules (one that didn’t was Cristobal Balenciaga, which a year later closed down its business due to not responding to the rising demand of RTW). The collection Grazia Chiuri is presenting, 57 years later, is a collection which is grounded in functionality. It’s wearable clothing for the everyday, which still is elegant.
Chloé, McQueen, Courrèges, the Row – Paris Fashion Week 2024 2025
At Chloé, Chemena Kawali presented her first collection as the Creative Director for the brand. Just like her peers at Dior, Kawali found inspiration in the history of the brand. Kamali is an alumna from the time Phoebe Philo, as well as Claire Wight Keller, held her position. The collection she presented takes inspiration from the 1970’s, when Karl Lagerfeld was at the helm of the brand. Platform wedge heels, ruffles en-masse, dramatic capes; the collection is influenced by the 70’s bohemian rock n’ roll and is a celebration of feminine power dressing. To dress and enhance the woman of the everyday is what has made her predecessors famous, and something Kamali is following in the footsteps of.
At Alexander McQueen, Sean McGirr presented his first outing for the brand. The 35-year-old Irish, who was the Head of Menswear at JW Anderson before his role at McQueen, drew references to the grungy aesthetics that Lee McQueen introduced in the nineties. And was a contrast to the previous romantic elegance seen from Sarah Burton.
Courrèges is one of the brands which, historically, is intrinsically linked to innovation and a futuristic vision. Nicolas Di Felice meticulously blends the house codes of futurism with his contemporary, asymmetric silhouettes. For this collection Di Felice took his inspiration from the most mundane of clothing; school uniforms. These are then subverted, twisted and reshaped into forward-looking and geometrical looks.
What made the most noise during the presentation from The Row was the fact it didn’t make any noise at all. The Olsen sisters had put a phone ban in place at their show and instead provided guests with notebooks to write down their thoughts and impressions. A brave move in a time when a big part of our lives is lived through our handheld devices. Going in line with the brand’s exclusive image, it’s also a clear example of quiet luxury in practice. A celebration of craft and the appreciation of being present in the moment.
Fashion’s Avant-Garde Protagonists: Rick Owens, Kronthaler, Balenciaga
A pioneer when it comes to avant-garde fashion is Rick Owens. He had, just like for his men’s show in January, swapped the bombastic Palais De Royal venue, for the intimacy of his Paris home, Place du Palais Bourbon. Even if the venue itself was more toned down, the collection has many of the grand gestures, that are Owens trademark. Accentuated pagoda shoulders, silhouettes either magnified or restricted, sweeping knitwear that drapes beautifully across the body. Owens’s vision remains progressive.
Andreas Kronthaler, the widower of Vivienne Westwood, has in an undisputed manner continued the legacy of Westwood. In a confronting manner, Kronthaler is subverting and aligning historic references with contemporary techniques. Most memorable from the show is the performance from a trio of dancers and musicians called Sons of Sissy. Bum drumming combined
At Balenciaga Demna presented his latest collection, which marks his ten years as a designer and debut for Vetements (now run by Demna’s brother, and conflicted rival, Guram Gvasalia). During his ten years, he has become intrinsically famous for his gimmick clothing and the questioning of many of the fundamentals of fashion; status, power, beauty, and consumerism; from DHL-branded t-shirts to Balenciaga-branded Crocs sandals, to jeanne juillet-inspired construction clothes.
For this collection he is focused on a quite subjective matter; luxury. In a venue, filled to the brim with screens that projected scenery, social media clips, and different types of AI-produced imagery, models walked the runway. To Demna, one of the biggest luxuries these days is connected to scarcity, namely, creativity. The screens projected our lived reality, in which we are surrounded by an abundance of imagery.
Old money aesthetics”, ”mob-wife” and ”clean girl” – Fashion’s Return to Tradition & Conservatism
In the last year, in the perpetual trend cycle, we’ve seen the rise of ”old money aesthetics”,
”mob-wife” and ”clean girl”. Trends which are grounded in traditional understandings of taste. Timelessness, elegance, inherited wealth and authority are common nominators. Instead of translating complex cultural symbols, it values material and a traditional notion of good taste.
Looking at the changing trends and what is being presented on the runways, it is clear that the progressive Rive Gauche and the bourgeois Rive Droit both have their place in fashion. As the world around us is becoming more complex, we tend to move towards familiar things.
It doesn’t necessarily come with conservative ideals, but conservative looks that hold traditional notions of good taste dear. Clothing which makes us feel and look nice, rather than further intricate our clothing in a web of signaling systems.
