Highlights from this season's spectacular couture collections
Couture Fashion Week has just kicked off in Paris, marking one of the most exciting moments on the fashion calendar that we've experienced in a long while. Although the Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause disruptions for designers and we expect to see some digital-first presentations, there are more physical shows planned in France this week than we have had on the agenda for a while, and plenty of international editors and influencers are in Paris to take in the collections on the front row.
The schedule, which began with Schiaparelli and Dior on Monday, will also see the likes of Chanel, Valentino and Balenciaga present their spring/summer 2022 collections throughout the week. We will be keeping our eyes peeled for the most exciting gowns that will hopefully be gracing the awards season circuit over the next couple of months.
Below, we round up the highlights from the shows and presentations. Here is everything you need to see from couture spring/summer 2022.
(Marguerite Bornhauser)
"The idea for the show's décor came from a longstanding desire to work with Xavier Veilhan," Virginie Viard explained of the setting of the SS22 couture show. "His references to constructivism remind me of those of Karl Lagerfeld. I like this similarity of spirit between us, now and across time. In addition to creating the show décor with its references to the avant-gardes of the 1920s and 1930s, Xavier wanted to work with Charlotte Casiraghi. His artistic universe is full of horses and Charlotte is a skilled rider.”
Casiraghi opened the show on horseback, while Sébastien Tellier played oversized instruments imagined by the artist.
"Xavier and Sébastien are friends. Along with Charlotte, they form the kind of Chanel family that I like to surround myself with."
(Courtesy of Chanel)
This season's Dior couture collection was a celebration of embroidery: "A symbol of the atelier’s original excellence, embroidery is not just a decorative detail. It gives fabric its structure, its architecture."
The collection – and this celebration – featured a collaboration between Maria Grazia Chiuri and the Indian artists Madhvi and Manu Parekh, the Chanakya Atelier and the Chanakya School of Craft.
"An inspiring creative dialogue, collective, exalting virtuoso skills, where embroidery is transformed into a collaborative mode of expression, at the crossroads of art and craft," said the show notes.
Daniel Roseberry presented his latest couture collection for Schiaparelli, a house which he has made a real favourite on the red carpet over the past year. This show, entitled 'An Age of Discipline' was the first real-life presentation for the house to take place since the pandemic began, and Roseberry took it as an opportunity to explore what design really means to him, particularly after this turbulent few years.
"Designing this collection also made me realise something else," he explained in his show notes. "There are designers who design because they love clothes. There are designers who make clothes because they love the craft, because they love people. There are designers whose work is indebted to fashion as a concept, or to glamour as a business."
"But I design in order to make people feel something. When clothes and craft and hair and music and the wearer are in harmony together, when they are all trying to communicate something, we can be reminded why we love fashion— why I love fashion. It isn’t for the celebrities. It isn’t for the likes. It isn’t for the reviews.
"It’s because, when it’s done right, when it has something to tell us, it can help us feel the inarticulable. It’s because it still has the power to move us."
(Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
From Dior and Chanel to Balenciaga, see all the highlights from this season's presentations.