For a long time, it was just Chanel seeking to impress everyone, and nothing was too big, too crazy or too expensive. In Grand Palais, Karl Lagerfeld set off space rockets or put in tailor-made cruise ships. When I received one of the coveted invitations again last October, I checked in on the Chanel island, the glass palace had been transformed into a beach: Real waves washed up on the 240 tons of white sand, there were blue skies, beach huts and lifeguard chairs. And clever perspectives for the perfect trompe-l’oeil to give the selfie and Instagram generation something to photograph and film.

But the others are following suit: For Dior I had to travel far outside the city. They set up a gigantic temporary hall on the Longchamp racetrack to present an XXL black box inside with a mixture of fashion show and dance performance: The models paraded between the ensemble of Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal, and the finale was marked by white blossoms raining from a height of about 50 metres.

In front of the Eiffel Tower, twice a year for three weeks since 2016 tourists have had to do without one of the world’s most popular photo motifs: Because the construction containers have occupied the entire Place du Trocadéro for the fashion house Saint Laurent. They pay the city 400,000 euros in rent to set up their show stage right in front of Paris’s landmark. For the debut of Hedi Slimane at Céline, a huge hall was constructed in front of the Dôme des Invalides, and Louis Vuitton occupied the inner courtyard of the Louvre. The fashion house used the magnificent setting of the museum to construct a mirrored extensive glass tunnel on the square around the pyramid, a cool technical, black container construction with white neon tubes and light that followed the models’ steps by motion detector.