The Best Looks From the Fall/Winter 2023 Couture Shows in Paris
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It's been a hectic few weeks of fashion in the French capital city, where menswear and now the couture shows are taking place. Amidst nationwide riots and unrest, Haute Couture carries on. While some see this as ironic and even inappropriate, designers and brands are pushing forward, demonstrating that fashion is not frivolous or unnecessary, but rather a craft that should be taken seriously. Couture employs thousands of artisans who work under such rigorous standards that they deserve to be celebrated and uplifted. The usual suspects are present, like Chanel, Dior, Fendi, and Schiaparelli, with the exciting addition of American designer Thom Browne presenting his inaugural couture show in Paris. Here's the best of what we saw this week.
Fendi
Fendi closed out the week with a show focused on bringing jewelry to life through clothing. Kim Jones continues to bring his eye for contemporary dressing to the world of couture with simple column gowns and intricate separates taking on the air of the everyday, but infused with embroideries dripping off the body like high jewelry. The color palette was muted with pops of rich red, symbolizing rubies, and tones of green and tan, taking on the life of emeralds and gold, giving new life to gems and metals. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Fendi
Fendi
Valentino
For Pierpaolo Piccioli's latest vision for Valentino couture, showgoers were treated to a trip outside of Paris to the Château de Chantilly for an epic show at golden hour. Piccioli's vision for couture continues to embrace modernity, with an opening sequence of couture-ified jeans and white shirts. Menswear and womenswear alike both were treated as nothing too delicate, with even the most embroidered and decadent looks taking on a lightness that only expert artisans can bring to textiles like brocade, crushed velvet and lace. The range of colors, silhouettes, and textures brings something for truly everyone, whether heading to the bakery or the opera. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Valentino
Valentino
Valentino
Viktor & Rolf
Leave it to Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf to couture-ify the bathing suit. True to form, their couture collection included an exaggerated number of bows and ruffles, big, statement making text elements, and, of course, some strangeness. How should one interpret the tuxedo-ed mannequin forms draped, or rather clung to, the models walking the runway? Sure, you can float on the surface, or you can dive into the possibilities.—Madison Rexroat, fashion & accessories assistant
Viktor & Rolf
Viktor & Rolf
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier's guest designer couture show series continued this week with Rabanne's creative director Julien Dossena taking his turn at reimagining JPG's history in his vision. The resulting show was one of dark glamour, with Rabanne's signature chainmail and heady metallics meshing with Gaultier's hallmark corsetry, romance, and sexuality. The collection was far-reaching in its references, with a re-issue of Gaultier's iconic tie corset, plus his marine strips and feathers making an appearance. A few of the most special gowns were connected by a chainmail train, proving two is almost always better than one. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier
Balenciaga
For Balenciaga's 52nd couture show, creative director Demna continued to mesh the world of high fashion with technology for another collection honoring both the past and future. Supermodels like Eva Herzigova, Liu Wen, and Natasha Poly, plus French icon Isabelle Huppert, walked somberly to an AI-generated soundtrack of Maria Callas in expertly cut tailoring, outerwear and scarves that were painstakingly hand-sculpted to appear windblown, and gowns cut in guipure lace and crystals that laid on and off the body just so, embracing and rejecting traditional forms of eveningwear in equal doses. The finale dress presents Joan of Arc in the year 3000 in a 3D-printed resin and chrome armor gown that embraces everything Demna is pushing for in couture, as the press release summarizes beautifully: "perfection will now only be neared if technology is included as an addition to the most important factor in dressmaking: the human component." —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Giorgio Armani Privé
For Giorgio Armani this season, it was all about the rose. The eternal symbol of romance and beauty was spun in Armani's vision of couture, with a delightful array of beaded and sequined dresses, delicate Chinosiere gowns, and flowing pantsuits that reimagined the flower in symmetrical, romantic ways that provided one of the purest visions of the week. The effect was one of great beauty, never falling into clichés as one may expect of florals, but instead a great expertise that demonstrated why Armani is one of the truest names in couture. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Giorgio Armani Privé
Giorgio Armani Privé
Alexandre Vauthier
Much like the ready-to-wear runways of fall/winter 2023, the couture collection shown by Alexandre Vauthier favored a more toned-down version of opulence. Black, white, brown and metallics built the color scheme of the clothes, which despite the somber colors evoked elegance and precision. There were, of course, some bold pieces suitable for the flash of cameras no matter where one might wear them, leading the collection into a more hopeful tone and assuring us that boldness is just as essential as balance.—Madison Rexroat, fashion & accessories assistant
