Highlight Reel: 7 Head-Turning Couture Shows from Paris Fashion Week SS22

Collection inspiration span from Count Dracula to outer space.

Paris’ couture fashion week just wrapped up, and its lineup had more physical shows since the pandemic began. 

READ ALSO: Time Is A Circle: Nigo’s First Show At Kenzo Brings The ‘Big Look’ To 2022

Because of this, the houses that took a hiatus are back, conveying big ideas with intricate execution. From Valentino taking representation to fashion’s couture category to Chanel opening their show with a horse (fueling the controversy they’re trying to be Hermes), we’ve listed seven of the highlights out of the 37 showcased. 

Jean Paul Gaultier

Diesel’s Glenn Martens is the latest designer to Jean Paul Gaultier. Given the French House’s “pop-up designer” set-up, different names are appointed each season to create its collection—with their expansive archive and ateliers to utilize.

Martens used his haute couture debut to break from mass-produced pieces his permanent post entails. “Sometimes I miss beauty, and just beautiful clothes — maybe that’s what we do with couture, create things that are not needed, just gorgeous things,” he tells i-d.

Elie Saab

Known for intricate gowns that celebrities regularly don in red carpets, Elie Saab is no stranger to couture fashion week. However, due to COVID and his atelier being damaged from Beirut’s devastating 2020 explosion, the Lebanese couturier is back after a two year hiatus.

This season, he births a collection bursting with color, liveliness, and boldness—things he believes people are craving for after a period of darkness.  

Viktor & Rolf

Titled  “Surreal Shoulder,” Viktor & Rolf showcased one of this season’s highly talked about collections—it was all over Instagram last week. Inspired by Dracula, designer Rolf Snorean explained it’s due to the character’s symbolism of society’s “fear of change.”

Valentino

Although an increasing amount of RTW runway shows are casting models outside stick-thin and caucaitan beauty ideals, haute couture has been slower to catch on. After all, its goal isn’t so much to sell, but more on flaunting the high-dressmaking these ateliers are capable of—perhaps representation gets lost in the process.

But this season, to start making inclusivity a norm (and not merely a trend), Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli enlisted curvier, older, and more racially diverse models.

“We got to create new silhouettes,” Piccioli told Vogue. “In runway shows, sometimes there are 50 skinny models and one bigger-sized. I feel like you don’t really relate to that. You don’t believe that. You just tick the box,” Piccioli said.

Dior

The collection is a collaboration between creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, Indian artists Madhvi and Manu Parkeh, Chanakya Atelier, and the Chanakya School of Craft. Through the partnerships, Dior aims to reaffirm “the magical and scientific language” of haute couture by bringing the artist’s work to life in pieces constructed from embroidery to tailoring.

Chanel

For the summer collection, Chanel kept it fresh with plenty of embroidery, feathers, fringe and a nod to sports. “I like the classic Chanel,”  artistic director Virginie Viard told Vogue, “and I like sport and it’s funny to think that the Chanel tailleur is something you can wear for playing golf, or riding a horse.”

As a result, the show opened with Monaco’s Princess Charlotte riding a Spanish Bat horse. It proves Viard’s point—you can (literally) wear high fashion on a high horse.

Schiaparelli

The collection is a collaboration between creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, Indian artists Madhvi and Manu Parkeh, Chanakya Atelier, and the Chanakya School of Craft. Through the partnerships, Dior aims to reaffirm “the magical and scientific language” of haute couture by bringing the artist’s work to life in pieces constructed from embroidery to tailoring.

Banner photo from @Schiaparelli on Instagram.

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