Canadian brands make their mark at Paris Fashion Week

On paper, the spring/summer 2027 edition of Paris Fashion Week looked like it might be a tamer season compared with last year’s tectonic shuffle of creative heads. But the thrills have been non-stop since the get-go.

In contrast to the student protests that erupted across the city, the Christian Dior show was an oasis of calm in the Tuileries Garden.

Jonathan Anderson’s dreamy vision showcased sheer interpretations of pinstripe, plaid and tweed suiting alongside organza ribbons that floated down the runway like mist. Models wore accents of flower-petal boas, asymmetrical earrings and fine bejewelled chains wrapped around their necks like delicate scarves.

When day shifted to night, a black sky draped over Trocadéro and a constellation of celebrities convened for what insiders whispered would be Anthony Vaccarello’s farewell collection for Saint Laurent.

Louis XIV would have envied the magnificent gold chandeliers floating in the sky. The pieces echoed the Eiffel Tower’s lacey structure, giving the illusion of giant hoop skirts suspended from Paris’s most famous monument.

Vaccarello gathered classic looks by his original predecessor (safari jackets, trench coats, pussy bow blouses) and his own iconic contributions over the last 10 years (exaggerated shoulders, voluminous blouses, fitted skirts), then sent it all down the catwalk gilded in gold.

In a touching finale, the designer reached into his pocket and handed a small token to his young son, Luca, watching in the front row. Saint Laurent later confirmed it was a lucky charm that the boy had made for his father.

Come Friday night, Christian Louboutin fans got their fill of glamour and fantasy. The stage was the historic Théâtre du Châtelet, and the star was Dita Von Teese, the Queen of Burlesque.

In a somewhat esoteric operatic production, guests witnessed Von Teese as Snow White, flying with golden wings, and, finally, perched on a larger-than-life version of Louboutin’s La Pigalle heel, which was inverted to better showcase its signature red sole.

On the Canadian front, two fashion businesses from Montreal are in Paris to bridge their online presence with IRL experiences.

First, mega-retailer SSENSE debuted a pop-up showroom called Salon des Refusés (Exhibition of Rejects). The one-day event took its name from a diplomatic move by Emperor Napoleon III, who in 1863 granted artworks overlooked by the official jury of the Paris Salon to be presented to the public.

Buying director Isla Lynch invited seven emerging designers, including celebrated milliner Stephen Jones, to the trendy 2nd arrondissement to present and sell their wares.

Then, on Oct. 5, Canadian ready-to-wear label Wild Rose and Sparrow presented its fifth collection in Paris. These runway presentations are the brand’s only in-person exchanges, since 100 per cent of its sales are online and shipped directly from its Montreal atelier.

Headed by mother and daughter duo Liana and Ariana Dancu (and supported behind the scenes by Octavia Dancu, Ariana’s sibling), Wild Rose and Sparrow is a niche brand that delivers vintage-style fantasy dresses and undergarments in lace, ribbons and bows. There are also cashmere and bridal collections.

Wild Rose and Sparrow started in 2013 as an internet store for hair accessories and slowly evolved into a clothing brand. While it’s possible these days to run a fashion label without a formal design education, the Dancu women have the added quirk of coming from science backgrounds: Liana’s is in aerospace engineering, and Ariana, 26, is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in human genetics at McGill. (She also serves as a model on the site.)

Liana said of her unorthodox training, “I find that our minds formed around science help us very much, [in] a lot of aspects such as problem solving.”

Wild Rose and Sparrow’s latest collection, presented at Cluny Museum (a gothic manor now dedicated to Medieval arts) was entitled Proserpine, after a Roman version of the Greek goddess Persephone. It’s a personal detail for the family, who have ties to Bucharest, Romania.

The Dancu family admitted that they gravitate much more to Europe.

“We love our city, obviously,” said Ariana, “but then there are the big fashion weeks – New York, Milan and Paris – and I think that’s where we wanted to end up. Paris is where we wanted to see ourselves in the future, so we started here.”