Climate fear is hanging over Paris Fashion Week

Paris has spent centuries building a reputation for itself, as a place of luxury and decadence—but this is definitely not the mood at fashion week this season. Although there’s obviously still great champagne and mille feuille to be had in the city, when you hear about the French capital these days it’s usually in the context of the Paris Climate Agreement. And this is not lost on the local fashion houses that are presenting collections, which will come out the year of the emissions tipping point.

Last weekend, saw activists mobilise the world’s largest climate march across 185 countries to coincide with the beginning of the UN climate talks on Saturday in New York. Three days later, on the first full day of PFW, there were two strong statements making it clear that no one was looking to escape from the environmental conversation. Starting off the day, the French it-label Marine Serre came out with a vision of the apocalypse in their show, titled Marée Noir (or oil spill in English), featuring gas masks and tanning bed goggles alongside the brand’s trademark half-moon bodysuits and tights. Teaser images from the campaign featured a gas pipeline and the black runway resembled oil.

Later in the day, Maria Grazia Chiuri had her say on the issue as she presented her SS20 Christian Dior collection. Her floral looks were less inspired by the green buds of spring, and more like blooms that had been dried and pressed as the vines wove their way across the burlap skirts and dresses. But perhaps more striking than the actual garments was the nursery-style set (Dior is known for theatrical sets, including Raf Simon’s scaffolding extravaganza and Kim Jones’ pink catwalk designed by artist Daniel Arsham). Instead of using the houses’ extensive resources to create a dreamscape, like the enchanted forest Chiuri had staged for her first couture show with the house in 2017, the Italian designer tapped urban landscaper collective Coloco to create a grid of 164 trees, also wrapped in burlap, to be planted in the Paris region as part of a variety of sustainability projects.

Recent statistics showing that the fashion industry accounts for 10 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions has brands scrambling to clean up their image. Last Friday, major fashion companies including, Adidas, Burberry, Kering, Hermes, Nike, Prada and Puma, signed the G7 fashion pact to use methods that protect forests and reduce the use of plastic, while just yesterday luxury fashion group Kering followed in Gucci’s footsteps to ensure that the rest of their brands would become carbon neutral. To achieve neutrality, brands try to minimise emissions and then offset the remaining carbon by planting trees.

While having a fashion show at all comes with a large carbon footprint as global press and buyers descend upon a city by plane from various corners of the world, the choice to stage a more humble show seems more in line with the current mood in Paris, which experienced a fugue of climate activist, pension reform, populist gilet jaune and anarchist protests on Saturday, ending in a forceful shutdown by the police with more than 100 arrests. Eyes will be on other heritage houses, like Alexander McQueen and Chanel which are also known for creating decadent runways, to see if they follow suit, or take a more “let them eat cake” approach.