Paris Fashion Week runs on an extremely tight schedule. Calendars are full and shows become fleeting. And whilst it is a privilege to be able to show during the highly esteemed week—a dream come true for many designers—if they blink, they might miss their moment in the sun.
The majority of the work, however, is an unseen process. For months, designers work day and night to produce a collection they are proud to present, with the runway acting as an iteration of a finish line. This moment remains a testament to the insurmountable levels of hard work and talent that the designers possess, but the ephemeral nature can sometimes feel all too transactional.
For Luis De Javier, his SS26 collection is about rejecting this tradition and embracing a concept in which the process itself became the highlight. What is usually hidden was brought forward, as a 24-hour performance showcased the designer and his team completing final touches, shooting the lookbook, and creating e-commerce visuals for the collection.
This inventive concept, which began on September 30th at 8:30pm and concluded at 8:30pm on October 1st, was live-streamed in its entirety across all of De Javier’s online platforms. In addition to the multi-camera broadcast, complete with close-ups of the work, the performance became a spectacle for passersby at the central Paris storefront where the day-long event unfolded.
Designing is truly a process, and at the heart of De Javier’s SS26 showcase is transparency about the inevitable highs and lows of this industry. The Spanish-born designer challenged the polished illusion of the runway, instead presenting the grit, graft and collaborative spirit that sustains fashion. It was a reminder that no designer works alone: collections are realised through the dedication of a team, whose collective creativity and endurance shape the final result. By spotlighting this shared effort, De Javier demonstrated that the beauty of fashion lies not only in the garments themselves, but in the labour and vision that bring them into being.
