Paris Fashion Week Glitters Gold as L'Oréal Tops LVMH

Saint Laurent's gold spectacle and J.Lo's front-row turn defied the luxury slump as L'Oréal overtook LVMH as France's most valuable listed company.

Saint Laurent sent out what the Associated Press describes as a river of gold, with giant chandeliers bathing a glossy black outdoor runway in golden light while the Eiffel Tower shimmered behind it. The spring-summer 2027 show drew Catherine Deneuve, Kate Moss, Hailey Bieber and Rami Malek to the front row, while Jennifer Lopez watched from Stella McCartney's rain-soaked gardens and Rihanna turned out at the conceptual house Matières Fécales. Gold appeared brittle, fluid, translucent or densely worked: safari jackets and trenches in crinkled metallic cottons, cocktail dresses in glinting lace, cropped brocade jackets, and stilettos standing on serpent-shaped heels.

The spectacle lands at a moment when the luxury industry is visibly bruised. According to the AP, cosmetics giant L'Oréal last month overtook LVMH as France's most valuable listed company — the first time since 2017 that a non-luxury company has topped the Paris bourse. Saint Laurent's parent Kering has returned to growth after a downturn, but Balenciaga remains under pressure and Gucci is still struggling to reverse years of falling sales behind the runway gloss. Audacy's version of the AP report adds that consultant Bain & Company counts roughly 60 million customers abandoning luxury since 2022 as prices rose some 20% in two years, and warns even remaining wealthy clients feel "betrayed."

The show's staging carried its own drama. The Associated Press reports the black finale was led by Polish supermodel Anja Rubik — a deliberate reversal of Yves Saint Laurent's all-gold closing sequence in 1991 — before Charlotte Gainsbourg stepped onto the runway to sing, adding an intimate finish to a monumental setting. Marking a decade at the house, designer Anthony Vaccarello dispensed with his customary interviews and let the collection carry the occasion. Audacy notes the retrospective mood had front-row guests asking whether it was an adieu, but no departure was announced. Gold, the AP observes, is exactly what Kering wants from the house as its second-biggest label hauls the load while Gucci struggles.

Midway through the season, the Associated Press says the shows crystallized into three stories: glamour on a grand scale, a great undressing, and an industry working couture technique into T-shirts and jeans. At Tom Ford, Haider Ackermann paired sharp tailoring with bare chests, fishnet, severely reduced swimwear and silk robes — Audacy's report notes a male model in a sweater and pale pink thong carried a vicuña coat that can top $33,000. At Balmain, Antonin Tron drew on corset bodices and garters under midcentury backstage references, while Rick Owens staged spiked tulle and crystal-laden footwear across the Palais de Tokyo's reflecting pool. The peplum, meanwhile, emerged as the week's quiet constant.

Beneath the staging sits a harder question the AP frames explicitly: in a downturn, how does luxury justify itself? Pierpaolo Piccioli's answer at Balenciaga was technique — dense rows of stitching shaped a white shirt into a fitted waist and flaring peplum, a T-shirt got the same treatment, and jeans were cut on the bias to change their fall, shown in daylight at the Tennis Club de Paris. Stella McCartney rewarded her damp audience with easy tailoring, coral-like knitted forms and airbrushed dolphins on denim, with David Attenborough's voice supplying an ocean-conservation message. The week's upstart finale, though, carried the sharpest irony: Matières Fécales titled its public show "The 99 Percent" — a world that largely cannot afford the clothes.

The Associated Press concludes that Paris demonstrated how to make people look, but it is the clothes — the industry hopes — that will persuade them to spend. With Bain & Company's customer flight quantified by Audacy and L'Oréal now holding France's crown, houses like Saint Laurent are being asked to grow while Gucci stabilizes, and Balenciaga under Picciolo-style technique must convert craft into sales. Vaccarello's decade milestone passed without an announcement, leaving speculation open, while Matières Fécales' public takeover of Place de la République signals that conceptual, protest-minded staging is now competing for the attention once reserved for the grand maisons.