The Curious Case of Cardi B's Couture Week Takeover
Cardi B is everywhere. At least, she's more everywhere than she usually is. Paris Haute Couture Week probably should've been renamed Cardi B Couture Week, as the genial rapper stole the show at basically every runway that mattered during the early July event.
Let's see, did Cardi B take center stage at Schiaparelli? You know it. Thom Browne? Of course. Balenciaga? Duh. Valentino? Naturally. Fendi? Do you really have to ask?
I can't recall the last time a celebrity was this obviously courted this consistently by this many fashion houses at a Fashion Week event, especially couture.
To be fair, Cardi B's appeal is no mystery.
Cardi is innately likeable and wears everything well, be it sweats n' Tabi Boots or feathery couture gowns.
Plus, it ain't so hard to grasp why luxury labels would be falling over each other to dress one of the planet's most famous women.
The real intrigue is the phenomenon of these disparate labels subsequently wining, dining, and dressing Cardi all in a row.
If nothing else, it's a curious case of crossed wires: Cardi B showing up to one couture show might bring some eyeballs to that particular runway but Cardi B showing up to every couture show makes Cardi the star, not the brands that she's wearing.
Call it the Ice Spice effect, if you will.
Not only did Cardi B's omnipresence flatten the spectacle of her consistent appearances down to "Cardi looks amazing again!" but it also reflects an interesting issue of timing.
The act of inviting an A-list celebrity to literally any event is a miracle of scheduling, demanding a intricate dance of coordination and ample wooing, to say the least.
This can have unexpected consequences unseen by spectators.
For instance, on-the-ground scuttlebutt suggested that Cardi was being whisked from hotel to hotel because rival brands had booked her into different stays prior to their shows.
Sounds like a scheduling nightmare (if the rumors are even true, of course).
Either way, the fact remains that Cardi B was so consistently in-demand during Couture Week that she was as much a front row staple as Anna Wintour.
Cardi even met with Hermès' external relations head, Michael Coste, during her whirlwind Parisian excursion to discuss some sort of future project, according to Cardi's Instagram Story.
Remember, Hermès doesn't even show couture! They just wanted to get a piece of Cardi while she was semi-available.
Throughout Couture Week, Cardi B made it obvious why she's so in-demand.
Again, Cardi pulled off every look and remained typically affable, joking with paparazzi and winkingly posing for the sea of fawning admirers that greeted her outside of each couture presentation.
But the question was never "Why Cardi?" The question is, "Why did these brands all individually invite Cardi to their own couture shows?"
The answer could be something as simple as, well, maybe Cardi B just wanted to go to Couture Week and her people got in touch with all the brands.
But does that even really matter? It's all about the journey, not the destination.
Cardi's exquisite outfits and amusing banter are a means to an end. When the who, where, and what are this entertaining, who cares about the why?
