Fashion calendars are usually established schedules with carefully planned appointments (especially when it comes to the French calendar). Though made flexible to accomodate the requests of a celebrity turned fashion designer or of a powerful editor re-shifting it in accordance with specific needs and appointments (Anna Wintour did it quite often, especially in Milan), dates and hours are usually decided and do not go through any frequent changes.
Things may be different, though, this year in Paris: while the menswear circus moves from Florence to Milan today, some companies and brands in France are deciding to reschedule their shows during Paris Fashion Week to avoid clashes with the "gilets jaunes" (yellow vests) movement.
A protest movement originally started to demonstrate against the fuel prices, the gilets jaunes rapidly mutated and developed, with the movement expanding protests to other issues including unfair tax reforms, costs of living, and with people asking for President Emmanuel Macron to resign.
Around December fears mounted that the movement was infiltrated by ultra-violent protesters, including anarchists, elements of the anti-immigration populists and hard-core fascists, often organised on Facebook. Russia-linked social media accounts and tweets have also been posting messages that amplify the chaos and rivolt (there must be some truth in all these claims as this article, once posted on Twitter, was retweeted by anonymous accounts or accounts supporting far-right movements, that's why we immediately removed it from that platform).
Protests also turned violent around Christmas, and ended up targeting luxury stores and other assorted retailers and turned the Avenue des Champs-Élysées into a road of riots that impacted on the Christmas shopping as many shops decided to close down.
Taking into considerations all these issues, Dior Men decided to anticipate its catshow to Friday (it was already scheduled for 19th January), followed by other brands that kept the date, but changed the time slot.
Companies also requested not to disclose the info to attract the attention of the protesters: the show calendar om the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode site is not showing indeed any changes, while it was confirmed that Thom Browne followed in Dior's steps.
Others (like Wooyoungmi) who originally picked a venue not far from the Champs-Élysées are considering a final reschedule.
This wouldn't be the first time the fashion schedule changed during specific events, including the aftermath of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.
Yet this situation involving the gilets jaunes genuinely makes you think: it is unlikely that fashion aesthetes and gilets jaunes will come to rioting in the streets together, but the situation only proves that fashion is extremely irrelevant during this menswear season as the world is more focused on other and more important political and social issues (Brexit included). The current menswear season has so far seen just a few designers emerging from London Fashion Week Men's and too many products but definitely no will from the buyers' point of view to buy into them at Florence's Pittim that seemed a jumble of disconnected and fractured events.
Last but not least, behind these schedule changes there could be a revelation for all of us: fashion is maybe in a prolonged navel-gazing phase and is living in an ivory tower like the grand palazzo recently opened to host Saint Laurent's new headquarters on Rue de Bellechasse (buyers will be able to see here the collection between 20th and 26th January). For an industry that looks so much at society, loves to boast about its street credentials, democratic approach and inclusion, the time may have come not to try and reschedule events and catwalk show to avoid having to deal with protests, but maybe rethinking the format or just eliminate the shows once and for all not from the fashion calendars but from the fashion industry.
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