Paris Fashion Years, 2002–2025

Paris Runways: Images from the Sidelines

For more than twenty years, Cologne-based television cameraman and photographer Jürgen Lindemann has observed all the major Haute Couture and Prêt-à-Porter presentations in Paris at close range. With privileged access both in front of and behind the scenes, he has repeatedly captured exceptional footage for German television audiences. Throughout these assignments, his Leica was always close at hand.

With it, Lindemann created photographic impressions almost in passing—in the brief moments between filming—from the glamorous yet largely closed world at the highest level of the Paris fashion scene.

Spanning more than two decades, these photographs offer perspectives rarely seen before. They capture the defining designers of the era, their often-extravagant models, the affluent international clientele arriving from around the world, and the global media circus surrounding the shows.

The images reveal a different side of Paris fashion: iconic designers, eccentric models, and international guests.

Unposed. Intimate. Real.