L’Oréal Paris to Hold Show on the Seine
A number of the brand’s faces, plus models and fashion icons will walk the floating catwalk.
PARIS — L’Oréal Paris is gearing up to stage its second fashion-beauty runway show, on the Seine river during the upcoming Paris Fashion Week, WWD has learned.
With a floating catwalk near the Musée d’Orsay, the display on Sept. 30 at 2 p.m. at the Port de Solférino is expected to attract even more eyeballs than the highprofile show staged on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées last year.
“Everyone is invited,” Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, L’Oréal Paris global brand president, told WWD. “We wanted to choose an iconic space in the city that really reflects the true Parisian spirit.”
He described the show, dubbed “Le Défilé L’Oréal Paris,” a “celebration of beauty, fashion and diversity.”
It is to include a number of the brand’s spokespeople, plus models and fashion figures — including Andie MacDowell,
Elle Fanning, Bianca Balti, Eva Longoria, Duckie Thot and Liya Kebede — sporting 70 beauty looks. These will be created by Val Garland, L’Oréal Paris global makeup artist, and Stéphane Lancien, the brand’s global hair artist.
The program is done in partnership with the Chopard jewelry brand and 12 established and emerging fashion houses, including Off-White, Balmain, Jacquemus, Isabel Marant, Ami, Giambattista Valli and Elie Saab, which will be showing looks inspired by Parisian chic from their fall 2018 collections.
“It’s a very rich selection that shows the diversity of Parisian beauty and Parisian looks,” Angeloglou said.
L’Oréal Paris expects that 200,000 people could be able to view the show, to take place on a 195-foot-long catwalk, live from the riverbanks and a bridge. (Boat traffic on the Seine will be halted for a half-hour while the display is going on.)
Le Défilé L’Oréal Paris will also be attended by guests invited from 33 countries and broadcast live via all of the brand’s digital platforms and social networks.
Last year, L’Oréal Paris’ show commanded 1.8 billion digital impressions, and the ambition for the 2018 edition is for the visibility to be even greater.
“We [are creating] lots of content for all our platforms with tips, how-tos and [information on] how to decode the trends,” said Angeloglou, adding, “Ultimately, it’s not only about trends, but it’s about the quality and efficiency of our products.”
The executive continued: “We are extremely excited by this kind of event because we fundamentally believe that it nourishes our values — our values of super quality and expertise, our values of inclusivity and diversity, our vision of Parisian beauty, which is within our DNA, and this idea of democratization of the best to all.”
Angeloglou said a show like Le Défilé L’Oréal Paris allows the brand to offer people an uncommon and unexpected experience as well.
Also during PFW, which starts on
Sept. 24, L’Oréal Paris will be involved in makeup and hair backstage at 15 fashion shows. Linked to PFW, too, is the party L’Oréal Paris and Isabel Marant will cohost on Sept. 27 to fete the brands’ color cosmetics capsule. That’s the same day the L’Oréal Paris x Isabel Marant line is set to drop internationally, and it will be used to make up models backstage for the fashion label’s catwalk display for spring 2019.
L’Oréal Paris first became a Paris Fashion Week sponsor in early 2016.
Angeloglou said that rooted in the DNA of the brand, whose tag line is “Because I’m Worth It,” is “a fundamental belief that [L’Oréal Paris] should support all women on their journey to fulfill themselves, according to their own rules and vision of beauty. So it’s really a message of self-realization and a message of female empowerment.
“The more that we show it on everything we do, and the more we bring forth consumer engagement beyond the brand it truly corresponds to who we are and what we believe is right and meaningful,” he said.