11-07-2025
Highlights From Paris Couture Week 2025
PARIS, FRANCE - JULY 09: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) A model walks the runway during the Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 09, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by) Getty Images
Paris, we know, is the capital of fashion, but couture is the art form. The Fédérationde la Haute Couture et de la Mode, which co-ordinates Paris Couture Week, ran from July 7 to 10. This summer's runway shows were all about making bold statements, dramatic silhouettes and architectural style. Here's what you missed.
PARIS, FRANCE - JULY 09: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) A model walks the runway during the Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 09, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by) Getty Images
The famed Dutch fashion house, founded in 1993 by Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, is full of imationation and artistry, even to this day. This collection features black garments, man of which looked like puffer coats, except for a few looks, like a pink dress wrapped in what feels like couture fishnets. Extravagant head pieces played a pivotal role in this collection, from faux feathers to round hats. In fact, the feathers in the show were all faux, made by hand. The collection is called 'Angry Birds,' suggesting each silhouette is a type of ruffled bird, but if the bird feathers are faux, are we really that angry? Probably not.
A look from Schiaparelli's latest couture collection, Fall/Winter 2025/26 schiaparelli
This collection is an ode to Elsa Schiaparelli's past, her connection with Surrealist artists like Salvador Dali and Man Ray, and the year 1940, when she left Paris for New York, a pivotal moment in the designer's career. 'The entire show was in fact conceived as a surrealist trompe l'oeil, from the makeup to the fabrics, which include Donegal wool and high-shine satines,' said designer, Daniel Roseberry, in a statement. The collection also features a new piece called 'the Elsa jacket,' which is a sharp-shouldered jacket that references Schiaparelli's archival work. There are several fantasy-inspired pieces in the collection, including Elsa's iconic 'Apollo' cape, which Roseberry has reimagined in layers of metal starbursts, a tulle 'Squiggles and Wiggles' dress, and an 'Eyes Wide Open' embroidered dress with a hand painted iris motif. All in all, this is unapolagetic art.
Maison Margiela Artisanal Fall 2025 Couture runway show in Paris Courtesy of MAison MArgiela
Glenn Martens' debut Artisanal show for Maison Margiela continued the rhythm of John Galliano's Brassai-inspired Spring/Summer 2024 collection, while paying tribute to the couture house's avant-garde legacy. Martens' approach was by far, futuristic, with some looks belonging in the next Dune iteration or yes, even a Smashing Pumpkins music video (the soundtrack included the band's 1994 hit, Disarm, as singer Billy Corgan sat front row). This metallic, gold dress made waves for Martens's outstanding debut, already ascending the collection into iconic status.
PARIS, FRANCE - JULY 09: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) A model walks the runway during the Robert Wun Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 09, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by) Getty Images
Wild. That's noe word to sum up Robert Wun's latest couture collection, from horror-esque bridal looks covered in red fingerprints, to architectural, boxy women's suits. The Hong Kong-born designer, who is based in London, has a wild imagination and we need this on the runway now, more than ever. Each look for this collection feels like a charachter in a science fiction film, and the best looks include a sparkly purple gown, an all-red suiting, black vamp looks and white coats splattered with what looks like paint. This is fashion as art, if I've ever seen it.
A model presents a creation from the haute couture Fall-Winter 2025/2026 collections by French fashion house Chanel during the Paris Haute Couture Week, in Paris, France, on July 8, 2025. (Photo by Gao Jing/Xinhua via Getty Images) Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images Chanel
You can't take Paris out of Chanel, and the French fashion brand went old school for their Fall Winter 2025 collection. Think of the old Chanel; pearls, sepia-toned beige, as if it were a photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson, cream-hued tweed, and gold buttons. This collection was held at the Grand Palais in Paris, a setting inspired by the fashion house's first couture salons, where Gabrielle Chanel created items in white, brown, green and black. It is a return to the classic, but Chanel is infinitely classic, let's face it.
