This week I ran a marathon without exercising even once. What I did do, however, was attend as many events, conversations, art exhibits and pop ups as humanly, and economically possible, during Paris Art Week, better known as Art Basel. And after all that walking, talking, eating, oggling, sipping, and commuting, here are the things that are still roaming in my head:

Art Week is becoming Fashion Week 2.0

While there are a couple of weeks between the end of PFW and the start of Art Week in Paris, the incessant rhythm of events, must-watches and general FOMO keeps stable throughout this period. But unlike Fashion Week, Art Week is perhaps able to be relevant to an even larger audience of creative profiles that resonate with different styles, events, and artists.

Fashion is infiltrating art like never before

It is no news that art has consistently been integrated into fashion collections and luxury products throughout the years, looking to elevate even more the aura of those items onto the category of objets d’art. However, while in years prior most luxury brands were content by simply having spaces for visibility at those events - think of Ruinart champagne bars at every vernissage or Guerlain at Art Basel - fashion forward events organized the same dates are quickly becoming the week’s hottest tickets. This year for example, it was MIu Miu’s turn with its Tales & Tellers week-long event at Palais d’Iena.

Is it ok to resignify things like vanity?

Keeping with MIu MIu’s Tales & Tellers, this event was accompanied by a collection of conferences bringing together women from different creative backgrounds to discuss femininities, female gaze, adversities and dreams related to the series films commissioned by the brand as a way to explore these topics. Nonetheless, when the question of vanity as a positive influence was discussed in one of these panels, I couldn’t help but wonder if it is ethically ok for a fashion brand to try to change the perception of this term into something positive, especially if 1) that something is by definition considered as a futile and worthless quality, 2) we already live in a world that places a higher value on form instead of content, 3) the aforementioned brand could greatly commercially benefit from the resignification of vanity into a positive quality. All of this, remember, with the audience, panelists, and artists involved dressed in head to toe MIu Miu.

*Miu Miu Tales & Tellers Conversations Series, 2024.*

Tote bags are the new ads. We are the new walking billboards.

Beyond my more ethical questions on the subject, I have to admit that the importance of tote bags as an advertising medium is at its all time high. All hail the power of almighty canvas tote, especially Miu Miu’s smaller than usual black one. Whether a signifier of similarly interested fashion individuals, or just a convenient place to carry things and not get easily pickpocketed in the metro, the truth is that its ability to keep the brand’s top of mind during the whole week had an outstanding effect, especially coming from such a small piece of fabric.

Galleries as the new museum-like institutions. But fashion houses as the new galleries?

As part of the public conversations programme, I had the chance to attend a talk in the Petit Palais addressing the topic of art galleries, their changing world both in the academic and commercial art world, and the creation of audiences within the art world. Even when I fully agree with everything discussed by Sylvie Patry, Directrice Artistique, Mennour, Paris

And Dame Julia Peyton-Jones, Directrice générale : projets spéciaux, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, I have to admit that my attention went back to my area of expertise: brands. Even when galleries are taking a more prominent role in involving all kinds of audiences with the art market, it is also undeniably true that fashion houses are now one of the farthest reaching channels for the dissemination, consumption and recognition of artists and art pieces. We might need to wait one more year, but I would not be surprised to see more fashion brands take an active role à la MIu Miu for next year’s Basel.

What I learnt about hype, desire and vanity during Paris Art Week