so much for bonjour paris

Stranded in Milan: Air France Strike Throws a Wrench Into PFW

Photo: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images

The French love a grève, and Air France’s strike, which started on Monday, is one for the ages, with half the airline’s flights canceled and tens of thousands facing botched travel plans. As Milan Fashion Week winds down, the fashion set is en route to Paris, and many of them have had to change their plans at the last minute. Marie Claire EIC Anne Fulenwider said her team “was up in the middle of the night scouring the web for alternative flights. Certainly the whole snafu was the talk of the Marni show today–a few people were even talking about taking the train.”

“Au Revoir, Air France, Bonjour, Lufthansa!” said designer and street-style favorite Michelle Elie. Bryan Boy was forewarned: “Eva Chen told me about the Air France situation before the Missoni show. At this point, she’s my personal air psychic guru,” he said. He smartly rebooked on Alitalia instead. “Who wants to get stuck in Milan? Definitely not moi! I ended up with Tom Pecheux, Pierre Rougier, Barneys’ Mark Lee, KCD’s Ed Filipowski, and Michel Gaubert on my flight. You should’ve seen the lewks and the gasps on the faces of Mark and Ed when I stacked all my oversize baggage on the cart!”

Others are taking advantage of their status as hostages of Milan. T magazine tweeted, “With Air France pilots on strike, T’s fashion editors are stranded in Milan (eating gelato, visiting Marni’s flower market). Worse things …” That’s the spirit! Marie Claire’s Kyle Anderson said he planned to spend his extra day “re-seeing more spring collections and eating 3 more club sandwiches,” while Street Peeper’s Phil Oh was making the best of the situation. “I actually don’t mind being stuck in Milan an extra day.  I’m trying to see who’s around and wants to take me out to dinner on their expense account!” he joked.

If Plan A (rebooking) and Plan B (enjoying your forced Milan vacation) don’t work, you can also kick it old-school and ride the rails. Said Bryan Boy, “My best advice for all the fashion bitches who don’t wanna be stranded in Milan — take the overnight 11:30 p.m. train from Milan to Paris and get a sleeper cabin! It’s major! You get to Paris around 6:30 or 7 a.m. and it’s fabulous!” Looks like at least one person — model Caroline Winberg — is taking his advice.

Air France Strike Throws a Wrench Into PFW