de hoogtepunten van Paris Haute Couture Week

Paris – From the luminous mini dress to fully reversible pieces and the presence of stars such as Bad Bunny and Pedro Pascal: these are five striking elements of the Paris haute couture week.

Luminous design

With its green tones and fine, luminous branches, the Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen presents a beautiful mini dress.

This surprising look, called Fractal Universe, contains no LEDs or other light sources. The dress is ‘charged’ in a particle accelerator. In the days before the show, this process transformed the dress into an energy reservoir with billions of trapped electrons, the artist said.

Before the show, the garment begins to discharge, causing the luminous branches to gradually spread over the surface. “For years, I have been attracted by the idea of ​​creating a garment woven exclusively from energy. We have designed haute couture with solids, liquids, living materials and even gases. This is the first time we have worked with the fourth state of matter, plasma,” she responds on social media.

Vegetable inspiration

The two most followed houses of the week, Chanel and Dior, present collections largely inspired by nature, with silhouettes full of plant-based details.

At Chanel, Matthieu Blazy refers to well-known fairy tales such as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ in his looks. Examples include a dress decorated with embroidered creepers and an ensemble covered in black butterflies. The proposal from Jonathan Anderson, artistic director at Dior, also includes natural motifs, such as embroidered flowers on a green pleated look.

“All these plant-based references are strongly linked to the passion that Christian Dior already had for gardens,” Pierre Groppo, fashion and lifestyle editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair France, explained to AFP.

Vice versa

“Why does a garment have to be static? How do we make it more alive? And what if every creation contains its own metamorphosis?” Alexis Mabille continues to question the codes of fashion. On Tuesday, the French designer presents his ‘Dual’ collection, which plays with reversals and inversions.

Heavy coats or sheath dresses made of black velvet transform into gold or silver dresses in the blink of an eye. Sometimes a simple pulling of the thread is enough to turn it inside out, from dark to light. All models are reversible.

Indian tradition

The official program of the haute couture week includes two Indian designers, Rahul Mishra and Manish Malhotra, whose proposals are attracting a lot of attention.

Rahul Mishra draws his inspiration from the Ajanta Caves, man-made Buddhist caves in the state of Maharashtra. His collection is characterized by richly decorated, sculptural silhouettes in shades of gray.

Manish Malhotra pays tribute to motherhood with dresses featuring embossed figures of mothers and children. These designers bring a vision from elsewhere, Pierre Groppo explains. “They each have a universe that is strongly steeped in their Indian culture.”

Bad Bunny, Pedro Pascal…

Normally, many female stars attend the haute couture shows, from rapper Cardi B to actress Cate Blanchett. But this time big male names in the audience also stand out. For example, singer Bad Bunny sits in the front row at the Schiaparelli show, wearing a pastel yellow suit with a gold-colored, braided tie.

The Chanel show features actor Pedro Pascal in a white ensemble and a Breton sweater. And at Dior, Josh O’Connor appears in a flowing suit from the house, which was presented a few days earlier in Paris.

“Haute couture also focuses on men,” emphasizes Pierre Groppo, noting the hitherto unusual presence of these personalities. There may be “a desire to also appeal to an audience beyond traditional female customers”.