The time of the year when luxury and avant-garde take over the fashion scene is none other than Haute Couture Week. Following men’s fashion, the city of lights continues booming as designers storm the city. The top houses of the world take over with unparalleled creativity and dramatic savoir-faire. The record-breaking heat swarming Paris is not the only thing heating things up, as ateliers bring in unparalleled mastery this season.
With designers revealing their much-anticipated fall couture collections, eyes stop to take in the unimaginable. As houses roll out their pièce de résistance, intricate designs, covered in hand-embellished details, reflect hours of labor and dedication. Of course, all eyes fall onto renowned avant-garde house Schiaparelli, as the atelier’s legacy of haute couture never ceases to amaze. Other anticipated collections come from the ateliers of Elie Saab, Robert Wun, Chanel, and Iris Van Herpen.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli, under Creative Director Daniel Roseberry, continues to uphold the legacy of Schiaparelli’s heritage. The atelier has always been a haute couture house and continues to be the leading couture house. It has never followed any expectations as it defines its own idea of fashion. For this season, Roseberry explores the notions of the past and the present. The collection becomes an homage to the old, while exploring its connection to the new.
The collection takes us back to the 1940s interwar period, in which founder Elsa Schiaparelli stretched the boundaries of fashion. A time when fashion became a contemplation of art and possibilities in her mind. With that, Roseberry took archival pieces and reinverted them with a touch of futurism. As a result, a collection blending timeless techniques with modern silhouettes to question our understandings.
While mending the past and present, Roseberry creates a new world of raw creativity and mastery. A world that bears no limit by the markings of modernity as it centers revolutionary and timeless elements. Free of screens and technology, as it escapes AI to imagine a reinvented old world.
“Back To The Future”
Held in the Petit Palais in Paris, the collection pulls from black and white photographs of archival looks, as an almost grayscale collection makes its way down the runway. While the show honors the brand’s past, a key code missing from this season is the house’s corseted silhouettes. However, with the revival of many house silhouettes, one code missing does not leave the collection incomplete. In place of corsets, constructed bustiers that define the waist and hips sit delicately on the body. The collection saw a parade of Donegal wool and high-shine satins that lay dramatically across the body.
The collection saw many references to Elsa Schiaparelli’s legacy as reinterpretations of the “Apollo of Versailles” cape from 1938 saunter down the runway. The cape becomes a billowing spray of diamanté bijoux in three layers of metal starbursts. Each is galvanized in varying shades of black, gunmetal, and satin silver. Soon enough, a sleeveless, flowing satin bias-cut dress saunters in. Moreover, a corset top enhances the bodice as transparent tulle panels embroidered with horn-shaped elements dangle from the sides. A sumptuous silver rhinestone jewelled thong peaks from the back, heightening the sultry look.
Eyes drop as the “Eyes Wide Open” bustier column dress makes a dramatic entrance. The gown is entirely embroidered with open eyes featuring hand-painted cabochon irises as layers of grey tulle cascade from the back, framing the piece. Soon enough, the pièce de résistance captivates onlookers as a long red satin trompe l’oeil dress with backwards molded breasts takes the scene. A human heart necklace adorned in red rhinestones with mechanical pulsations beats with every step. The design references Salvador Dali’s The Royal Heart, a bejeweled sculpture of gold, rubies, diamonds, and pearls that features a hidden motor making it beat as a living heart.
Iris van Herpen – Paris Haute Couture Week
The rhythm of the organic mending with modern technology defines Iris van Herpen’s brand. The house is known for fusing technology with classic theatrical haute couture savoir-faire, and this year’s couture collection goes beyond the imaginable. As a reflection of our lives and the world we live in, Iris van Herpen explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and the ocean. In doing so, she turns the expansive, life-bearing force of the ocean into a gateway, transforming it into clothing.
Translucently layered textures, liquidised forms, and silhouettes reflect the movements and depth of the “biospheric consciousness” of the ocean. As the movements of the ocean sway and build, Iris van Herpen looks to Loie Fuller to fully embody the spectrum of form and movement. The collection’s ultimate collaboration is nature itself, as biodesign allows us to rethink and reflect on how we use materials.
The show opens with a performance in a collaboration with light artist Nick Verstand, as a voluminous phantom silhouette captivates the crowd. The fabric flows through the air with each movement, reflecting the light as it dances across. Moreover, the opening is an emotionally charged performance that reflects how we have drained the life out of the ocean, calling for its protection.
“SYMPOIESIS”
Iris van Herpen draws from collaborating with bio-designer Chris Bellamy, as the thread is inhabited by 125 million bioluminescent algae. As designs move and flow, each movement emits a light response as the algae shines through. The algae were moulded into a protective membrane with conditions to mimic natural marine homes. The care and relationship between the algae and the garment requires a symbiotic relationship, resulting in a cultivated design.
The dark runway becomes flocked as skeletal structures shiver and flex with spindled arms, adding depth to the light fabrics. Air fabrics flow as if they are weightless, flying, tethered by invisible wires as they ripple in the air, reflecting underwater currents. Van Herpen also introduces biofabricated textiles this season as designs mimic marine textures such as cephalopod suckers and rippled waves.
Van Herpen defies structural sense as stiff spiral gowns appear to lift from the body, dancing in the air. Dresses float down the runway in fluid, graceful movements, responding to the atmosphere encompassing them. Each piece behaves as a living membrane, full of life as it lives symbiotically with the body.
