Haute couture represents the apotheosis of fashion. Thousands of hours of work can go into a single item, destined to be worn just once. Couture offers a window into a multi-billion-euro industry.

Stella McCartney, Laurence Airline, Vaillant Studio and Litkovska are four fashion labels founded and run by women. Inspired by a desire to always strive for better, these designers propose solutions to the biggest challenges facing fashion today – everything from overconsumption and textile pollution to convoluted supply chains.

Japanese stylists have been making their mark on the Paris fashion scene since the 1980s, and continue to prove their mastery of the art of merging form and movement. Yohji Yamamoto, Yusuke Takahashi for CFCL, Maiko Kurogouchi and Satoshi Kondo for Issey Miyake – all these designers have a knack for taking the pulse of the planet, and, in turn, proposing new ways of dressing. We went to meet them in this edition of Fashion.

In this edition we meet three up-and-coming fashion designers. Victor Weinsanto studied fashion in Paris before going on to work with Jean-Paul Gaultier. He later went on to found his own exuberant label, this year inviting his drag queen friends to model his latest collection.

It was the fashion event of the season, if not the decade! Fashion journalists, buyers, celebrities and influencers from around the world descended on the French capital to see Paris's oldest bridge, le Pont Neuf, decked out in resplendent gold. The occasion was Pharrell Williams's first ever collection as head of menswear at Louis Vuitton. Another big celebrity draw elsewhere in Paris was the indefatigable Yohji Yamamoto, who's just a few months away from his 80th birthday. FRANCE 24 got a glimpse of the action.