From designer debuts to celebrity sightings, here’s what you missed during Paris Couture Week.
While Paris Couture Week may have been overshadowed by the Olympics last year, this year’s Spring/Summer shows are back front and center.
From January 27 to 30, fashion houses such as Valentino, Chanel, Armani Privé, Schiaparelli, Dior, and many more introduced their latest innovations on the runway.
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Alessandro Michele’s Couture Week Debut
As Valentino’s latest creative director, Alessandro Michele made his haute couture debut with his collection Vertigineux, meaning breathtaking or dizzying.
The designer took inspiration from Umberto Eco’s 2009 book The Infinity of Lists, in an effort to create some order in the midst of creating 48 unique pieces, each nodding to some aspect of history, art, film, culture, and even Valentino’s own archives.
While Michele’s works were featured on the runway, the inspirations behind them were all highlighted on the screens behind the models. The screens also showed lists of the fabrics, techniques, and hours of handiwork that went into each creation.
The collection was maximalist and theatrical, showcasing ball gowns and capes, ruffles and various colors. The show’s venue at the Palais Brongniart was also dressed to mimic a theater, in order for the dresses to come alive in front of the audience.
“Clothes are never-ending lists of technical know-how. The vertigo of the list [about the dresses] is not finite,” Michele told journalists after the show.
Chanel Celebrates 110 Years of Haute Couture
While Chanel’s star-studded audience mostly dressed in the brand’s signature black, the fashion house defied expectations by putting on a show featuring soft pastels and vivid tones as well.
The impressive guest list included the likes of Blackpink’s Jennie, Dua Lipa, Kylie Jenner, Marion Cotillard, Lily-Rose Depp and her mother Vanessa Paradis, to name a few. “When you know the number of hours, months of meticulous work and savoir-faire, talent… Everything is handcrafted, I find it very impressive,” Paradis said, sharing her impression of the collection.
At the Grand Palais, two C-shaped ramps were set up for the runway, reflecting the house’s logo. The show began with a lighter color palette, including a pale pink chiffon gown with feathers. It then moved on to tweed jackets with richer hues, a halter-neck dress in a fiery red, evening dresses in various shades of blue, then closed with ethereal white and beige gowns.
Instead of new creative director Matthieu Blazy, this year’s haute couture collection was the work of Chanel’s in-house design studio, earning a rare standing ovation from Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
20 Years of Armani Privé
This year, Giorgio Armani also celebrated a big milestone, marking 20 years of his couture line Armani Privé. The 90-year-old Italian fashion designer presented a collection titled Lumières, exploring the theme of light.
Held at the Palazzo Armani in the 8th arrondissement, the show took place beneath gold-gilded ceilings and marble features, such as the grand staircase. The Armani collection featured 94 elegant ensembles, including a shimmering black gown, fitted jackets with intricate embroidery, full skirts embellished with crystals, and plenty of pearls.
Some of Armani’s honorable front row guests included Oscar nominee Demi Moore, Jessica Biel, and Dianna Agron. When the designer himself closed the show on the runway, he was met with a standing ovation and enthusiastic applause.
Schiaparelli’s Blend of Old-World Glamor and Modernity
“Haute Couture aspires to reach great heights; it promises escape from our complicated reality. It also reminds us that perfection comes at a price. How high can we couturiers go? As high as the sun—and the Gods—allow us,” Daniel Roseberry stated, inviting viewers to witness Schiaparelli’s collection titled Icarus.
For this year’s show, the creative director wished to shift the image of modernity from simplicity to extravagance. “I realized what I wanted to do: Create something that feels new because it’s old,” the designer explained in his show notes.
The collection then came to life with extreme silhouettes—from dramatic cinched corsets to coats and jackets of grand proportions. Models like Alex Consani and Kendall Jenner wore feathered and embroidered looks, walking down the runway that was covered in golden tiles shaped like suns.
Dior’s Ode to Romance, Womanhood, and Couture
Inspired by Dorothea Tanning and Leonor Fini’s Surrealist paintings, as well as Alice in Wonderland, this Dior 2025 haute couture collection may be Maria Grazia Chiuri’s most romantic one to date.
The collection also featured historic shapes and proportions—like corsets, crinolines, and fitted tailcoats—and the fashion house’s ever-present code, flowers. Reflecting on the transition between childhood and adulthood, Chiuri made use of feather headpieces fashioned like mohawks to transform models into “punk Alices.”
Meanwhile, the clothes themselves were less rebellious. Some of the pieces had embroidered butterflies and dragonflies, while others had flowers woven into the fabric, creating what seemed like a wearable garden. The designer also reimagined the crinolines into cages decorated with embroidered branches.
Drawing inspiration from Yves Saint Laurent’s 1958 Trapèze collection for Dior, Chiuri updated the iconic silhouette with modern fabrics, producing elegant silk coats and loose, liberating dresses.
The show was held at Paris’ Musée Rodin, welcoming guests such as Pamela Anderson, Venus Williams, and Jenna Ortega. Artwork produced by Rithika Merchant, titled The Flowers We Grew, lined the runway. The pieces were then reproduced across nine wall panels, embroidered by ateliers from Chanakya International and Chanakya School in Mumbai.
Banner image via Instagram @maisonvalentino.
