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Trends, culture and fashion shows: The Série Noire blog brings you fashion from a fresh new perspective.

JUNYA WATANABE - CREATIVE MADNESS

The Japanese label JUNYA WATANABE has always distinguished itself by its creative genius. For more than 30 years now, the brand has been offering fashion in the 'techno-couture' style: offbeat cut, innovative technical fabrics... Junya Watanabe is the perfect blend of utility and modernity.

The best ways to be on the front row at the next Paris FASHION WEEK

As buyers and agents for the Japanese brand Isamu Katayama BACKLASH, we will be there on all fronts at the Paris Fashion Week: at the Autumn / Winter 2016 shows of our favorite designers and at Tranoï at the Palais de la Bourse.

If you would like the attend a show, get moving now, because the press offices are already on the starting blocks!

In this article we will explain how the brands and their style teams maintain their intensely creative pace, and we will give you access to the official calendar of the Fédération Française du Prêt-à-Porter (The French Ready-To-Wear Association), as well as the email addresses of their press representatives, from whom you can request invitations.

Understanding intense show schedules

After Fashion Week, there are another 5 five, twice a year in the other fashion capitals of the world: Paris New York, London and Milan.

These days, fashion brands fragment their collections, and divide them into Collections and Pre-Collections. This leads to some fashion houses, like Dior and Chanel, presenting no less than six collections a year. Last December, Raf Simons of Dior employed two style teams, and each team worked on two of these six collections, from which their “commercial pieces” are derived.

All these collections are shown according to a calendar specified by the Fédération Française du Prêt-à-Porter. The next Paris Men's Fashion Week will take place on 20^th to 24^th January. The provisional calendar is available to professionals and interested parties on the ModeàParis site:

You can submit requests for invitations by clicking on the little "Press" envelope. Please note that places are limited, and do remain courteous even if you receive a negative response.

Ready-to-wear Fashion trade shows

At the same time, the men's collections are presented at the showrooms and/or in the ready-to-wear salons. The most outstanding designer brands are given exposure at TRANOI. We will be presenting the BACKLASH "Modern Native" Winter 2016 collection there. If you would like to meet us and discover this collection, please email us and we will send you a pass. It will be our pleasure to welcome you!

Visit the other Fashion trade shows : CAPSULE•WHO'S NEXT•PREMIERE CLASSE

Once the men's collections are shown to the different players of the Modosphère, place to the brands members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. The calendar remains a provisional one up to two days before the first show. The venues remain a secret up to the day of the show. Attendance at any of these is nearly impossible without a press accreditation.

How this intense creativity leads to “consumer fatigue”

While creativity is the lifeblood of our industry, the perpetual demand for new collections from clients leads brands to intensify their creative processes. Dior CEO Sidney Toledano says that the intensity of production follows from an insatiable demand by customers who are always excited by the discovery of new pieces. This leads the biggest brands to think more about business than their creative identities.

On the other hand, some clients and fashionistas fear the death of creativity as a whole. It is counter-intuitive for a luxury brand with a strong style DNA to produce so many – to some, “commercial” – collections. For Raf Simons, and more recently Albert Elbaz, this lack of control has resulted in their leaving their respective Houses. Thus we now speak of “consumer fatigue”: designers are burnt out, buyers are facing uncertain, very volatile markets, and profits have declined alarmingly.

"Show now, buy now, wear now!"

Fashion Week New York hopes to shake up the business. Names like Thakoon, Burberry and Moschino would like to deconstruct the calendars. They will show their collections outside of Fashion Week. And even suggest, for some, to buy the clothes that make up the show!