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Paris Fashion Week: Dior, Sacai and Thom Browne switch show dates to avoid ‘yellow vests’ protests

A model presents a creation from Tuesday’s fall/winter 2019-20 men’s collection show by Chinese designer Shangguan Zhe for Sankuanz during the Paris Fashion Week. Photo: EPA-EFE
A model presents a creation from Tuesday’s fall/winter 2019-20 men’s collection show by Chinese designer Shangguan Zhe for Sankuanz during the Paris Fashion Week. Photo: EPA-EFE

The six-day event began on Tuesday as the ‘yellow vests’ protests that have been rocking the French capital continue

Paris Men’s Fashion Week started on Tuesday with a tsunami of new talent, but with shows also threatened by the “yellow vests” protest movement that has been rocking France.

Dior moved its show from Saturday to Friday to avoid the weekly Paris demonstrations which often turn violent after its flagship shop on the Champs Elysees was looted following a march in November.

Several other luxury brands have been targeted by yellow vests activists, with boarded-up boutiques regularly scrawled with graffiti denouncing the rich.

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Japanese label Sacai, streetwear brand Andrea Crews, Namacheko and the American Thom Browne have also rescheduled their Saturday shows to avoid trouble from the populist street movement.

Yet it is the boiling anger of fashion critics that reclusive superstar designer Hedi Slimane will be dreading, after they gave his first outing for Celine a kicking in October.

Slimane was accused of thrashing the feminist legacy of his predecessor Phoebe Philo – a charge he is unlikely to face for the first men’s collection in Celine’s history.
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Another, quieter revolution is also taking place on the men’s catwalks, with an ultra-hip gang of streetwear and cult Japanese designers being welcomed into the elite Paris fold for the first time.

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