“Overconsumption = extinction”, read a banner brandished by one demonstrator from the international civil-disobedience movement against climate change.

She climbed onto the catwalk set up in the Louvre art gallery even as models were showing off the latest styles, before being wrestled down and hustled away by security guards, an AFP photographer saw.

In the front row, French cinema stars Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert hardly flinched, while some members of the Arnault clan, seated next to Louis Vuitton chief executive officer and chairman Bernard Arnault, glanced at each other.

The disruption hardly interrupted the flow of models who charged down the cobblestoned runway to dramatic organ music punctuated with bell tolls.

The show itself had a punk flavor, with sleeves ripped off suit jackets, leaving arms bare, and accessories including studded boots and chainmail headpiece.

Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth and Youth For Climate said in a statement that around 30 people were involved in planning the protest. Two were arrested.

They called on the government to enforce “an immediate cut in production levels in the sector, given that 42 items of clothing were sold per person in France in 2019”.

Louis Vuitton did not immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.