Welcome to this very special edition of Line Sheet, in which I attempt to make a fashion week dispatch as unmissable as watching Logan Roy roll up to Loewe. Tough.

But truly, I’m excited to share my last few days with you. First off, though, I want to thank Siddhartha Shukla and his class act of a team at Lanvin (especially Nelly) for hosting such a fabulous dinner in honor of Line Sheet on Thursday night at Le Grand Véfour, a nearly 240-year-old Parisian institution. Sitting on the garden grounds of the Palais Royal, our guests (including the week’s unexpected star, Stefano Pilati, the guys from MM Paris, StyleNotCom’s Beka Gvishiani, and many other friends, old and new) asked the big questions: Does fashion criticism have value? Can a brand be feminist? Is there a place in this business for a classicallytrained designer? Only in Paris would things get this philosophical. I’m looking forward to the next dinner. If you want to do something with us, feel free to reach out to Liz@puck.news to get the ball rolling.

I have some funny little scoops for you, but first…

Life of the Party: GQ
I somehow clawed my way into the GQ party at L’Avenue on Friday night. (I mean actually clawed: the crowd outside was dense with eager youths.) Huge thanks to Gabrielle Katz of Accent PR_ojects and the kind GQ editor (who I don’t want to get in trouble by naming) for telling the person at the door to prioritize me over a publicist who was with “four celebrities who are friends with Will Welch.” (If that publicist is reading this—you looked vaguely familiar—I hope you all made it in!)

I said hi to a few people, clocked Tobey Maguire, drank a glass of water and called an Uber—my spiritual age is 60, I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, and let’s face it: I’m not one of those reporters who stays at the party until 4 a.m. in hopes of cajoling drunk confessions (that’s tacky).

For a minute, I laughed at myself for even bothering to go, but I did end up getting something out of it. What was amazing about this party was how much everyone wanted to be there (celebs, kids, industry), and how genuinely fun it seemed for the type of people who thrive in these environments. What GQ and Vogue are getting right at the moment is everything that exists around the magazine. Not easy! But important. The younger outlets, like A Magazine Curated By and 032C, are also good at this—but it gets trickier at a legacy publication.

Most Likely to Succeed: Alexandre Arnault
Pharrell, Tiffany, Virgil, Hedi, Rimowa… the startup-bro Arnault brother is behind a number of LVMH’s recent hits, and after this week, he’s certainly outpacing his siblings in this story of real-life Succession. Delphine still has the biggest job, though.

And now, a little bit more on the topics and conversations that dominated Paris men’s fashion week…

Celine vs. Alaïa
Many people remain upset, and others remain conflicted, about the Celine show bumping up against the Alaïa show next week. Since Mr. Slimane isn’t going to budge, my advice would be for Alaïa to start precisely on time, and for editors to hope for the best. This is some straight-up silly fashion drama.

The Emily in Paris Effect
There’s a queue outside of Café de Flore every morning now, mostly consisting of American girls wearing Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillowtalk lipstick and liner. This is definitely Emily Cooper’s fault, says my well-placed source, who noticed it ramp up after the Season 3 debut of the Netflix hit show. What cultural institution will she all-but ruin next season? (To be fair, I went two times this week already and it still seemed like a nice place to me. But I am American.)

Arnault’s Sit-Down With Le Figaro
My Flore friend suggested that I read, or at least Google Translate, Bernard Arnault’s lengthy interview in Le Figaro’s weekly magazine. Not much new, but a few things said that struck me:

“Louis Vuitton is a house of culture, not a fashion house.” Exactly.

“We are a blatant counterexample of the anti-corporate ideology of the far left.” Wow, he has spent a lot of time in America.

“Despite the war in Ukraine, inflation and the consequences of Covid, I think the standard of living will continue to rise in many countries, especially in China.” Yes.

And, finally, on succession: “The important thing is that this group keeps its family spirit. … it’s still too early to decide. I received a message the other day from one of the greatest American entrepreneurs, a friend, who congratulated me on the group’s success. He said to me, ‘You shouldn’t have put the LVMH C.E.O. limit at 80. I’m 92 and in great shape.’ So I have some leeway.” Seems that those kids are on ice for now.

I arrived in Paris on Thursday morning, and yet in the four days that I’ve been in town, the people in the sub lost their souls; Turner Classic Movies was gutted (the designers were sad, many fancy themselves future directors); the coup in Russia started and, to my understanding, also ended (sign up for my partner Julia Ioffe’s private email to learn what will happen next); and there was a bobcat spotted in my driveway (we live on a hill in Southern California). Meanwhile, there I was trailing Carine Roitfeld en route to the Givenchy show on the courtyard balcony of Napoleon’s barracks as she took drags on a cigarette wearing a black Tom Ford dress and a tiny anorak.

That is all to say, I had a great time. Ours is a culture of consumption, which means fashion keeps going no matter the circumstances. This week, I met an editor from Ukraine, based in Paris since the war, who said wealthy women in the country are still spending, but on hard luxury: less lurex, more diamonds. Fine jewelry! Can you imagine? Yes, you can, because that’s how the world works now. The spending never stops.

