Jewelry-as-Clothing is Trending in Couture

Long strands of pearls and crystals were all over the runways at Schiaparelli, Giambattista Valli, Georges Hobeika and Elie Saab.

Elaborate, glimmering beading is a pretty standard element in haute couture collections and a natural way for a fashion house to showcase the skills of its artisans, but it's typically used as an embellishment. For Fall 2022, however, designers are building entire looks around long, dripping strands of precious stones.

Giambattista Valli, a master of the ornate and glittery, made party dresses almost entirely out of crystal necklaces and pailettes for a collection largely inspired by images from Studio 54. Similarly, Georges Hobeika used crystals and pearls to bridge pieces of a garment together, or over otherwise sheer swathes of fabric. For Elie Saab, all manner of beads and stones were also embroidered onto sheer fabric, or dripping like fringe off of red-carpet-ready gowns. Inspired by Christian Lacroix circa the 1980s, Daniel Roseberry was probably the most bold with this decorative technique at Schiaparelli: Draped delicately over bare skin, long strings of pearls and crystals were the garments themselves — glittering highlights of an outing that was at once sensual, glamorous and surreal.

See it all in the gallery below.

View the 16 images of this gallery on the original article

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