The references encoded within run the gamut from the midcentury craze for synchronised swimming (encouraged by Esther Williams’s Hollywood “aqua musicals” – see: ) to the Japanese designers who reinvigorated Paris fashion in the 1980s (Issey and Yohji and Rei, oh my!). Marginally more obscure, at least to non-French spectators: the nod to the Course des Cafés in both the ouverture and the portion of the show that interweaves ’30s-inflected fashion and stars of track and field. During the Course proper, hundreds of Parisian waiters race along a 1.
2 mile-track through the streets of the Marais while carrying a tray with a glass of water, an espresso cup and a croissant on it. No running is allowed, nor is spilling so much as a drop of liquid, or the contestant is disqualified. (If this sounds difficult, consider the fact that waiters had to carry a bottle of wine and three glasses for nearly five miles in early iterations of the race in the 1910s.
) Despite being a more than century-old practice, the event hasn’t been held in Paris for the last decade or so due to a lack of sponsors, but was revived with support from the Hôtel de Ville in March. On Place Vendôme, paid tribute to the tradition by having 15 dancers dart around the square wearing waiter jackets and bow-ties by Fursac – ushering Aya Nakumura towards the stage for her opening performance before returning to flank models in ’30s-esque silhouettes and track-and-field champions. Athletics and the f.
