"Dead malls" have been a common phenomenon in America for a decade Nike Flyknit Womens , thanks largely to the twin forces of the Great Recession and the rise of online shopping, in particular Amazon.Now the concept appears to be migrating across the Atlantic to France, where shopping center vacancies have reached 11.2 percent, according to a new report from UBS Group AG analysts Charles Boissier and Osmaan Malik, as reported by Bloomberg. By 2023, the investment bank forecasts that 20.6 percent of stores in the country's malls will be empty — more than double the vacancy rate the U.S. saw in the third quarter of 2018, when it hit a seven-year high.“This is well on track to reach what was labeled as a bearish forecast in a supposedly strong market,” the analysts said in the note. “This is the start of a downward spiral that can lead to ‘dead malls,’ a concept that was so far used mostly for the U.S. https://www.thetopsneaker.com/nike-air-women , generally foreign to France.”While the U.S. has been reaping the rewards of a strong economy in the past year — and is still losing a record number of stores to bankruptcy and downsizing — France has been roiled by political upheaval at home and economic uncertainty throughout Europe. "Yellow vest" protests — a movement that started in response to a fuel tax but has since come to encompass a range of frustrations about government policies — have disrupted the country's retail sector for months, both for luxury brands along the Champs-Élysées shopping corridor as well as suburban stores and mall owners.French retail association Fédération des Entreprises du Commerce et de la Distribution, or FCD, estimated that the country's retailers lost €2 billion ($2.25 billion) in revenues over the course of the November and December protests alone. Willow Smith, Emma Stone and the rest of the attendees at the Louis Vuitton show last night in Paris might have been forgiven for thinking they had strayed into the Centre Pompidou instead of designated venue, the Louvre. But no. Nicolas Ghesquière had tapped Pompidou architect Renzo Piano for permission to build a mini (ish) replica bank in the middle of the museum’s Cour Carrée.The Pompidou is famous for its primary-colored pipework and the reds, blues, greens and yellows of the fall collection — not least the woven leather ankle boots with their Western-inflected hardware — proved a perfect match.About those boots. They were basically flat. As was the rest of the footwear offering, but unlike Willow Smith and friends gamely wearing their Archlights in the front row Womens Nike Air Max , when it came to the runway, there wasn't a sneaker to be seen. Instead, the shoe offering was all about aforementioned boots, chunky punky androgynous lace-ups.This is what Nicolas Ghesquière had to say about them backstage after the show. “It’s very urban silhouette. I was thinking how much in the past we put women in very high heels thinking that was going to empower them and how every season now we're putting them in flat shoes.”“There’s now no question that the silhouette will not be as strong as if they were wearing high heels. I love heels but they don't always add something to the silhouette.”He equated this change in attitude to opinions on the Centre Pompidou itself. "It's interesting that it was so controversial when it was first built but now it's became so iconic for the Parisian landscape," he mused. "The eyes get used to it and we evolve."Want more?All the Top Shoe News from Paris Fashion WeekLacoste’s Take on Tennis Couture for Fall 2019 Scores HighChanel Favorites Cara Delevingne, Kaia Gerber & Penelope Cruz Bid Adieu to Karl Lagerfeld in the Ultimate Snow Bunny Boots