7 key takeaways from Paris Fashion Week AW25

10 Mar 2025

Paris Fashion Week AW25 offered a solid season amid a geopolitical crisis. Grounded collections, strong debuts and sunny weather put attendees in good spirits, even though many hadn’t packed accordingly.

“I won’t comment on current affairs. I was told not to. But I can quote the famous American philosopher Lady Gaga: fashion is the thing that saved me from being sad,” said Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger at a dinner hosted by the German luxury multi-brand retailer for Australian designer Christopher Esber on Saturday.
Lady Gaga’s line reflected the mood: Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2025 offered a solid season amid a geopolitical crisis, luxury slump, looming trade war and the woes of wholesale. Grounded collections, strong debuts and sunny weather — at least until Monday — put attendees in good spirits, even though many hadn’t packed accordingly. “I brought shearling!” exclaimed Tiffany Hsu, Mytheresa’s chief buying officer.

The main complaint was about the geographically dispersed shows, like the day PFW attendees crossed the city from north to south and north again for the Stella McCartney, Acne and Balmain shows.

With luxury showing signs of stabilisation after a sharp fall in 2024, there’s a desire for authenticity and brands in Paris reflected that by staging more intimate shows. (Except for Coperni — the brand held a LAN party in the Adidas arena, where some 1,000 guests sat between the 200 gamers who were focused on playing Fortnite.) Meanwhile, the industry rallied to support emerging designers, some of which found clever ways to present on a budget, like this shoe brand which took editors for a carpool ride between shows. “After a period of prosperity, we have to reinvent ourselves and fashion is looking to find solutions,” explained PR guru Lucien Pagès.

Here are some of those solutions and key takeaways from the last week in Paris.