In Paris fashion, skin is in and celebrities rule the runways

PARIS (AP) — Paris Fashion Week is delivering a forceful reminder of why it remains a capital of fashion, with blockbuster celebrity front rows, boundary-pushing design, and collections that are tackling big ideas about power, craft and the female body.

Oprah Winfrey turned heads at both Stella McCartney and Chloé. Sissy Spacek, Julia Garner and Lil Yachty claimed front-row seats at Loewe.

The star wattage has matched the creative ambition — and both have been running high.

Halfway through the fall 2026 shows, several clear themes are emerging from the runways: dress with intent, dress with pleasure, and don’t be afraid to show up.

Here are the trends defining the season so far.

The women’s tuxedo turns 60 this year, and no house owns that legacy like Saint Laurent.

Creative director Anthony Vaccarello, marking his own 10th anniversary at the helm, sent out a parade of razor-sharp Smokings — the house term for its iconic women’s tuxedo — with plunging necklines and elongated silhouettes that crackled with the same transgressive energy founder Yves Saint Laurent unleashed in the 1960s.

But Vaccarello didn’t stop at evening.

He extended the same sensual, body-skimming tailoring into daytime suits in fluid pinstripe fabrics with almost no interlining, effectively arguing that the tuxedo silhouette belongs in a woman’s life around the clock.

Plenty of brands in Milan showed strong black pantsuits this season, but the Saint Laurent version still occupies its own territory — sleeker, sharper, more loaded with meaning.

The other half of Vaccarello’s equation was lace, stiffened with latex and tailored into structured cardigan-like jackets and straight skirts.

It was lace with backbone — tough, not delicate.

Paired with smoky eyes, chunky gold jewelry and slingback heels, the collection made a case that Saint Laurent’s codes are as potent as ever.

Designers aren’t being shy about the body this season.

Vaquera’s Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio staged a provocation-filled show inside a Paris church, with exposed skin at almost every turn — hip-cut trousers, leather pieces with strategically placed zippers and references to fashion’s most boundary-pushing moments from the past six decades.

At Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice built his collection around a day-in-the-life concept that traced a woman from bed to club, with body-conscious cuts and geometric cutouts on pinafore dresses.

Isabel Marant’s designer Kim Bekker went short and tight with tiny cut-off shorts, miniskirts and slim leather pencil skirts.

At Loewe, the design duo of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are rapidly redefining what luxury craft looks like — and having a blast doing it.

Their sophomore collection was a sensory jolt: inflatable channels pumped into outerwear and leather raincoats, shearling sculpted and groomed to resemble prize-winning poodle fur, and latex cast in 3D-printed molds to reimagine boudoir staples.

The venue was drenched in taxi yellow, the soundtrack was pounding techno, and stuffed sea creatures shared the front row with Hollywood stars.

The designers have cited artist Cosima von Bonin as a key inspiration, which explained the gingham accents and hand-painted floral prints scattered through the lineup.

Their take on craft is deliberately different from designers who celebrate the imperfect or the handmade.

McCollough and Hernandez are interested in craft so refined it erases the evidence of the hand entirely — leather jackets skived to feather-thinness, fused so smoothly they look like they rolled off a factory line. It’s a provocative inversion: the highest skill made to look effortless.

Fringe is having a moment across multiple shows.

At Carven, designer Mark Thomas made it a signature of his assured sophomore collection — fringed gloves, shaggy textures and paper-thin mille-feuille panels that brought movement and dimension to skirts and dresses.

He layered gauzy organza with lace in tones of wine and chocolate, creating a romantic but purposeful wardrobe.

Fringe has been visible elsewhere too, becoming one of the season’s quieter but most persistent trends.

Courrèges under Di Felice has become one of the week’s most reliable propositions.

His fifth-anniversary collection featured slim flared coats, A-line skirts and vinyl knife-pleated into dresses — a slick Parisian minimalism that has won over both young customers and fashion critics.

That’s a rare double audience, and Di Felice has earned it.

Isabel Marant’s Bekker sent models racing down the runway in distressed denim, reversible statement jackets and sparkly knitted minidresses with curved-heel pumps.

The mood was fast, social and unapologetically fun — a woman running between shows and parties, living at full tilt.

Rich reds, cobalt and Mondrian-style colorblocking punched through the denim-heavy palette.

