For nine days from September 28, Paris front rows will produce thousands of celebrity images, and most people who repost them won't own them. The photographer holds the copyright, and brands using a star's image also run into publicity rights. Embed, license or shoot your own, and prepare each image properly for the platform it's going to.
- ✓Paris Fashion Week SS27 runs September 28 to October 6: 68 shows and 33 presentations, opening with Julie Kegels
- ✓Copyright in a photo belongs to the photographer, not to the celebrity in it or the brand they're wearing
- ✓Celebrities have been sued for reposting paparazzi photos of themselves; brands face an extra risk from using a famous face to sell
- ✓Embedding the original post, licensing from the agency, or shooting your own photos are the three safe routes
Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 runs from September 28 to October 6: 68 shows and 33 presentations, opening with Julie Kegels on Monday afternoon. The biggest days are clustered in the middle. The Row, Balmain, Dries Van Noten, Stella McCartney and Tom Ford show on September 30. Chloé, Balenciaga, Rick Owens and Schiaparelli follow on October 1, then Loewe, Givenchy and Victoria Beckham on October 2. Drew Henry's Courrèges debut and Kai Nesselrath's first Carven collection add two closely watched debuts, and Valentino and Maison Margiela are back on the calendar.
That lineup means front rows full of famous faces, and a week of celebrity photos moving across every feed. It also produces the same mistake every season: fan accounts, fashion pages and brands reposting images they don't own.
The Photographer Owns the Photo. Not the Star, Not the Brand
Copyright belongs to whoever took the picture. When a celebrity is photographed arriving at Balenciaga, the copyright sits with the photographer or the agency they work for, not with the celebrity and not with Balenciaga.
That surprises people, and it has surprised celebrities too. Over the past several years, a series of well-known stars have been sued by photographers or agencies for posting paparazzi shots of themselves on their own Instagram accounts. Being the subject of a photo doesn't give you the right to publish it.
For fashion week, that means the image of your favourite actor in a front-row seat, pulled from a news site and re-uploaded to your page, is someone else's licensed work.
Brands Have Two Problems, Not One
A label posting a celebrity wearing its clothes has the same copyright issue as a fan account, plus a second one. Using a famous person's image to promote a product can trigger right-of-publicity claims, which protect people from having their likeness used commercially without consent. A photo of a star in your jacket, posted by your brand account, reads as an endorsement.
The labels that handle this well get it settled before the show. Celebrities who attend as the house's guests are usually there under an arrangement that covers the house's own photographer. Anyone else in the house's clothes, photographed by someone else, isn't covered.
Three Safe Ways to Share Front-Row Photos
- Share or embed the original. On Instagram, share the original post to your Story instead of downloading and re-uploading it. On a website, use the platform's embed code. The photo stays under the original poster's control and credit, which is how the platforms intend content to be shared.
- License it. Agencies sell editorial licences for fashion week images, often within minutes of the photo being taken. Editorial licences cover news and commentary. Advertising use needs a different licence and usually a model release too.
- Shoot your own. If you're there, as a guest, a street-style photographer or a creator outside the venue, your photos are yours. Editorial use, like documenting who wore what, is generally fine. Commercial use of a recognizable celebrity still needs their consent.
A caption credit on its own doesn't fix any of this. "Photo: via Instagram" or "credit to the owner" doesn't grant rights, whatever it's meant to signal.
Street Style Is Yours, but the Faces Aren't Free
Street-style photography outside Paris venues is a tradition, and photographing people in public is generally lawful. But France is an unusually strict place to do it. French law recognizes a strong right to one's own image (droit à l'image), and publishing a photo in which a private individual is the clear subject can require their consent even when it was taken on a public street.
In practice, street-style photographers in Paris handle this the way the good ones always have:
- Ask. Most people dressed for fashion week are delighted to be photographed. A quick "can I take your photo?" gets consent and usually a better pose.
- Offer the photo. Taking their Instagram handle and sending the shot builds goodwill, and tagging them is a clear record that they were happy to be featured.
- Be careful with bystanders. A crowd shot where nobody is singled out is different from a tight portrait of a stranger. If a non-celebrity is the subject and you didn't ask, think twice before publishing, and never use it commercially.
Celebrities arriving at shows are a different case. As public figures at a public event their photos are routinely published for news. Commercial use still needs consent, just as it does in the US.
Preparing Your Own Fashion Week Photos
If you are shooting outside the shows this week, street style, arrivals or your own look, the images need to be ready before the moment passes. Fashion week content has a shelf life of hours.
- Crop for 4:5 without cutting the outfit. Fashion images live or die on the full look. A 1080x1350 crop should keep head to shoes. If the shot is too wide for that, go to 9:16 for Stories instead of cutting off feet.
- Watermark before posting, lightly. Your photos will be reposted within the hour whatever you do. A small, low-opacity watermark in a corner keeps your name attached when that happens, and makes accounts that crop it out look worse. Don't cover the clothes.
- Keep the color honest. Fashion audiences notice when a camel coat turns orange. Skip heavy filters on anything showing a garment's real color.
- Compress for mobile upload. Venue Wi-Fi at a show is usually overloaded. A 1080x1350 JPEG at 300 to 400 KB uploads on a weak connection where a 6 MB original stalls. Compress before you try.
- Send clients a gallery, not attachments. If you're shooting for a brand, a stylist or a talent team, a same-day gallery link with every look is faster for them than WeTransfer threads, and it's clear exactly what they've been given to use.
The Short Version
Enjoy the front-row photos this week and share them the way the platforms intend: repost from the original or embed it. If you're a brand, license the image and get consent before a celebrity's face sells your product. If you're shooting yourself, you own your work, so watermark it lightly, keep the colors true and get it out fast.
Related reading:
- NYFW Spring 2026 Fashion Photography Workflow Guide: the New York leg of fashion month
- Venice Film Festival 2026 Red Carpet Photo Guide: red carpet image turnaround
- Instagram's 2026 Repost Crackdown and Original Content: how Instagram treats re-uploaded images
Frequently asked questions
When is Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027?
The women's ready-to-wear calendar runs from September 28 to October 6, 2026, with 68 shows and 33 presentations. Julie Kegels opens the week on September 28, and Drew Henry's Courrèges debut is on September 30.
Can I repost a celebrity's front-row photo on Instagram?
Not safely by downloading and re-uploading it. The copyright belongs to the photographer. Sharing it to your Story from the original post or embedding the post on a website keeps the original credit and is how the platform intends content to be shared.
Can a brand post a photo of a celebrity wearing its clothes?
Only with the right licence and, for anything that looks like an endorsement, the celebrity's consent. The brand needs rights to the photo from the photographer or agency, and using a famous face to promote products raises separate right-of-publicity issues.
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