During haute couture week we revisit how Paris became the fashion capital

Paris Haute Couture Week for the Spring/Summer 2026 season opened with a series of exciting fashion stories. Daniel Roseberry once again scattered grains of magic before the audience with his couture collection for the fashion house Schiaparelli, while Jonathan Anderson debuted his first couture collection for Dior. After wowing audiences in December with the Métiers d’Art show staged on a New York subway platform, Matthieu Blazy will present his couture collection for Chanel today, and in the days ahead the most refined fashion week of them all will undoubtedly bring countless surprises. Ultimately, unforgettable fashion narratives have accompanied Paris Haute Couture Week since its very beginnings. Yet long before haute couture shows were held in Paris, the City of Light spent decades laying the groundwork to become a fashion capital. We bring you ten facts you may not have known about the history of Paris Fashion Week.

Related: Jonathan Anderson built his first Dior couture collection on memories

What we now consider the iconic Paris Fashion Week was conceived long before history recorded an official date. Although no one at the time could have predicted what it would look like today, the blueprint for a “new world” began to take shape a full century earlier, thanks to the ingenuity, talent, and courage of those who pushed boundaries. Inspired by the buzz that surrounds fashion week in the world’s greatest fashion capital, as well as its undeniable influence, we dusted off the pages of history and uncovered stories that shaped Paris Fashion Week and have since been partially lost to oblivion.

Charles Frederick Worth and the beginnings of fashion shows

Long before the concept of fashion shows as we know them today came to life, the outlines of a revolution began to emerge in Parisian salons in the mid nineteenth century. A large part of the credit belongs to the British designer Charles Frederick Worth, whom many fashion historians also refer to as the “father of haute couture.” In his Paris atelier, he gathered an elite clientele that had always aspired to dress in the latest fashion. Beyond being a brilliant couturier, Worth also had an exceptionally keen sense for marketing. He was the first to sew branded labels into the hems of his garments, but the seed of the idea on which all fashion weeks would one day rest lay in the way he presented his decadent creations. To better convey the beauty and opulence of his gowns to his refined clientele and to show how those wondrous silhouettes looked in motion, he abandoned the existing presentation tool, mannequins, and replaced them with live models. During these “shows,” Worth would call them out by number as they walked silently before the distinguished audience he sought to impress. Among these first models was Marie Vernet Worth, Charles’s wife, who was later proclaimed the first professional fashion model. These “fashion parades” had no special lighting, no musical backdrop, let alone extravagant scenography as they do today. Even then, however, they were places where the elite came to see and be seen, to socialize, and a powerful marketing tool through which new trends were introduced to the very cream of society.

Paul Poiret and the first dress code parties

Paul Poiret and the first dress code parties
The ingenuity of one Briton, followed by his contemporaries, transformed fashion in Paris. The concept of “défilés de mode” began to take more deliberate shape, and as human beings are social creatures seemingly born to seek entertainment, a perfectly logical idea soon crystallized in the minds of Parisian designers under the code name afterparty. After the formal part of presentations, salons and boutiques began organizing parties, which over time evolved into grandiose balls. Their purpose, however, was not merely to help guests unwind. One of the most esteemed French designers of the time, Paul Poiret, cleverly infused them with a “hint” of marketing and used them to promote garments he believed would become hits. In 1911, he invited guests to a decadent party held at a Parisian villa. He named it “The Thousand and Second Night,” and all attendees had to do was adhere to a dress code requiring “Persian” styling. Those whose outfits failed to match the theme were sent to a wardrobe to don pieces from his latest collection, harem pants or lampshade shaped dresses. In this way, guests unknowingly became “accidental” models in a fashion show that was meant to be just a party, and Le Magnifique, as Poiret was known in Paris, gifted each guest his perfume “Nuit Persane” upon departure. Magnifique!

What was happening on the other side of the ocean?

