“Oh my God. Don’t look at me!” pleaded Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams, who admitted he was “pouring” with sweat while sitting front row at today’s Balenciaga couture show. After arriving in a slouchy, chocolate brown double-breasted suit, the actor quickly stripped off once he’d found his seat, watching the show in a simple black tank top instead of his runway look. 

“Save his Canadian ass from the heat!” commented one Instagram user, with another writing: “idk whether to feel sorry for Hudson or thank the sun for allowing us to see his arms.” For context, the temperature in Paris is currently 30 degrees, which, although a full 10 degrees cooler than last week’s menswear shows, still feels pretty toasty when you’re waiting for a fashion show to start in direct sunlight. 

Today marks day three of the AW26 couture season, and shows kicked off this morning with Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut Balenciaga haute couture collection. Hosted outside the city’s grand Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, other sweltering guests included Lily Collins (dressed as Audrey Hepburn, a nod to her role in an upcoming film about the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's), Teyana Taylor and her knee-length copper hair, Cynthia Erivo, Shailene Woodley and Thai actor PP Krit. 

While guests removed layers and fanned themselves from the front row, the models were also feeling the heat. Being an autumn-winter collection, models – including Anok Yai, Gigi Hadid and Alva Claire – were all layered up. Yai opened the show in a cumbersome, red loveheart jacket, while Hadid was completely cocooned by a black, feathered, egg-shaped shawl. 

Some models had to deal with the extra insulation of furry, feathered trousers. Like beautiful werewolves mid-transformation, furry calves swished beneath trench coats. One yeti-look jacket was covered entirely by thousands of fluffy beige feathers. There were Balenciaga staples: reinterpretations of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s sack dress, a heavy helping of black looks (the founder’s favourite colour), as well as his famous barrel and balloon shapes. The unexpected accessory of the season? Beads of sweat, as modelled by Hudson Williams.