Designers Apartment showroom opens for Paris Fashion Week

The eleventh edition of Designers Apartment begins on Wednesday 27th September in Paris, and will run until Monday 2nd October, two days less than the last session. The showroom dedicated to young French designers and promoted by the French Couture Federation, with the backing of public body DEFI (the Committee for the Development and Promotion of Apparel), will be located as usual in the Atelier Richelieu at 60 rue de Richelieu, Paris.

Since October 2012, the initiative lets French and international buyers discover a wealth of talented French fashion designers, through a directional selection of about ten emerging labels mentored by Patricia Lerat of PLC Consulting. The labels on show range from haute couture to more contemporary fashion lines, and need to be French, to have been in business at least two years and to have reached a specific revenue threshold.

In general, Designers Apartment brands spend from two to three seasons in this business incubator, as long as it takes them to refine or add to their product range. For the Spring/Summer 2018, eleven happy names have been selected for the showroom, the same number as last season.

A good few of them were already featured last March, such as Coralie Marabelle and Japanese designer Kenta Matsushige, who have already spent a few seasons at the showroom, as well as Afterhomework (Paris), Dawei, Mazarine, MiniMe Paris, Quoï Alexander and Wilfried Lantoine.

Quetsche by Chinese designer Li Yang, womenswear label Frater by Hugo Fontaine and Victoria/Tomas are the three names leaving the showroom. The latter label graduated for the very first time to the Paris Fashion Week's main calendar, and showed on Tuesday at the week's opening.

Three newcomers have taken their place: womenswear label DaDa Diane Ducasse, launched in 2016, Proêmes de Paris, created by Marion Gauban Cammas - who has notably worked for Jean Paul Gaultier, Christophe Lemaire and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac - with her partner Ulysse Meridjen, who has a background in consulting for the luxury and sport industries, and finally Savoar Fer, a label created by Swiss designer Eliane Heutschi, who is passionate about craftsmanship.

In the previous session, Eliane Heutschi was part of the Passerelle project, introduced a year ago and allowing emerging design talent to present one signature look in the showroom, in parallel with the other collections. The following have been selected for the current session of Passerelle: Jorge Ayala Paris, Clara Daguin, Lou de Betoly, Dumitrascu and Studio Pierre.

Designers Apartment showroom opens for Paris Fashion Week

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