Yet even as history had seemed almost fairy tale like until then, the 1920s and 1930s were marked by a pervasive anxiety that seeped into every pore of Parisian fashion, with the source of that unease lying on the other side of the ocean. Fearing that their designs would be copied on American soil, French designers closed ranks and made their fashion parades even more exclusive. They carefully selected which journalists were allowed to attend, photography was strictly forbidden, and only the most loyal clients could sit in the audience. Then the Second World War broke out, and crossing the Atlantic to document what was “cooking” in Parisian salons became an impossible mission.

The birth of New York Fashion Week

And it was precisely in the heat of the global conflict, in 1943, that fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert decided to seize the moment and divert public attention away from French fashion. While occupied Paris was living a very different reality, the determined and perceptive Lambert organized “Press Week” in New York to show editors and journalists that what American designers were doing was not merely a copy of Parisian design. Journalists who had previously written about topics such as housekeeping and cooking, since fashion journalism did not yet exist, were given exclusive access to collections six months before the general public. The excitement was almost tangible. “Press Week” was an absolute hit, and Lambert cemented her status as the “fashion godmother.” In addition to successfully turning the spotlight toward American fashion design, which had until then been ignored by a press enamored with Paris, she laid the foundations for the first fashion week, New York Fashion Week.

Parisian haute couture

Haute couture fashion shows began to be held in Paris in 1945, and the specific criteria that a fashion house must meet in order to present couture collections, which are still valid today, are set by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Houses must present collections of at least fifty original designer garments twice a year, in January and July, and there are also regulations regarding the number of employees in the atelier and the amount of technical staff.

The Battle of Versailles

After the Second World War and the success of “Press Week,” America appeared to have “freed itself from Parisian influence,” yet it was precisely on this historical antagonism and long unhealed tensions that Paris Fashion Week was born. In 1973, with the founding of the Fédération Française de la Couture, a multi designer fashion show was organized for the first time, one that at least partially resembled the concept we know today. The show, aptly named “The Battle of Versailles,” was held, where else, but in the opulent residence of French kings. The core of the event was the “battle” in which five French couturiers challenged five American designers to a duel.

Clashing titans

Marc Bohan for Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, and Emanuel Ungaro faced off against Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, and Anne Klein. To general surprise, the “victory” went to the American side.

The celebrity clique

The event aimed to raise funds for the restoration of the Palace of Versailles and ultimately marked a turning point in fashion history. Organization was led by the seasoned “fashion godmother” Eleanor Lambert and curator Gerald Van der Kemp. The entire endeavor cost approximately sixty million dollars, and the guest list of seven hundred included names such as Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Joséphine Baker, Grace Kelly, and many others. That November 28 in Versailles may have signaled the painful realization that fashion was not reserved solely for Paris, but it was also the day a new page of history began to be written. Paris Fashion Week was officially born, and Paris understood that beyond haute couture it also had to pay attention to prêt à porter.

The spectacle of Thierry Mugler

In 1984, the eccentric Thierry Mugler became the first designer to open a fashion show to the French public, thus making history. To mark the tenth anniversary of his brand, he staged a spectacular show at Paris’s Zénith stadium, attended by six thousand people, with a runway that fully permeated the space, weaving through the seating. Not only was it the first commercial show of that scale, but in Mugler’s style it was also a kind of synergy between theater and fashion, filled with his wondrous yet always absurd creations. It is most remembered for the final appearance of Pat Cleveland, who descended from the ceiling like the embodiment of a deity.

Yves Saint Laurent, fashion and football

Another record was broken at a stadium in 1998. Just one hour before the World Cup final between France and Brazil at the Stade de France, Yves Saint Laurent once again reminded the world that France is not only a capital of football, but of fashion as well. The monumental fashion show lasted fifteen minutes, and Yves Saint Laurent, as an emblem of French luxury, presented three hundred looks to the world. The collection, with which one of the greatest pillars of French fashion celebrated four decades of creative work, was divided into six themes depicting every era from 1958 onward. Nine hundred people worked backstage, three hundred models walked the runway, and the show was broadcast to an audience of 1.7 billion people. That day the French national football team claimed victory, and Parisian fashion once again proved why it so loves the spotlight.

Video and photos: Getty Images