The men’s shows are nicer than the women’s. And by nicer I mean sweeter, not better. There’s less to be angry about, fewer utter travesties. Owens and Jonathan Anderson at Loewe did something new by elongating the silhouette: as the rise of women’s trousers shrinks, men are hiking up their pants. But most of what I saw mimicked the styles of the street rather than dictating them. Regardless, the main topics of conversion coalesced around Pharrell, obviously, and about the financial viability and creative opportunities afforded to designers as the business consolidates. And, of course, about the company doing so much of that consolidation.

I was deeply impressed by Marine Serre in her early years: she created a brand identity, with her little half moon motif, that blew dozens of better-funded entities out of the water. I remember going to see her collection in late February 2020, when we knew about Covid but weren’t exactly sure what it was, and she was already selling face masks. (How prescient.) Saturday’s dual-gender show, though, despite the dynamo casting, made me wonder if she’s topped out. There was simply nothing new to see in her recycled t-shirt dresses.

Serre’s slump relates to the topic of the week. Does a real designer have a chance these days? And are there any real designers left? Sacai’s Chitose Abe, one of the most consistent in the biz, came up in multiple conversations as an example of one of the few remaining pure-play talents. “Why don’t they give her Chanel?” one person asked. There are a million reasons why not. But Abe’s proposal of what clothes can look like, how she skews workwear or suiting without cliché, is original.

Between shows, mostly everyone wanted to know what everyone else thought of Pharrell, obviously. In the midst of it, Lanvin announced that they had hired rapper Future to design a capsule collection, indicating that the Pharrell Effect might trickle down more quickly than I had anticipated. Am I personally more interested in the Chinese-owned French fashion house’s current collaboration with Suicoke? Sure. However, the thing is, Future is not the new designer of Lanvin—it’s a one-off line—and this is the most I’ve seen anyone talk about the brand on social media in ages. Let’s judge it by the product.

At the Kenzo show, I kept thinking about many of the LVMH shows I attended before LVMH was LVMH. Kenzo designed by Antonio Marras. John Galliano designed by Bill Gaytten. There were many empty seats at those shows. Now, the big editors wouldn’t miss any of them, no matter how dreary the design.

One of the best things I saw this week was on Sunday afternoon at a showroom with a friend who works on the distribution side of the business. Setchu, designed by Japanese-born, Milan-based Satoshi Kuwata—who at one point worked with Kanye West but please don’t hold that against him—will be sold at places like Bergdorf Goodman soon enough. It’s fantastic, I promise. But of course, you still can’t escape the industry’s head honcho. Kuwata recently won the LVMH Prize for young talents, which includes a €300,000 reward. Everywhere you look in Paris, there is the biggest company in Europe, and the second-richest man in the world.

The latest in press trip news: Fastest-fashion company Shein flew a bunch of influencers to China to tour its factories and post about how nice they are. People on the internet are mad at the influencers for creating what they view as propaganda. [The Cut]

This episode of How Long Gone combines several of my current interests: Pharrell, The Row, unpaid bylines in Byline, and eating at La Dolce Vita. [HLG]

I loved listening to Joanna Coles lay out her career here, from reporter to executive producer. And for Hearst people: she talks about her exit, the Troy Young of it all, etc. [The Name of This Podcast Is So Cringey I Cannot Type It Out, But I’ve Enjoyed Listening to Several Episodes]

I don’t know what it means that I (and probably you) know three of the new cast members of the Real Housewives of New York City. (Former J.Crew creative director Jenna Lyons, publicist Jessel Taank, and influencer Sai De Silva, who used to live in my apartment building.) As for why Lyons would subject herself to this? I think there’s an obvious answer: $$$$. [NY Times]

Speaking of Jenna, here’s her old boss, Mickey Drexler, giving a commencement speech at his alma mater, Bronx Science. Enjoyed the shoutout to his wife, the legendary Peggy Drexler. [Youtube, starts around minute 40]

A-Plus placement of the week: Ayo Edebiri wearing a custom Thom Browne chef’s jacket in Season 2 of The Bear. [Instagram]

The remnants of the Brock Collection rise from the ashes. Co-founder Laura Vassar launched a capsule with Reformation last week, while ex-husband Kristopher Brock and the mother of his children—someone named Kaitlynn Carter, who is apparently on some reboot of The Hills (oh, she’s Brody Jenner’s ex-wife)—designed a jewelry line with Berlinger. [Vogue and WWD]

Grazia was perhaps doomed from the start, given Howard’s Trumpy reputation and lack of familiarity with Grazia as a brand—why it works in Europe and why it probably wouldn’t work here. Grazia, after all, is essentially a walking-city magazine, if that makes any sense. It is loose with gossip, but the fashion is high-brow enough to appeal to fairly sophisticated urbanites. You read it on the Tube or the Metro; it might have worked in New York. Howard’s play, of course, was to make it mostly digital, but there’s already so much mass content in the fashion and celebrity space that it never broke through. Launch editor David Thielebeule left pretty quickly, and was replaced by Joseph Errico. He’s a nice guy, and I wish him the best.

Lauren