Can Fashion Handle the Heat?

Thom Browne spring 2027 menswear. Photo: Getty Images Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story After a challenging Pitti and Milan due to the high temperatures , Paris Men’s Week takes place from June 23 to 28 against the backdrop of what could be the hottest week in France’s history. “We are about to experience four days, from Monday through Thursday, that will rank among the hottest days ever recorded in France,” Sébastien Léas, a forecaster at Météo-France, told Le Monde . Can fashion handle temperatures soaring past 40°C (104°F)?

The heatwave has been significant enough to prompt major fashion houses to accommodate last-minute schedule changes. Dior moved its Wednesday show forward to 9am, from its original 2.30pm slot, while Rick Owens rescheduled its Thursday presentation from 12.30pm to 10am.

“We follow the rules of the plan canicule-alterte rouge (or red heatwave alert) set by the government,” says Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. The red alert is the highest level of the national heatwave plan, reserved for an exceptional heatwave. “A document has been sent to all participants reminding them of the guidelines.” They include providing an adequate supply of fresh drinking water, adapting working hours and workloads to limit exposure to high temperatures.

“We are aware of the challenges and very attentive to preserving the experience of fashion week amid this structural change,” Morand added.

For now, it’s about resourcefulness. For outdoor shows, brands may provide guests and PR teams with items such as umbrellas, fans, water bottles, and hats. Dedicated shaded areas will also be essential for PR check-ins, helping prevent iPads from overheating and shutting down in direct sunlight.

People swim in Canal Saint-Martin in Paris to cool off during the heatwave.

For indoor shows, it’s about adding the air conditioning or ensuring that it works properly. LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi is showing on Friday at 7.30pm at Lycée Carnot. The designer requested that air conditioning be installed both in the show venue and backstage, even though it represents an additional cost.

Louis-Gabriel Nouchi adds that organizing well in advance allows the team to work on a lighter schedule this week, a far cry from the fashion stereotype that everyone works around the clock in the days leading up to a show. “We started castings very early this season, so the models have already been booked. At the office, I bought fans that are as tall as I am, and we’ve adapted our schedule accordingly,” Nouchi says.

Amiri is also showing indoors, at Carreau du Temple. “It has been pretty safe for us. We used to show in a garden. That was so unpredictable, I didn’t need the stress anymore,” Mike Amiri said during fittings on Monday at auction house Artcurial, in a room offering a refreshing refuge from the heat. “It used to be: is it going to rain? Is it going to be too hot? Do we need umbrellas? And now it’s “I hope the air conditioning works.”

Meanwhile, Dries Van Noten emailed guests ahead of its show Thursday at 7.30pm: “Please note that, due to the heatwave, we plan to start the show on time. Please allow extra time to avoid traffic delays.”

“Everybody is going to have to adjust to the changes in the schedule, which probably the smaller brands could be the ones most impacted.”

“Everybody is going to have to adjust to the changes in the schedule, which probably the smaller brands could be the ones most impacted,” says fashion consultant Julie Gilhart. For Gilhart, it’s about safety but also practicality. “If you are buying the collection or reviewing it, it’s distracting to do so in the blazing heat,” she says. At a time when the risks associated with climate change are growing ever greater, brands will have to put more emphasis on making people comfortable, on both ends — in the audience and backstage, according to Gilhart.

In an Instagram post, Eugene Rabkin, founder of StyleZeitgeist magazine, urged brands to provide an Uber code or a taxi voucher alongside presentation invites: “I speak for many independent editors here who don’t get a car from Paris Fashion Week organizers or expense accounts, and I say this respectfully, but, climate change is real… Sometimes when you hear a polite “no”, that is because your showroom is too far and we are prioritizing our well-being over looking at clothes, as we make the best of the frantic schedules that send us across town like a ping-pong ball multiple times a day in debilitating weather…I know that budgets are tight, but help us help you.”

The heatwave has been a challenge for all at Pitti and MFW . Summarizing this Milan Fashion Week, Simon Longland, director of buying at Harrods, said: “Hot — quite literally. The exceptional temperatures became an unavoidable part of the week and reinforced many of the themes we saw on the runway: lightness, ease, and relaxed sophistication.”

“What a scorcher,” wrote Luke Leitch in his review of Thom Browne , the first-ever Thom Browne show in Milan. “Edward Buchanan’s iPhone stopped working, Garth Spencer’s arms went several shades darker on the tanning Pantone, and I’ve almost never seen Alex Fury fanning so feverishly: nobody seated in Block C of this Thom Browne show will forget it in a hurry. That’s because it was held al fresco in the long courtyard of Palazzo Serbelloni, where Block C ran down the western, sunny side. My own phone said 38 degrees, and that was from the shady idyll of Block A.”

How will Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) adapt if the MFW Men’s season keeps getting hotter? “Climate change is becoming increasingly evident, and this is precisely why environmental sustainability has long been one of the core pillars of CNMI’s work,” says Carlo Capasa, president of CNMI. “As for the impact of increasingly high temperatures during Milan Fashion Week Men’s, we fully understand the challenges they can create for guests, professionals, and everyone involved. We hope that, going forward, the industry will continue to identify solutions that make the experience more comfortable for everyone attending, while preserving the quality of the Milan Fashion Week experience for all.”

It’s not just fashion week. The Cannes Lions festival is also in full swing, amidst record-breaking temperatures in the French Riviera. Blazing sun and high temperatures can turn swigging rosé and pounding the pavement at the Croisette into a dangerous activity. Sponsored beach cabanas invested in more overhead tenting than in years past to create shade, while misting fans, water stations, and free SPF were found in abundance to make sure guests can do Cannes carefully.

This isn’t the first season in which fashion has been taking the full impact of climate change. Remember last June in Paris? Grace Wales Bonner staged her show in the library of Lycée Henri IV, where “it was ridiculously hot,” as Sarah Mower put it , and Ami Paris staged its show right before an apocalyptic storm. Leitch described the minute after the Ami Paris finale : “Outside was thunder, lightning, a gale, and rain that seemed almost solid.”

Nouchi recalls: “Last June for SS26 was also extremely hot. Everyone was excited to get to Silencio for our SS26 presentation, which had AC. The difference this time is the duration of the heatwave and its magnitude. It’s hardcore. But I tell myself that we’re lucky compared with my friends in sportswear, who are working several seasons ahead. They’re currently doing fittings for puffer jackets.”

Información reportada originalmente por Vogue. Leer la nota completa en la fuente original.