There will be demonstrations in Paris tomorrow. So far, so usual. This might make getting from one défilé to the other slightly more difficult than during your average Fashion Weel.
This is unlikely, however, to reach the proportions the Spring shows were met with on 6 February 1934. The demonstrations they faced have since been dubbed riots and coup d’état. According to New Yorker journalist Jean Flanner, quoted by Justine Picardie
“Taxi strikes plus riots coming during spring fashion shows estimated to have cost big houses one million franc each”.
The effect on Chanel was incalculable. Her spring show took place, as usual, on 5th February, narrowly missing the riots, but the atmosphere in Paris was anxiously febrile, and orders may have been affected.
Picture: Place de la Concorde, 6 February 1934
Quote: Justine Picardie, Coco Chanel (HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010) p 231
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