Bitch, I’m in the 212. I always get put in that room. Should I start more public feuds? I must admit, some people have riling me up online a little recently.
The sole aim of Clean Bandit boarding the Eurostar was to record vocals for our new record. But little did we know Paris Fashion Week 2026 was about to pluck us out of the studio and inspire us in a whole new way. We are collaborating on a song with an incredible artist here about her experience of growing up in a cult, which more broadly tells the story of the abuse of power and oppression. But then we got plucked into the opulent petit palace.
This was for Gabriela Hearst’s AW26 show, and it was a feast for the eyes even before the clothes.
Getting ready, we discovered, was surprisingly similar to a concert. It involves a lot of standing around and trying not to move your face. Being a sleepy one, I actually prefer to be horizontal while having my make-up done. The make-up artist Elaine Lynskey (pictured below) did that for me once, when we were up at 4am for morning TV: I’d say my life peaked there. We met when we were about 12 in north London and she began doing my makeup when our song ‘Rather Be’ came out. I was gonna attempt doing my own makeup for our front row experience but I was advised against it and I was lucky to catch Elaine in Paris after she did runway make-up at the John Paul Gaultier show.
This bag and the sunshine itself really lifted the mood of my outfit since everything else was entirely black. Usually I attend fashion week alone but it’s nice of monsieur songwriter producer extraordinaire Jack Patterson to grace the front row today in green corduroy.
After the show I snuck up on him pretending to read.
Jack: Actually reading is my saviour. I’m obsessed with this book. It’s a historical drama about a man in the 12th century building a monastery, sorry, building a cathedral, but it’s full of extreme medieval sex scenes and crazy villains.
Jack: Today I just used the hand lotion in the hotel to style my hair. I kind of feel like all creams and shampoos are kind of the same thing. My nan would use fairy liquid instead of shower gel because she always told me that it’s all just the same. and look how sick my hair looks. I think she was right.
We then entered the market of dreams. How can we get this pioneer jukebox back home on the Eurostar?
Jack was influenced by a Serge Gainsbourg advert for smoking and decided to take it up tonight at Gabriela Hearst’s party. We really love old tvs and stay nearby this market every time so we can check them out and we give a few autographs here:
It’s surreal being inside fashion week and then seeing what we looked like on Getty half an hour later. We looked quite legit, even though now we are sat on the pavement eating a croissant considering the next move for Clean Bandit. Which in this case was: explore Paris and film something for the new song. Then hit the party.
Our hotel rooms looked like a Scandinavian design catalogue. Perfect lighting, beige curtains, extremely crisp sheets. We always stay here ‘cause it’s near that Antiques market. Jack lay on his bed pretending to read again, but I think he was chatting to Chat Gpt about 3D printing.
Meanwhile I was reflecting on the beautiful double coats and hair inspo in Gabriela’s show, which I feel I could potentially achieve in the coming days. The clothes in the show were so so good, I feel it was her best show to date.
Lastly we hit the afterparty which was in a hotel suite (my favourite). To get there we were escorted into this ornate, wooden, gorgeous (but slowest) elevator in the world.
Then we danced like crazy. We made these two new friends and decided that of our whole experience in Paris fashion week, the conversations with them uplifted us the most. We connected deeply on Russian poetry and tennis, and we were delighted by Max’s impressive rare knowledge of our early (and proudest?) YouTube work “Telephone Banking”, which was one of the first music videos we made.
We ate at our favourite spot near our hotel, La Petite Marguerite. Content.
Fin.