| Paris is in turmoil today, with the prime minister quitting less than 24 hours after President Emmanuel Macron named a new cabinet stacked with ministers loyal to his centrist party. Sebastien Lecornu, whom Macron had just appointed to lead the government, said he could “no longer exercise my functions as prime minister” because “each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire program.” That leaves Macron with three choices: name a new prime minister and cabinet, call a parliamentary election or resign (which he’s long refused to do). For Parisians who’d prefer to ignore the political crisis, there’s Paris Fashion Week. Bloomberg couture correspondent Angelina Rascouet was there to see the shows and gauge their impact on an industry that’s (almost) as troubled as the French government. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. Since its launch in 1973, Paris Fashion Week has become the industry’s premier forum. From its first iteration as a charity exhibition featuring five French and five American designers, the event has grown to more than 100 shows across the city where brands exhibit their latest collections, critics cut them down to size (or inflate them beyond recognition) and Champagne gets quaffed by the bucketload.  Pierpaolo Piccioli at the Balenciaga show. Photographer: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images The current event, wrapping up tomorrow, has been especially notable because it marks a generational change. A quartet of top brands—Balenciaga, Chanel, Christian Dior Couture and Loewe—have new designers, giving the public a chance to size them up. After several years of stagnant or sliding sales for the industry, investors will be closely watching too. “One of the self-help levers to pull for the brands is increased creativity or change in creative direction,” says Morningstar analyst Jelena Sokolova. “It’s all about market share gains, where creative changes could help.”  Jonathan Anderson at Wednesday’s Dior show. Photographer: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images The big names kicked off Wednesday with Dior, where Jonathan Anderson’s women’s collection featured a plethora of bows, capes and evening gowns mixed with informal pieces such as denim miniskirts and everyday bags. After Anderson reenergized Loewe (a sister brand owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE), his bosses gave him a shot at the conglomerate’s No. 2 fashion brand—though he got mixed reviews. Simon Longland, who heads fashion buying at Harrods, said Anderson represents a “bold new chapter’’ for the 78-year-old label, but the New York Times called the collection “unfocused.”  Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough at the Loewe show in Paris on Friday. Photographer: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images On Friday his successors at Loewe, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, presented brightly colored leather jackets, sculptural tops and fluffy strapless dresses. That was followed Saturday by Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga, who unveiled platform velvet flip-flops coupled with evening gowns and bomber jackets matched with black leather crop tops. And this evening, Matthieu Blazy will get his moment in the sun at Chanel, with many wondering how the former Bottega Veneta designer will reinvent the brand’s classic tweed ensembles. The stakes are high for a sector that consulting firm Bain expects to shrink as much as 5% this year after flatlining in 2024. That would be the worst performance since the 2009 global financial crisis, barring the collapse during the pandemic in 2020. Shares of LVMH have fallen by about 15% this year and are off by 40% from their 2023 peak. And Kering SA, the owner of Gucci, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, has risen since a new chief executive officer was appointed in June, but it’s down by almost two-thirds from a record in 2021. At Milan Fashion Week, just before the Paris event, Gucci introduced a new designer after three years of tanking revenue and multiple changes in the management and design teams. Although Balenciaga veteran Demna Gvasalia didn’t have a show—his debut will come in February, also in Milan—the brand flooded its Instagram feed with photos of models wearing new creations paired with timeless accessories such as the bamboo handle bag. But the red carpet moment came at the premiere of a short movie about a dysfunctional and fictionalized Gucci family starring Demi Moore as the matriarch trying to keep the clan together during a drug-fueled dinner party. (Moore attended the film’s premiere in a golden gown crafted by Demna.) The message was that “we try to be perfect—perfect son, perfect designer,” the Georgian artistic director told journalists, but “it’s kind of impossible to actually get there, ever.” | 
