IN THE SUN: The invitation to the Courrèges show Tuesday was a pair of shades, with strict instructions to bring them along. Guests including Emma Chamberlain, rarely seen without eyewear, were happy to play along with the theme. “I cannot leave the house without some kind of glass on, sunglasses, optics, I just love the feeling of glasses, I’m obsessed,” said the YouTube megastar, who is filming a new video while she is out and about in Paris and is digging listening to atmospheric music while she does so.
“When I’m in Paris I want something moody and a bit darker and a bit slower,” she said. “Not in a sad way, in a happy way. I feel cooler when it’s moody, that’s the vibe, whereas in New York I want fun music.”
There was plenty of musical inspiration to be had in the front row, where she sat alongside Kim Petras and French rapper Damso, who kept his shades fixed firmly on his nose throughout the show. Across the orb-shaped front row, Naomi Watts, also hiding behind the dark lenses, chatted to Kering’s François-Henri Pinault, whose family holding company Artémis owns Courrèges.
Petras is gearing up to promote her third album, out soon, and was looking for fashion inspiration. “I always try to mirror pop culture in my work,” she said. At the moment she is looking to “a lot of vintage pieces from when I grew up, a lot of 2006-2011 fashion archival stuff that I love. The music feels like a throwback to that time. I felt sonically super-inspired by that.”
Other music-makers in the crowd included Belgian DJ Amélie Lens, who has a new EP coming out soon, and Spanish musician and singer-songwriter Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, known professionally as Guitarricadelafuente, who just announced a new tour with dates across Europe and the Americas.
He was also looking for inspiration at fashion week, and not just when it comes to style. “I’m inspired a lot by the visual, when I write songs or lyrics I borrow from visual images, that’s where the stories come from, and fashion is one of the things that inspires me the most,” he said.
As the lights continued to intensify during the sun-themed show, the shades did indeed prove a handy accessory, with a sea of faces donning them before the finale.