Haute couture is not about fashion. Handmade and costing hundreds of thousands of dirhams per piece, it exists so far beyond everyday life that it occupies a realm of its own. From this elevated position, designers are free to explore ideas and cultural storytelling that stretch both their imagination and the virtuosity of the atelier.
It is a world of wonder and exquisite beauty, offering either a narrative response to – or an escape from – the realities of daily life. In an era of constant uncertainty, couture feels more than ever like a space to pause, and to breathe.
Here are some of the most striking shows from this season's Paris Couture Week.
Georges Hobeika
Love. That was the message from Lebanese couturier Georges Hobeika in Paris. His collection, titled L’Amour, spoke of surrendering to a love that consumes both body and soul. “Do you remember ever loving deeply?” he asked – a timely question. As the world slides towards uncertainty, for a designer from a country that has experienced more than its share of upheaval, to offer love as the solution for this exact moment is a powerful reminder to us all
To tell this story, Hobeika leaned into love’s fragility. One look featured a skirt built from layers of stiffened satin, its surface animated by dense swirls of embroidery and beading; another used sheer tulle cascading from a wide, flat disc. Elsewhere, an embroidered golden cage encased the body like an imprisoned songbird – tragic, delicate and hauntingly beautiful.
Christian Dior
Jonathan Anderson made his hotly anticipated couture debut at Dior, watched from the audience by one of the house’s most storied predecessors, John Galliano.
The natural world – a bedrock of Dior – became the foundation of Anderson’s first couture offering. It opened with a procession of bulbous dresses that rotated around the body, twisting like trees as they grew. An asymmetrical skirt bloomed with tiny pink ribbon flower-buds; an evening gown was constructed from folds of black organza, pinned at the shoulder and hip with embroidered posies. Elsewhere, a coat appeared to be conjured entirely from grey and white feathers.
Orchids and chrysanthemums became earrings; a giant leaf was transformed into a sun shield. Nature is a language Anderson knows well – one he spoke fluently at Loewe – but with the skill of the Dior atelier now at his command, the possibilities feel boundless. Galliano, one suspects, would agree.
Rahul Mishra
Alchemy was the title of Rahul Mishra’s couture collection, which translated the elemental forces of earth, air, fire, water and ether into clothing. It opened with a long, fitted black look, the shoulders and head encased in a sheer cone dusted with silvery stardust; elsewhere, a catsuit appeared to burn, its torso wrapped in flames of orange tulle.
A procession of minidresses echoed the swirling motion of weather systems, rendered in sweeps of silver, white and blue beading that rose and spiralled like a blizzard. Looking deeper into the ether of outer space, Mishra closed with a column dress and shrug dappled in the blues and mauves of a distant nebula.
Schiaparelli
“I stopped thinking for the first time in years about how something should look, and instead about how I feel when creating it,” wrote Daniel Roseberry in his show notes, reflecting on a visit to the Sistine Chapel that gave him permission to feel clothes, rather than simply design them.
The result was a collection that was beautiful – and beautifully strange: a series of “infantas terribles”, hypnotic chimeras that were part woman, part beast, drawing on animals and birds of paradise. A reptilian dress sprouted a bustle of feathers and frills; sculpted jackets grew wings of plumage at the collar. One bustier dress, with a ballerina-like skirt, was smothered in tiny silken peacock feathers; another curved into the sting of a scorpion’s tail. Elsewhere, the spiked armour of a blowfish appeared in a look named after Isabella Blow, the late stylist who famously discovered designer Alexander McQueen.
Lavish, beguiling and utterly assured, the collection stayed true to Schiaparelli’s DNA – a charged collision of art and fashion. And in a neat case of life imitating art, actress Teyana Taylor sat front row in Roseberry’s reimagined Louvre jewels: a pearl-and-diamond crown and elaborate bow necklace inspired by Empress Eugenie’s pieces stolen in the infamous Louvre heist last October.
Ashi Studio
Never afraid to experiment with materials, Ashi explored what he described as “the space between devotion and destruction”. Victorian mourning rituals collided with contemporary couture: sharply laced corsets cocooned the body – one memorably printed with hands and swaddled in cling film. Feather trails spilt from cuffs and hemlines, while sculpted dresses hovered around, rather than clung to, the body. Gossamer layers further veiled the models, amplifying the sense of ritual and restraint.
Rami Al Ali
Fragments in Harmony was the apt title of Rami Al Ali’s collection, a showcase for both his glittering handwork and his sculptural command of cloth. A bustier gown unfurled into a skirt of vertical fabric slices; elsewhere, a body-con dress was woven from ribbons of metallic beads, while another look rippled with tiers of glossy ivory fringe. Al Ali knows his client intimately – and this collection is designed to quicken the pulse.
Elie Saab
Opening with a full-skirted look topped by a fully beaded, entirely backless bodice, Elie Saab signalled a new nonchalance. Long celebrated for evening wear, he leaned into it here with added snap: drop-waisted gowns came with relaxed pockets, fragile-looking beaded slips were offset by loose waistcoats, and skinny embellished scarves were looped just so at the neck. Exquisite yet genuinely wearable, it was a deft blend of cool and delicate handwork.
Valentino
Accompanied by the words of the late founder Valentino Garavani, reflecting on the nature of beauty, Alessandro Michele staged a show steeped in the theatrical glamour of the 1920s and 30s, drawing in particular on the work of designer-artist Erte. Ostrich-plume headdresses, a fitted teal gown richly hemmed in gold, and a red velvet cape licked with tendrils of gold-beaded flame combined into a moment of pure, cinematic delight.
Zuhair Murad
With a collection called Chiaroscuro (meaning light from dark) Murad used this to smother the parade of grand gowns – often in glossy, heavy satin – with pale embellishment. Padded hips, long trains and tightly defined waists created an almost Marie-Antoinette courtly atmosphere, especially with the pretty bows hanging at necklines and shoulders.
Chanel
Among the most hotly anticipated shows was Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, who set out a new direction that felt lighter and more overtly feminine. In a clear departure from the house’s signature heavy tweeds, he proposed airy chiffons and tulles scattered with delicate beading. If long-standing clients mourn the absence of dense tweed, this newfound lightness is likely to win Chanel an entirely new audience.
Giorgio Armani Prive
The house’s first couture collection since Giorgio Armani’s passing in late 2025 also marked a debut: the first designed by his niece, Sylvana Armani. While the elegant silhouettes felt reassuringly familiar, the shift came in colour. Where her uncle was famed for his devotion to greige, Sylvana introduced jade – a pale, ethereal green hovering between sea foam and pistachio – lending the collection a softer, more feminine mood.
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