Hollywood stars braved the rain to open Paris Fashion Week at L'Oreal's giant outdoor show Monday as rumours swirl of musical chairs at the top of fabled French brands. The cosmetics giant persuaded Jane Fonda - in snazzy silver sneakers - Kendall Jenner, Eva Longoria and several of its other brand ambassadors to walk in a spectacular public show in front of the gilded glory of the Opera Garnier. With invites to the big luxury shows strictly limited to the glitterati and fashion insiders, L'Oreal said it wanted to democratise the glamour of fashion week.
Introduced by singer Celine Dion, the "Walk Your Worth" show also featured Andie MacDowell, Indian star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, models with prosthetic limbs and Brazilian supermodel Luma Grothe proudly showing off her bump. "The idea is to let the public see for themselves the beautiful clothes, settings and people that they would never normally have access to," L'Oreal's Paris director general Delphine Viguier told AFP. Fashion's young guard had earlier endured a stormy start to the nine-day extravaganza - Rising French star Victor Weinsanto staged his spring-summer show on the wet and windy roof of the Pompidou Centre museum, his fishnet and mesh ensembles created around Croatian drag queen Le Filip being tested by the elements.
The Paris shows started as falling profits at the two luxury giants LVMH and Kering have sent a shudder through the industry, fuelling talk of a "Game of Thrones" among top designers. Celine's Hedi .