Search "sample sale Paris Fashion Week" and you picture discounted showrooms running alongside the shows. Two surprises, one piece of good news. The surprises: a French "vente presse" is almost never press-only, and the sales do not happen during Fashion Week (28 September – 6 October 2026) — they come before it. The good news: the September wave is already rolling, and getting in is easier than it sounds.
The pattern repeats year after year. In September 2025, physical sales stacked up before the shows opened: Joseph on the 9th–10th, Maison Kitsuné on the 12th–13th, Balenciaga from the 12th to the 16th, Claudie Pierlot on the 20th, Maje from the 25th to the 27th. October, by contrast, stayed nearly empty for physical sales.
2026 is tracking the same way. The calendar at Arlettie, the city's dominant sample-sale organizer, lists Claudie Pierlot from 9 September, Soeur from the 17th, Maje from the 23rd — all at Trocadéro — then stops dead on 27 September, the day before the shows open. As we write (22 August), nothing is listed between 28 September and late October. Brand sales are typically announced one to three weeks out: watch the calendars in mid-September, not during the week itself.
During the week itself, the venues that usually host these sales are working for the fashion houses: Galerie Joseph in the Marais rents its spaces for showrooms and press days, and the SPHERE showroom for emerging designers takes over the Palais de Tokyo from 30 September to 6 October.
Originally, a destocking sale reserved for fashion journalists and professionals, held in premises rented for the occasion. Today the label is widely borrowed: many a "vente presse" is an ordinary sale with free online registration. The vocabulary that matters: vente privée (open registration, email for a QR code), braderie (a deliberately open, popular format, Jacquemus-style), vente d'archives (prototypes and runway pieces) and vide-dressing (second-hand racks, Violette Sauvage-style).
At Arlettie, entry runs on email: register, receive an invitation per sale, show the QR code at the door. Members (the card costs 60 EUR/year) go first — access up to 24 hours before guests, plus in-store exchanges — and free-invitation entry usually opens from the Friday of a Thursday-to-Saturday sale. Sales run by the brands themselves increasingly use booked time slots with personal, single-use QR codes. At The Bradery's physical sales, entry is free but prior registration is mandatory.
Espace Commines (17 rue Commines, 3rd), Galerie Joseph (flagship at 116 rue de Turenne, 3rd), Bastille Design Center (74 boulevard Richard-Lenoir, 11th), Kiss&Fly (22 rue de la Roquette, 11th), Arlettie Trocadéro (17 avenue Raymond Poincaré, 16th) and Arlettie Marais (13 rue Jean Beausire, 4th). One directory trap: Espace Beaurepaire (10th), long a fixture on sale calendars, is permanently closed — some listings still show opening hours.
- Payment: varies per sale — some are cash only, others take cards and cheques. Carry cash as a backup.
- Returns: as a rule, all sales are final (in-store exchanges are an Arlettie member perk, not a norm).
- Discounts: typically 50–80%; at Hermès more like 40–50%, with no further markdowns.
- Sizes: the stock is samples and end-of-season runs — common sizes go fast and size runs are incomplete. Come on day one for your size.
- Queues: two-hour waits are normal. At the Hermès sale at the Palais des Congrès, regulars arrive around 5am for a 9am opening — for scarves and ties, almost never bags.
The most current calendar is kept by Les bons plans de Naïma (with registration links per sale), backed by Chloé Fashion Lifestyle, Fifi les bons tuyaux and the Instagram account @ventes_presse_paris. Sign up for the newsletters in mid-September: that is where the invitations land.
For the rest of the week, see our Fashion Week guide, the fashion exhibitions worth your time and 10 free things during the week.
