A few weeks ago, the office of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the French government organization that manages Paris Fashion Week, started getting phone calls. Where will the Phoebe Philo show take place? When will the Phoebe Philo show take place?

The answer was another question: What show? There would be no show. At least not one that the Fédération was aware of. Who knows if there was something in the works at some point, but by the time mid-September hit, the launch of Phoebe Philo’s namesake collection was once again delayed. “She doesn’t like it, so she’s not showing it,” a person connected to the design team said. Another blamed lateness: Italy’s factories closed in August, and the London-based studio failed to get things delivered early enough to be ready for a September debut. Yet another scoffed at such an excuse: it had nothing to do with production; she has priority access to the best facilities, and a team that knows how to get things done. The collection wasn’t ready because Philo wasn’t ready, this person said. (For what it’s worth, I did ask an LVMH spokesperson about the speculation. They didn’t comment.)