Evening had a disco edge, with fluid sparkly dresses and high-slit satin skirts.

Oprah Winfrey, from left, Gayle King, Adam Long, Aimee Lou Wood and Maude Apatow attend the Chloe Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Nicholson)

Models wear creations from the Chloe Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Nicholson)

A model wears a creation from the Chloe Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Nicholson)

Michelle Pfeiffer poses for photographers upon arrival for the Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Nicholson)

Models wear creations from the Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Nicholson)

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices touched their highest levels since 2023 after surging again Friday because of the Iran war, while a weak update on the U.S. job market highlighted the economy's precarious position. The two trends raised the risk of a worst-case scenario for financial markets, and stocks fell as they neared the finish of a punishing week.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.1% after a report showed U.S. employers cut more jobs last month than they created and after oil prices spiked above $90 per barrel. It’s a combination that investors hate because no one in the world has a good tool to fix both a weak economy and high inflation at the same time.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 558 points, or 1.2%, as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% lower. Wall Street's moves are still erratic, though, given all the uncertainties created by the war. The Dow dropped as many as 945 points in the morning before roughly halving its loss.

“You can’t sugarcoat this report,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. “A negative payrolls number combined with a big jump in oil prices will have traders worrying about stagflation risks.”

Stagflation is what economists call a stagnating economy combined with high inflation, and a separate report released Friday added to the sour mix after showing that U.S. retailers made less money in January than economists expected. It raised the disconcerting possibility that spending by U.S. households, the main engine of the economy, may be stretched near its maximum.

Usually when the economy is unsteady and the job market is weakening, the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates to give things a boost. Lower rates can make it more affordable for households to get mortgages and companies to raise money to expand, while also helping prices for stocks and other investments. The Fed cut its main interest rate several times last year and had indicated more were to come this year.

But lower interest rates can also make inflation worse. And the Fed’s hands may be increasingly tied because spiking oil prices are pushing inflation higher due to disruptions for the energy industry.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, shot up another 8.3% to $92.53 and briefly rose above $94 to touch its highest level since September 2023. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude jumped 12.5% to $91.12 and topped $90 per barrel for the first time since 2023.

Oil prices have surged, with Brent up from near $70 late last week, as the war has expanded and included areas critical to the production and movement of oil and gas in the Middle East. Much will depend on what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil typically sails through the narrow waterway off Iran’s coast.

If oil prices spike further, like to $100 per barrel, and stay there, some analysts and investors say it could be too much for the global economy to withstand.

To be sure, the U.S. stock market has a history of bouncing back relatively quickly following conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, as long as oil prices don’t jump too high for too long. Uncertainty about just how high oil prices will go this time around and how long they'll stay there has caused frenetic swings across financial markets this week, sometimes hour by hour.

On Monday, for example, the S&P 500 tumbled to an immediate 1.2% loss at the start of trading but made it all back and ended the day with a tiny gain.

President Donald Trump’s most recent signal on the war was that he wants an “unconditional surrender” of Iran, apparently ruling out negotiations.

In the bond market, Treasury yields wavered, with oil prices pushing upward on them and the discouraging updates on the U.S. economy pulling downward.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury initially rose toward 4.19% following the jobs report before pulling back to 4.11%. That's down slightly from 4.13% late Thursday but still well above its 3.97% level from a week ago.

Smaller companies often feel the bite of high borrowing costs more because many need to borrow to grow. Smaller companies can also be more dependent on the strength of the U.S. economy than big multinational rivals, and the smallest stocks on Wall Street took the sharpest dives Friday.

The Russell 2000 index of small stocks fell a market-leading 2%.

Among the big companies in the S&P 500, companies with high fuel bills helped lead the way lower. Old Dominion Freight Line sank 6.8%, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings fell 4.4% and Southwest Airlines lost 7.7%.

Costco Wholesale was among the few stocks to rise. It added 1.6% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer said the quarter benefited from a later Lunar New Year on this year's calendar, which gave a particularly big revenue boost to its warehouses outside the United States.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped in Europe following a better finish in Asia. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7%, and Germany’s DAX lost 0.9%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.7% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.6%.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.

Michael Gagliano works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Joel Lucchese works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Ryan Falvey works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Screens display financial news on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)