Elie Saab
As the weather continues to breathe life throughout the city, a refreshing breeze blows through as Elie Saab’s collection effortlessly captures everyone’s daze. When it comes to designing, Elie Saab knows how to design for women. Designs for women that speak of more than just elegance and grace, but the romantic, audacious, and unapologetically feminine woman. A woman who exudes elegance and headstrong determination with attitude and vivacity.
At a salon privé in Paris, the coterie’s flock together, settling into a dimly lit showroom, as soft beams of light gleam down. Just as the scene, elegant and lustrous, the show captures the opulent woman, bold and sensual. The show, titled “LA NOUVELLE COUR,” meaning “The New Court,” is intended for the modern queen. The queen who plays by her own rules, as she is unapologetically female.
Whispers of slow and sensual seduction linger amongst every fabric and each detail as they ostentatiously move down the runway. With each look, a woman’s realm is curated; a realm where pleasure, power, and playfulness rule. A collection of timeless grace and feminine expression of power, love, and grace, as the Elie Saab woman contains no doubts.
“LA NOUVELLE COUR”
Glamour becomes reimagined as sculptural silhouettes capture a woman’s essence, while ethereal detailing captures the youthful beauty. Billowing gowns consist of voluminous skirts with layers of silk gazar and padding at the hips. Capes rest delicately on shoulders as silk arm shugs billow, framing the slim sleeves as they dramatically lay over the wrists.
New this season is the introduction of floral appliques, as oversized blossoms bloom atop architectural garments. Of course, leaning into his signature codes, dramatic and soft velvet dresses emphasize the delicateness and grace of the Elie Saab woman.
Saab is no stranger to embroidered details, and this season, his mastery shines once more as beaded designs of bows and gossamer camellias glisten under the soft lighting. Lying still across nude chiffon, beads and delicate thread shine above, captivating the eye. Crystalline and metallic detailing lay atop delicate bodices where they bloom as trails of vines graze across sleeves.
The room settles as the pièce de résistance contrasts with the previous evening’s wear gowns as a dramatic bridal gown enters the runway. A pearl-toned overskirt bleeds a new color into the palette, adding a soft elegance, framing the bride. Moonlit florals dance across the bodice and skirt, moving down the overskirt that hangs lightly across the waist. A delicate floral veil romantically lies atop the head, topping off the ethereal design. Each gown remains regal yet effortless, refined yet dynamic, as the collection summons a delicate yet spirited sense.
Robert Wun – Paris Haute Couture Week
When haute couture meets ethereal artistry and liberating ingenuity, the product is none other than Robert Wun. Robert Wun is a Hong Kong-born designer known for his structural and strikingly avant-garde designs. In 2023, his mastery hit the scene during his first Haute Couture collection in Paris, as “The Rain” design captivated everyone’s minds. The design itself was a silk mix jacquard and embossed taffeta raincoat hand-beaded in 30,000 clear Swarovski crystals.
Notably, last season, he explored the passage of time, diving into the progressive stripping of both the physical and spiritual. In a powerful quartet, Wun reimagines the human form in all its layers, from the skin and the flesh to the bones, ending in the ultimate rendition of the soul. A deep blood red sheath, covered in bugle beads, points out to reveal the flesh stripped in a natural form. Following is a black jumpsuit hiding behind a half-skeleton mannequin that dangles delicately. In the last rendition, the soul appears as a veiled, layered tulle gown, embroidered with thousands of multicolored crystals that catch the light ever so delicately with every step.
This season, at the Théâtre de Châtelet, continues to defy any expectation imaginable with his latest collection, “Becoming.” The collection tells a story of transformation, becoming someone one desires to be. In doing so, he takes the audience on a journey through a strange day through the ritual of dressing.
“Becoming”
The day begins hazy, memories of the previous night blur in the mind as a sleepy figure appears. A white satin quilt, reimagining a bed sheet, transforms into a dress. Dazzling embroidered red crystals stamp the design in bloody handprints. Across the mouth sits a mesh veil, embroidered with red crystals as if blood dripping from the mouth.
Sharp tailing, powerful collars, sleek jackets, and ties blown up to obscure proportions take over the stage as they challenge traditional norms. Applied on corseted bodices, or subvertingly on the front or back, rendering them obsolete to their intended use. Moreover, additional mannequin arms protrude beneath garments or rest on shoulders as boleros. Arms extend out as the desirable side of us reaches to come to fruition.
At one moment, a lustrous violet dress adorned with thousands of Swarovski crystals enters. The crowd silences as it floats across the stage, exuding sensuality and sophistication. Extended arms delicately rest on the shoulders, holding a sheer crystal-covered veil slightly above the head. Concluding the show, a bride saunters down the stage, a billowing skirt of layered blush tulle accentuates against the molded bustier as a train follows loosely behind. Against the hip, indents of imprints of defensive hands lie on the hips as a mannequin lies over the head, supporting the sheer veil.
As Paris Haute Couture Week draws to a close, the echoes of innovation and artistry continue to linger. Serving as a reminder of the city’s unparalleled role in shaping the fashion landscape. As the runways bid adieu, the anticipation for the next season slowly begins to grow, leaving us eager for the next chapter in fashion.
