Rosie Scott Blog about Women

For Pigalle, the streetwear label born and raised in the not-fully-gentrified neighborhood that inspired its name, the Beaux-Arts splendor of the Palais Garnier, traditional home of the Paris Opéra, seems a world apart — although, as the fan of the label and fellow Pigalle resident Caroline de Maigret pointed out, they both are technically in the 9th Arrondissement.

But it’s a mark of Pigalle’s progress, in the public eye if not from its original, basketball-inflected styling, that the label commandeered the Palais Garnier for its fall show. “It’s like ‘Les Misérables,’ ” one critic quipped. Not quite, but with a soupçon of revolution all the same.

The gilded location didn’t gloss over the scrappiness of the Pigalle project, and the show, called for 8:30 p.m., started within spitting distance of 9:30. But the crowds that filled the Garnier’s lobby, and those, like the fur-clad rapper ASAP Rocky, one of the label’s influential supporters, who watched from a balcony above, waited without evident displeasure.

When the show at last began, a show is what it was — something between a concert and a musical happening. It opened with a song, ended with a trio harmonizing from above, and had dancers in between. The crowd hooted and clapped as models descended the marble stairs, as the cast was less professional runway denizens than friends and family, including the designer Stéphane Ashpool’s godfather and two guys from the local basketball league he sponsors.

The clothes, and the scope of the show, suggested a continuing evolution from its sporty roots, with what seemed to be more tailored pieces and outerwear than in seasons past. Even so, the styling is still reliably bombastic. When Mr. Ashpool came out for a bow with a shock of dyed-blond hair and matching beard, the point was underscored. A night at the Opéra, maybe, but not yet a polite entertainment.

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