The globetrotting Fashion Week finished its final day in Paris on Wednesday and left the industry wondering, ‘What the bleep happened last week?’

Normally known as the most glamorous and straightforward of all the Fashion Weeks, Paris took a steep turn into the twilight zone this season with rumors and drama following above like some dark rain cloud in a cartoon strip.

Paris Fashion Week started out in a dark place, with John Galliano guillotined from Christian Dior days before Dior’s runway show. This initial rumor turned into a whirlwind of chaos in fashion, with the industry’s top moguls voicing their opinions through newspaper interviews, blogs and namely Twitter. Simply type in ‘#PFW’ into your Twitter search bar, and you’ll feel as if you were in the middle of all the drama, too.

Galliano’s departure quickly placed a heavy load on Paris Fashion Week as the media scrutinized every major designer’s collection while placing bets on which designer would replace Galliano as Dior’s next creative director.

‘It doesn’t help that there has been so much tension around the shows since the Galliano scandal and chatter about who might replace him, because, as usual, the people doing the speculating don’t have enough information,’ wrote Cathy Horyn in her New York Times column published Tuesday. ‘For designers already at big houses, the pressure must reach absurd levels.’

Next up in the Parisian drama was Balmain creative director Christophe Decarnin’s absence at his own show. Rumors about him having a mental breakdown and being sent to a psychiatric hospital soon unfolded. According to Hint Mag, an online fashion site, Decarnin was sent to the hospital in mid-January and hadn’t been back to Balmain since. New York Times writer Eric Wilson reported Sunday that several assistants left the label because there was no ‘clear direction’ at Balmain.

Chloé’s head designer, Hannah MacGibbon, was also piled onto the drama.

Her future now lies on thin ice after rumors surfaced about her contract not being renewed, Wilson reports, ‘according to people knowledgeable about the house, who said the reaction to her show on Monday could determine whether her contract is renewed.’ After reading several poor reviews on Chloé’s presentation, I fear this rumor will soon become reality for MacGibbon.

So what gives? Is there something in the Paris water we don’t know about?

Perhaps all this negative commotion in the industry is caused by the immense amount of stress put onto designers as of late. With top designers forced to create at least four brilliant collections every year while appeasing the luxury end, the commercial end, the editorial end and the corporate end, I can see how a designer’s own voice can be lost in translation.

With the rise in importance of a consumer’s wants and the uncontrollable need to keep up with social and digital media, fashion has, in a way, turned into this cracked-out industry where keeping up with it is a job on its own.

The recent turmoil at Paris Fashion Week doesn’t surprise me or even fascinate me anymore because of the numbing effect of the media. But then again, this is the life and career designers, fashionistas and even I have signed up for.

I guess that’s why we have entertainment like Lady Gaga comically walking the Thierry Mugler runway to keep us sane.

‘Once you end, you start again,’ Ronald Frasch, president of Saks Fifth Avenue, said to Wilson. ‘It’s our business.’

Vicki Ho is a senior public relations major. Her column appears every Thursday, and she can be reached at vho@syr.edu.

Published on March 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm