What to do in between shows during Paris Fashion Week? Designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais of Wolk Morais write in with the best places to stay, dine, drink, and see in the City of Lights this season!
The Wolk Morais Diaries — Le Best of Paris Fashion Week
Paris during Fashion Week is equal parts strategy and seduction—where espresso martinis are an accessory and reservations are a blood sport. Between fittings and fêtes, we’ve curated the chicest places to dine, drink, dance, and devour culture, so you can glide through the arrondissement du jour with divine precision. Consider this your little black book for the most fashionable addresses in the City of Light—no sensible shoes required.
Palatial Lodging
Commissioned by Napoleon III and inaugurated in 1862 by Empress Eugénie before the Opéra next door officially opened, The Intercontinental Paris Le Grand was built as a symbol of modern imperial Paris. Architect Alfred Armand delivered Second Empire splendor at scale, and the hotel quickly became a stage for artists, aristocrats, and later, couture royalty — including Yves Saint Laurent, who presented haute couture collections within its gilded salons. Sarah Bernhardt checked in. History lingered. Fashion followed.
Suite Choices
Why choose one suite when two create the full narrative? The Ambassador Suite delivers classical grandeur — chandeliers, exquisite textiles and moldings with authority — while the Charles Garnier Suite offers contemporary polish and direct views onto the Opéra façade. Old-world gravitas meets modern clarity. For Fashion Week, both feel necessary.
Tea for Two
La Verrière, the hotel’s soaring glass winter garden, remains one of Paris’s great architectural gestures — iron and glass engineered to flood society with light long before electricity perfected the mood.
Café de la Paix has been serving literary lions and couture royalty since 1862; Zola dined here, Oscar Wilde lingered here, and during Fashion Week, you may spot a supermodel negotiating her dessert like a contract.
Having a Ball
The Ballroom at InterContinental Paris – Le Grand is less a room and more a declaration. Beneath its gilded moldings and monumental chandeliers, emperors celebrated, couture houses presented, and modern fashion still stages its most decisive moments. It remains one of Paris’s ultimate event addresses — where scale, history, and spectacle align effortlessly, and every entrance feels intentional.
Sip and Sashay — Bars & Clubs
Low Key —Reservation-only, minimal lighting, maximum discretion. The 1st arrondissement’s newest velvet-lined fashion clubhouse where conversations are quiet and the guest list is not.
Maxim’s – Art Nouveau excess, impeccably preserved. Once Colette’s playground, now Fashion Week’s most dependable after-dark institution. Dinner dissolves into dancing. The room still knows how to behave badly — elegantly.
Dining
Le Grand Café — Nestled inside the Grand Palais, this soaring spectacle of Belle Époque architecture pairs monumental glass ceilings with impeccably dressed plates. It’s Parisian grandeur with a side of beurre blanc.
Square Trousseau — Overlooking a leafy Bastille square, this Art Nouveau beauty serves fashionable comfort fare beneath stained glass and sculpted woodwork. The crowd? Editors by day, ingénues by night.
Laurent — Tucked inside a garden pavilion near the Champs-Élysées, Laurent offers fireside intimacy or indoor garden romance. It’s a masterclass in discreet luxury—where deals are made between courses.
Chez Georges — The quintessential Parisian bistro where the napkins are starched and the patrons sharper. A favorite for those who prefer their steak frites with a side of understated chic.
Le Voltaire — The legendary Left Bank haunt has received a polished facelift while retaining its rakish soul. Still intimate, still decadent, only now with lighting that flatters both the art and the audience.
L’Aventure — Restaurant, club, fashion fantasia. Come for the dinner, stay for the DJ, and leave with a story you’ll pretend not to remember.
Verjus — Hidden near Palais Royal and helmed by Californian proprietors Braden Perkins and Laura Adrian, Verjus marries Parisian restraint with West Coast brightness. It’s the kind of place where natural wine meets natural beauty.
Cafés
Chez Babo — As we’ve whispered in previous diaries, this Canal Saint Martin darling is where fashion folk nibble and congregate. Effortlessly chic, deceptively simple, and always buzzing with someone who knows someone. Michael Babo is the pied piper of this neighborhood mainstay where the food is handcrafted and the wine is as bold as the cafe’s constituents.
Café Charlot — A Marais institution where the terrace is prime runway real estate. Order the poulet rôti, observe the parade, and pretend you’re not people-watching.
Must Sees – Art & Cultural Happenings
Musée des Arts Décoratifs — A Day in the Life of an 18th-Century Mansion invites visitors into the ritualized elegance of aristocratic domestic life—furniture, textiles, and objets d’art arranged with cinematic precision. It’s an immersion into the decorative codes that still inform modern couture.
Fondation Cartier— The Living Museum of Fashion curated by Olivier Saillard reframes fashion as breathing heritage—archival silhouettes activated through performance and narrative. It’s intellectual, poetic, and irresistibly French.
Palais Galliera – Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris —WEAVING, EMBROIDERING, EMBELLISHING — The Crafts and Trades of Fashion celebrates the invisible hands behind haute couture. From intricate Lesage embroidery to artisan ateliers, it’s a love letter to the métiers d’art that make fantasy wearable.
In Paris, Fashion Week isn’t simply attended — it’s navigated. Choose well. Xx Brian & Claude
Photos: Steven Kohlstock
