A major fashion show will be organized on June 23 in Paris with the cream of the fashion and sporting world, "a sort of opening ceremony", one month before the start of the Olympic Games, its organizer, the magazine Vogue International, announced on Monday.
“It will be outdoors, Place Vendôme, and it will be a mix of fashion show, entertainment and performances and a few surprises,” said the editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour, during a press conference in Paris.
Every decade, an Olympic discipline
The very powerful boss of international fashion “raised mountains”, whether with the Paris police headquarters or with the presidency to organize this evening on this emblematic square in Paris, she added.
The date was not chosen at random, June 23 being International Olympic Day, and it will be a question of showing the know-how "of the great French houses, a bit in the tradition of the parades that the we see in the United States,” explains Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris.
It will be a tribute to “one hundred years of French fashion”, since the last Paris Olympics in 1924, added Anna Wintour.
Each decade of French fashion will be paired with an Olympic discipline, from athletics to breakdancing, including fencing, taekwondo and cycling.
Jacquemus, Olivier Rousteing and Pharrell Williams
Several renowned creators will take part in this very rare collective event.
Among them, the French Jacquemus and Olivier Rousteing, artistic director of the house of Balmain, and Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton, all present at the launch press conference.
“It’s rare that we are together like this,” underlined Olivier Rousteing.
“Taking on the Place Vendôme is quite daring,” said Pharrell Williams to Anna Wintour, assuring that “the spirit of French fashion, the one we see on the catwalks but also on the boulevards”, will be represented in a “spirit of inclusion”.
This will be the third Vogue event, these mega-celebrations run by the world of fashion and celebrities which mix art, performance and artistic creation, after those organized in New York and London, and which make it possible to maintain the aura of support, in a difficult context for the paper press.
The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics will take place on July 26 on the Seine.