For the first time in more than a century, Parisians have been allowed to swim in the Seine. Three outdoor bathing areas opened to the public this weekend amid a searing heatwave, though authorities had to temporarily close them in response to a heavy downpour as Paris’s 19th-century sewage system has a habit of overflowing. Nevertheless, residents turned out in force for their opening on Saturday, with many expressing delight at the opportunity to cool off, despite long queues. As the Seine is one of Europe’s busiest waterways, every swimmer had to be tethered to an unsightly inflatable yellow lifebuoy. Le Parisien is already asking whether the rubber-ducky hue of the ugly personal floats will be the colour of the summer.
 
The reopening of the Seine to the public for the first time since the 1920s is a triumph for the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo. She spearheaded the creation of these free-to-access swimming spots, which were promised ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The initiative is part of the Paris Plages project, which was launched in 2002 by the then-mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, who sought to turn once-dull riverbanks into sandy beaches.

Some €1.4bn were spent on cleaning up the Seine, while millions more were lavished on constructing the swimming spots. The vision of a Paris that makes full use of its famous waterway is finally starting to take shape.
 
The move is Hidalgo’s most significant step towards recentring the French capital around its public spaces. It follows her extension of Paris’s cycle lanes and the permanent closure of Rue de Rivoli to most private vehicles. The expansion of her ambition to the Seine’s waters is not only highly symbolic but also smart public policy: this month’s intense heatwave has underlined how unprepared Paris is for extreme weather. The city’s historic buildings, with their lack of air conditioning, are ill-equipped for the summers to come.

A swimmable Seine will go some way towards making future heatwaves easier to endure. But the project will only be successful if its current capacity of 600 swimmers across three sites is increased and the city finds a way to keep people swimming throughout the summer. Hidalgo has been criticised for some of her bolder efforts to remake Paris, which might have scuppered her one-time presidential ambitions. But a swimmable Seine is a big achievement for the capital, which has changed more during her stewardship than under any of her recent predecessors. Dive in and see for yourself: Paris has finally joined the ranks of great cities where it makes sense to keep some swimwear and a towel to hand as you explore. Just make sure that your trunks don’t clash with yellow.
 
Bouvier is Monocle’s Paris bureau chief. For more on city swimming and improving urban waterways, listen to our report from the Swimmable Cities Conference in Rotterdam. 

It’s the season of high-stakes runway debuts, with about a dozen houses presenting new visions under freshly picked creative leads over the next few months (writes Natalie Theodosi). While many CEOs will be on the edge of their front-row seats, waiting to see whether their hiring choices will prove profitable, Celine’s CEO, Séverine Merle, needn’t worry. On Sunday, just ahead of Haute Couture Week in Paris (which officially kicked off on Monday and runs until Thursday), the house’s newly appointed creative director, Michael Rider, offered a compelling case study on the art of the rebrand. 

His first collection was brimming with new ideas but he didn’t try to erase the past, change the brand’s logo or impose radical alterations from day one. Instead, he paid homage to the house’s heritage – his designs nodded to the brand’s founder, Céline Vipiana, and her flair for “couture sportswear”, as well as the signatures of his predecessors Phoebe Philo and Hedi Slimane – and focused on delivering clothing that, as he put it, “becomes part of the wearer’s life”.

The collection featured perfect dress coats, sharp tailoring and an array of playful accessories; before the show, guests received fresh flowers and a paper invitation wrapped in a silk scarf. There were no gimmicks or elaborate sets. Celine allowed the striking architecture of its headquarters on Rue Vivienne to do the talking. The crowd was there to see rather than be seen. Rain started falling minutes before the show but that didn’t dampen the mood – guests kept smiling under the Celine umbrellas. While many big-name brands might have skipped Haute Couture Week, Celine – and Rider – made a splash.

Further reading: How could Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe exit spell change for fashion’s creative directors? Click here for more.

Tokyo’s Marunouchi business district, home to luxury boutiques and shining glass towers, is always buzzing (writes Fiona Wilson). Much of its hum comes from the Marunouchi Honey Project, a beekeeping initiative now celebrating its 10th year. The collective is run by community organisations and property company Mitsubishi Estate in the area around Tokyo Station. It is also overseen by urban-beekeeping trailblazer Ginza Mitsubachi Project, a non-profit organisation that has been nurturing city apiaries for almost 20 years.  

The project fosters a sense of community: volunteers in the area tend to multiple beehives, a shared effort that brings together people who might otherwise never have met. The fruit of their labour – golden Marunouchi honey – is sold in pots and used by nearby restaurants and bakeries. A new apiary in the Otemachi business district is expected to produce up to 700kg of honey from its 10 hives this year. As for the bees, they are lucky enough to have the pollen-rich grounds of the Imperial Palace and Hibiya Park within flying distance. Maintaining a connection with nature can be hard in the middle of the city but happy, productive bees are an encouraging sign of this neighbourhood’s biodiversity.

How else can we improve urban landscaping and biodiversity? Click here to find out.

British photographer Dennis Morris joins Robert Bound in the studio to discuss his extraordinary career and well-loved images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols.