How Paris Couture Week 2025 embraced inclusivity

Khaleej Times

6 days ago

In the aftermath of recent fashion missteps — most notably Prada's Spring/Summer 2026 presentation, which faced widespread criticism for its uncredited appropriation of traditional Kolhapuri sandals — and in the shadow of mounting global economic tensions aggravated by the fashion tariff wars, Paris Haute Couture Week returned this July under a cloud of heightened scrutiny. The question facing the industry was clear: would couture, the most elevated form of garment-making in the world, remain cloistered in its familiar sanctuaries of French and Italian elitism, or would it begin to expand its frame to accommodate the new, the regional, and the previously peripheral?
The answer, while subtle, was unmistakable. This season's collections did not storm the gates of tradition with grand proclamations or flashy stunts; rather, they arrived with quiet confidence, the sort that comes not from spectacle but from clarity of vision. Among the legacy maisons — Dior with its Grecian silhouettes and feminist undertones, Schiaparelli with its surrealist motifs, and Chanel with its predictably polished restraint — it was the presence of regional designers from the Middle East and South Asia that lent the week a sense of momentum and emotional gravity.
Marking what many have called a historic debut, Syrian-born, Dubai-based designer Rami Al Ali presented on the official Fédération de la Haute Couture calendar for the very first time, a recognition long overdue given his two-decade-long contribution to couture from the region. His Fall/Winter 2025 collection, showcased in an understated Parisian salon near Place Vendôme, was a tribute not only to refined construction and considered embellishment, but also to the architectural elegance of the Arab world — as former editor-in-chief of Madame Arabia Jessica Michault says: 'Perhaps this is because Syria is finally seeing the light after a long-wished regime change, or maybe it's just a designer creating from a place of contentment after finally getting the recognition he deserves from his peers.'
Gowns flowed with mathematical pleating and hand-embroidered bodices that called to mind the geometry of Islamic tilework, rendered in a palette of deep navy, desert rose, and alabaster. The standout piece — a midnight blue gown crowned with a sculptural cape — was as much a testament to technical mastery as it was a gesture of regional pride.
From Riyadh, Mohammed Ashi of Ashi Studio offered a body of work that continued his signature sculptural language, this time deepening it with a sense of serene monumentality. His collection, predominantly in hues of ivory and bone, presented gowns that appeared almost as if carved from alabaster, with austere silhouettes that revealed their complexity only upon closer inspection. Drawing inspiration from artists like Louise Bourgeois — whose fabric works echo mended, distressed bodies — Ashi's collection wove in layers of story: a conversation around skin, transparency, and emotional depth, positioned between exoticism and classicism, like a modern cabinet of curiosities.
In a more traditionally romantic vein, Lebanon's enduring couture voices, Georges Hobeika and Zuhair Murad, returned with collections that felt less like red-carpet fare and more like cultural introspections. Hobeika's use of blush-toned tulle and layered organza, embellished with crystalised cable embroidery, echoed the folklore of Levantine femininity, while Murad's gowns, in shades of Tyrian purple and soft jade, retained their trademark glamour but were elevated by a restraint in silhouette and precision in surface detailing. One could not help but admire a Murad creation that featured a sheer corseted bodice paired with a waterfall of metallic-threaded silk — a piece that balanced opulence with an air of mythology.
Quietly powerful
Rahul Mishra, who has consistently carved a niche for his narrative-led couture, turned to Sufism for inspiration this season. His garments, woven with hand-embroidered medallions and nature motifs, unfolded like meditative chants — quietly powerful and rich in subtext. One robe-like dress, composed of hundreds of hours of handwork and bearing the gentle shimmer of moonlight grey, embodied this spirit with haunting beauty.
Feedback from industry insiders was notably encouraging. Natalie Kingham, former fashion and buying director at MatchesFashion, commented on social media that this season, 'Rami's debut was an affirmation that haute couture can embrace geographies beyond Paris and Milan without compromise.' Meanwhile, fashion influencers attending from London, noted in a Threads post that 'it was the quieter presentations — Rahul Mishra and Schipparelli's, in particular — that held the room in a way that no gimmick could'.
As Paris Couture Week 2025 drew to a close, it wasn't rupture or reinvention that defined the mood, but something far more enduring: relevance redefined. The week didn't rewrite the couture rulebook, but it did expand the margins, allowing new voices to shape the narrative without asking for permission. If Paris has long been the cathedral of couture, then this season proved the echo now travels well beyond its gilded halls. From Beirut and Mumbai to Riyadh and Delhi, the rhythm of haute couture feels fuller, deeper, and — at last — collectively authored.