Can small labels thrive in Paris?

This is Connecting the Dots, a series in which writer José Criales-Unzueta looks at how fashion, pop culture, the internet and society are all interconnected. The headlines from the Spring/Summer 2025 menswear edition of Paris Fashion Week spotlighted an all-star cast of designers: Rick Owens staged a 200-person martial parade for peace; Pharrell Williams took over the Unesco headquarters courtyard, Dries Van Noten hosted a cocktail hour and a party that sandwiched his knockout farewell show. Missing from said headlines: any, and all, small labels on the calendar. It’s fair to say that Paris is not the most fertile ground for small and emerging indie labels; instead, New York and London have historically taken on the mantle. But there is no such thing as dedicated New York or London men’s weeks. At least not anymore. New York’s menswear edition ran for a brief period from 2015 to 2019, but fizzled out due to lack of both funding and interest, particularly from international press and buyers. Brands eventually left for greener pastures in Paris and Milan, or folded their menswear collections into co-ed shows. In London, the British Fashion Council transitioned its men’s week to a digital “genderless” showcase during the pandemic, eventually doing away with it entirely until last month, when it returned with a slim three-day schedule as London Fashion Week June, featuring Craig Green and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy among its highlights. One would think that Paris, or Milan, or even Pitti Uomo in Florence, would by default become breeding grounds for young talent in menswear. Yet despite the amount of small and independent labels on either calendar, neither city has done so successfully. While Paris men’s allots more space for smaller and independent labels than its ready-to-wear equivalent, the caveat is that the smaller labels making the schedule are often relegated to presentation time slots, which bleed into each other and take place at the same time as runway shows. If an editor or buyer’s choice is to go to, say, Loewe or Dior Men, or discover two small-ish brands in the same time frame, the choice will likely always be to go check out the big guy (in most cases either an advertiser or a larger account). Emerging labels, then, need to get creative to get noticed. Unconventional approaches Jeanne Friot, a former designer at Balenciaga, launched her eponymous label in 2020 to much industry buzz. She broke into the Paris men’s scene in June of 2022. This season, she staged her debut runway show on the calendar (annotated as a presentation) with an assist from Tinder, with which she released a capsule collection as part of her showcase. It was a packed house with lots of excited guests, yet I clocked almost no other American press or buyers, despite the local interest. It doesn’t help that the show was scheduled just half an hour after Bianca Saunders, half an hour before the Acne Studios presentation, and an hour before Lemaire. Perhaps Friot would have seen a bigger international turn out had she done both a show and a presentation, a tall order that requires a space — and budget — that allows for both. Kartik Kumra of Kartik Research did just that this season, utilising his presentation time slot to stage a show during the first hour before closing out with a presentation. When I came to meet with him and see his collection up close the next day, I asked Kumra about the pressure of standing out in the Paris line-up, where brands are going bigger and splashier with their shows. “The pressure exists, but I don’t know if it reflects in the clothes. We’re an independent brand, we need to sell to exist. But that’s not what we are,” he says. “It’s not a ‘wardrobe’, it’s more directional than that, but we’re not making [all of that], we’re making clothes and want to make it believable that this character exists.” What Kumra is getting at is that his brand is not built to, nor at a place where, it can concern itself with the bells and whistles of staging large shows. As opposed to younger brands that have made it their signature to create ambitious or outlandish runways, like say, Colm Dillane’s KidSuper, Kumra has built his brand around the product, which means he has to make sure that the clothes carry it through the season. Kumra is part of a class of menswear designers in Paris who have been forced, perhaps to their benefit, to approach fashion week from an unconventional angle. Such is also the case of Spanish designer Arturo Obegero, a former Lanvin intern who has slowly gained traction through his romantic collections — his dressing of Harry Styles, Adele and Beyoncé has certainly helped. Obegero partnered with Apple this season to create a fashion film, which he screened at the popular Parisian locale Silencio des Prés, followed by a conversation with filmmaker and journalist Loïc Prigent as well as a static presentation of his collection. Apple provided an iPhone to photographer Marcel Nestler along with director Kelly CWK to shoot Obegero’s lookbook and film, respectively, while each look at the presentation had an accompanying iPad showcasing the designer’s illustrations. The designer told me he is doing away with wholesale altogether, moving to a made-to-measure approach. “I realised that wholesale is not a sustainable system for me at the moment,” says Obegero, “if there’s a store interested in us or in an exclusive collection, I am more than interested, but I want to focus on doing custom-made or made-to-order styles,” he continues. Bridal has become an important category for Obegero — as has dressing celebrities and performers. He also skipped the winter season in January. “It is extremely complicated to survive in this business. We can’t compete with the big brands, we need to go steady yet slower and make our own calendars,” says Obegero. “I’m dressing the biggest stars, yet I’m still working from home with a small home sewing machine. The reality of a young designer is not what’s shown or worshipped on Instagram.” Making noise At the same time, big brands are only getting louder, more flashy — especially in Paris. Unlike in cities such as London or New York, where smaller brands are shaping fashion and the adjacent cultural landscape — think Sandy Liang’s bow craze in New York, or the buzz of someone like Mowalola in London — the Parisian heavyweights have the deepest pockets and are set on making their shows exist outside themselves. It is part of a bigger push to make the brand a key part of culture. Small brands aren’t afforded that same ability. Obegero has had the chance of being part of massive cultural moments, like Styles’s ‘As It Was’ music video or Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, yet, as it pertains to the Paris Fashion Week landscape, his presence is muffled by the big guys he’s up against. Still, independent brands are betting on Paris as their best option to make a splash in the menswear space. A few weeks ago, I met the (deservedly so) mythologised Evan Kinori, a menswear designer based in California. Kinori has made a name for himself in the menswear circle for his slow and craft-driven approach to fashion. He operates a retail store in San Francisco, though shows his collections in Paris twice a year to wholesalers. “It’s not worth fighting against that,” says Kinori. The system works, he explains, and industry people are already there and primed for discovering and embracing new designers. This is why it’s important for these designers to take an off-centre approach during the week. Obegero’s presentation was well attended and well received. This shift allows designers like him to continue to be a part of the circuit in a way that makes sense for the current shape of his business. Paris may not currently be the city where independent designers have it the easiest, but if they’re savvy enough to cut through the noise, they can be sure to make an impact. Maybe not during fashion week, but certainly beyond. Isn’t that what matters most? Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More on this topic: Key takeaways from Paris Fashion Week Men’s The final show: Behind the scenes with Dries Van Noten French fashion industry fears impact of the far right

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