With Paris Fashion Week AW26 (March 2-10) around the corner come the brands that thrive on the seasonal hysteria and the ones happy to skip it all. Those six days used to be the industry’s unquestioned checkpoint. Now it’s mostly a trade-off between attention, budgets, and the growing realization that not everything that glitters needs a French runway.
And that runway sure doesn’t pay for itself, ask Coperni. They didn’t sit this one out because they suddenly decided shows are passé, money just shines brighter than sequins. Partnerships go sour, budgets tighten, and lineups are really optional. The message from Coperni is blunt. They want control back, independence over spectacle, and a brand story that isn’t dictated by anyone else’s spreadsheet. Expanding names like Meryll Rogge, Christopher Esber, and Casablanca are following suit, either running out of money or just running out of patience.
Celine quite literally hides behind closed doors in showrooms, while Vetements does what Vetements does, skipping a show or two. Valentino goes back to its roots, swapping Paris for Rome, Thom Browne sticks with San Francisco, and Margiela books a flight to Shanghai. Armani opts for co-ed shows, while Sacai indulges its love of PDFs with a lookbook.
The financial pressure isn’t exactly subtle. It all adds up fast, venues, set designs, production, casting, PR, and the list goes on. Smaller brands can burn through tens of thousands just to see their name on the schedule, while bigger houses push well into six or seven-figure territory. Some labels now simply follow the spending power, whether that means sending private invites to your atelier, or waving an American flag, with key buyers and press still in arm’s reach. There’s also the exhaustion with the calendar itself. Four cities, endless seasons, and collections turning over faster than they can actually sell have pushed some brands to question whether visibility gained in six days is worth disappearing in the six months after. Attention can be built through social media, direct retail and controlled digital releases without staging a full production.
A Paris runway still carries weight. Few things compress prestige, attention and industry validation into fifteen minutes quite like it. But knowing when to show has become just as important as knowing when not to. Absence strengthens a brand just as much as presence.
