A selection of looks from the Schiaparelli Spring 2025 Couture Show. Image Courtesy of SCHIAPARELLI.
We recently reported that the just-concluded menswear shows for Fall/Winter 2025 were something of a soft respite—a soothing visual balm against the chafe of a blaring world.
Haute Couture, the highest form of fashion-making, traditionally follows the men’s shows. And thank God for it, because on the other side of the feel-good coin, it is, and always will be, pure fantasy. Salve to spectacle, through-and-through.
For many, couture is just a dream. But with what was just revealed in Paris, there were some real moments of escapist beauty, the kind where, in observing it, you hold your breath just a little bit longer to marvel at the joy of it. Let’s take a look.
Chanel
Chanel is currently in an in-between zone, with its former creative director Virginie Viard having departed, and its inbound creative director Matthieu Blazy not yet having started. No matter. The maison’s ateliers turned out something light and lovely and upbeat, which can be a tough task in couture, given the extreme workmanship required. It was feminine and assured in its Chanel-ness, with a bit of depressurization too—almost like the interregnum’s designers are having a bit of fun with it, because, why not? This pastel dress, in its Miami Beach hues, captures the mood.
Valentino
At Valentino, Alessandro Michele staged his debut couture show for the house he recently joined. It was a powerhouse show, full of stimuli beyond the excellent clothes. Strobe lights flashed, music thumped, colors flew in a whipping sartorial storm. Michele is capable of spanning a huge swath of references and synthesizing them into something kaleidoscopic—and super desirable. The takeaway for Spring was something of a wardrobe for a modern-day masked ball, with a touch of Saltburn, if Saltburn was maybe at a techno bunker instead of an English manor. See this sharp-shouldered jet-back top and draped-pink skirt, for example. I think the beauty of a Michele show, any show, is that you can find a hundred or more references on your own. Bravo to him.
Dior
At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri cited Alice in Wonderland, but beneath that, she was looking in the rearview mirror—“an obsession” with fashion history drove her creativity for this couture outing. Sometimes, the results were a little dated, with crinoline skirts and the likes, but otherwise, it was breathtaking and fantastical. This tank dress, while straightforward in shape, is anything but in its fringed execution. And the dandelion-meets-gunmetal color scheme is super unique. A grown-up fairytale.
Schiaparelli
I loved what Schiaparelli’s lead, Daniel Roseberry, said of his most recent couture collection: that beauty did not have to necessarily be simple. Fashion has skewed more streamlined of late, its winds shifted under the “quiet luxury” trend. And while Schiaparelli has a long history of surrealism, Roseberry found a fantastic balance between the outré, the minimal, and the happy in-between. Dubbed “Icarus,” the collection featured a grand fountain’s worth of shimmering gold, mercurial and refined. This dress, with its perfectly executed banding, is a best-in-show moment. It might be my single favorite look of the entire couture lineup.
Armani Privé
Giorgio Armani—the man needs no introduction—unveiled his 20th anniversary couture collection this time around. He was first invited to show couture in Paris back in 2005, and has, in the two decades that have followed, forged a vast and extraordinary legacy that blends the singular luxe minimalism of his ready-to-wear with the higher-flying imagination that couture facilitates. There was no less sheen and energy in his celebratory lineup. Look 1, with its insouciance and textural blends, set the elegant verve.