Alexandre Vauthier
Alexandre Vauthier
Chanel
Chanel's usual show space, the Grand Palais, is under construction, so for their latest couture show, they went to the Seine riverside for the ultimate Parisian show. With cobblestones painted almost like a Chanel blush palette, the models walked with dogs, wicker baskets, and barely-there hair and makeup in quintessential Parisian silhouettes of long tweed jackets, block-heeled Mary Janes, and perfectly realized suiting with floral motifs that are anything but restrictive. The feeling was one of joy, community, and ease, and as the finale ensued, the models joined hands and sauntered in the sun, taking in all that is Paris in the summer. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Chanel
Chanel
Giambattista Valli
Giambattista Valli's vision for couture is unwavering in its commitment to sensual explorations of the body, most brilliantly expressed through his signature use of tulle which was on full display at his latest offering. With a rather restricted color palette of white, black, pink, and the occasional pop of yellow and green, this season was a meditation on restraint versus excess highlighted by slimming lace dresses and wondrous tulle gowns. A true highlight was the silver armour of a sequined pantsuit that shimmied and slinked down the runway just show. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Giambattista Valli
Giambattista Valli
Thom Browne
Thom Browne, chairman of the CFDA and accomplished designer, debuted at Couture Week, which may come as a surprise, as his shows always have the air of full-blown couture spectacles. He went all out at the Palais Garnier, with thousands of cut-out Thom-a-Zoids sitting in the audience chairs while the actual audience watched the storyline unfold on stage. It was New York-meets-Cape Cod-meets-Avenue Montaigne, with classic Thom Browne grey in a million and one shades on exquisite tweeds, tulle, and lace portraying sea creatures and trompe l'oeil silhouettes. The "passengers," including Jordan Roth as a pigeon, entered with belled shoes, clinging with each step, dripping in sequins, pearls, ribbons, embodying a totally surreal and otherworldly kind of couture. The finale bride entered in the most simple garment of the night, never to be outshined in her all-white take on Thom Browne's Americana. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Thom Browne
Thom Browne
Dior
Dior's couture show this season was inspired by the modern-day and ancient goddess, with a restricted color palette of white, beige, silver, and gold allowing the forms of tailleur and flou to demonstrate the wearer's power. Empire waistlines with delicate embroidery and gossamer silks flowed effortlessly off the torso, contrasted by masterful coats, skirts, and capes, furthering a new proposition of contemporary couture that artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri has been honing during her tenure at Dior. The end result was both immediately wearable and instinctively feminine.—Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Dior
Dior
Iris Van Herpen
Iris van Herpen chose to look to the future, the sea, and the marriage of the two, for her fall 2023 couture collection. Imagining a world where humans live partially, or even fully, on water thanks to architectural innovations that aren’t too far from current reality, Van Herpen’s pieces evoked the adaptability and fluidity that will be necessary to survive in a world of climate change. The pieces are architectural, themselves, while also bringing an artistic sense of whimsy to what will be a serious conversation going forward.—Madison Rexroat, fashion & accessories assistant
Iris Van Herpen
Iris Van Herpen
Schiaparelli
Daniel Roseberry of Schiaparelli, off the heels of a stunning yet controversial SS23 couture show, continued down Dante's rabbit hole for the second in a trilogy of collections he planned around the illustrious poet. The result was his most cerebral collection to date, with references to great 20th century Surrealist artists like Matisse, Klein, Dalí, Lucian Freud, channeling the sensual, tactile energy of the art through richly realized trompe l'oeil patterns, vibrant beading, and even an Yves Klein blue "top" of rich pigment adorned with a massive frond necklace. As Roseberry aptly states in his press release: "I wanted to make an impossible wardrobe—impossible not because it’s not wearable, but because it’s so extraordinary." —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli
Alaïa
Though not technically on the couture schedule, Alaïa presented its collection of demi-couture fashion on a bridge in the heart of Paris, bridging the worlds of archival Alaïa and its present. Under the direction of Pieter Mulier, Alaïa has experienced a renaissance, and this collection was Mulier's sexiest and most Alaïa-deferential, bringing fetish to the forefront with latex coats, cinched wiggle skirts with bag-handle belts, and classic pillbox hats in leather. The collection was an homage to time, and the time it takes to whittle down fashion to its essence of form, body, and utter perfection. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate
Alaïa
Alaïa
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