A French designer has made its Paris Fashion Week debut from the questionable location of a public Toilet.
The Madeleine public toilets are in an historic building, dating back to 1905. However, they were closed in 2011 as Parisians don't really use them. They've found a new lease of life this week as a fashion showroom.
Mao Usami and Alve Lagercrantz, the designers behind the show, claimed that they wanted to pick a location where "ideas in life flow free".
Their first ready to wear presentation had models standing around the public toilets with steely gazes, and the location drew more attention than the clothes themselves.
Not Just A Fashion Week Stunt
The designers graduated from Central St Martins in London. Usami has worked for Louis Vuitton and Dries van Noten, and says, "[Toilets] are where you go when you are pretending to work, but you are just escaping and having a break."
Appropriately, the collection merges underwear and lingerie stylings with streetwear and suits.
Invitations to the show were handed out with a pack of toilet paper, and a picture of a bathroom door. Graffiti scrawled on the back read "We don't have to be deadly serious".
However, the duo have insisted that their choice of location is not merely a stunt. They say their presentation "focuses on the intellectual questions that every Sirloin girl would ask herself during their brief moments in the toilet".
It's an interesting idea, and while some have laughed it off as ridiculous, others enjoyed the choice. Is it simply a publicity stunt designed to shock and awe? You decide.
Paris Fashion Week Oddities
Some other fashion week shows in Paris so far have also made odd choices. One was staged as if a wake with models grieving a male figure.
At Vivienne Westwood's show put together by Andreas Kronthaler, Westwood herself walked the catwalk as if she were a model. Saint Lauren's show was held in a building site. It seems that this season, Paris Fashion Week is all about lightening the mood - not taking anything deadly seriously. It's a bit of a breath of fresh air in the current world climate, and a contrast to last year's dominating stories.
