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Creativity and promise reigned during the haute couture season

This season’s haute couture collections were full of endings, beginnings and a reminder of the importance of fantasy.

French actor Isabelle Huppert poses in a couture look from Demna's last collection for Balenciaga.
French actor Isabelle Huppert poses in a couture look from Demna's last collection for Balenciaga.

Haute couture season in Paris is unlike any other. Especially in the northern hemisphere summer when the warping effect of such beauty and extravagance is surely in full effect. As the influencer and editor Bryan Yambao posted on Instagram, “Haute Couture is a state of mind”.

It’s also a time when life’s realities can be suspended, of chance encounters with people who live on a different stratosphere and to drink a coffee with the likes of Louis Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere in your direct sightline at the Ritz Paris.

How else to explain the frenzy of fans waiting outside in the heat for a glimpse of celebrity attendees? The photographers who shout out: “Over here!” “Look over your shoulder!” “Keep walking!” Or clients who eschew all inkling of weather appropriateness to commit to a look.

Couture after all – the epitome of fashion and craftsmanship, worn only by the 1 per cent or certain celebrities for a moment of borrowed finery – is the ultimate commitment to fashion.

The houndstooth suit from Demna's last collection for Balenciaga.
The houndstooth suit from Demna's last collection for Balenciaga.
Nicole Kidman attends the Balenciaga Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 9, 2025 in Paris, France. Picture: Getty Images
Nicole Kidman attends the Balenciaga Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 9, 2025 in Paris, France. Picture: Getty Images

This season was one of anticipated beginnings and swan songs.

One of the most talked about endings was Demna’s last show for Balenciaga. An exhibition of his 10 years at the house founded by purist couturier Cristobal Balenciaga staged at Kering HQ (owner of Balenciaga) during the season is testament to just how much impact the designer has had on fashion.

Not only in the shapes he has made permanent fixtures in fashion – the oversized silhouettes, the strong shoulders – but the way he made fashion part of the culture with his divisive pop takes, his elevation of pedestrian items, his unending curiosity.

His last show, on July 9 in Paris, tied a bow on exactly this, with the likes of ultimate pop culture nerve centre Kim Kardashian chan­nelling Elizabeth Taylor on the runway, house muse French actor Isabelle Huppert playing up the ultimate Parisienne in a sculpted black turtleneck, little bag in the crook of her elbow and the likes of Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts sitting on the front row.

The collection paid tribute to Demna’s impact on Balenciaga, to Paris – a city he says he loves and loathes – and the work of Cristobal too. This included an embroidered houndstooth suit from 1967 that was worn by Danielle Slavik – Cristobal Balenciaga’s house model, whom Demna met and who he has said helped him to understand his role at the brand.

A white tweed look at Chanel's haute couture show in Paris.
A white tweed look at Chanel's haute couture show in Paris.
An embellished tweed tunic at Chanel's haute couture show in Paris.
An embellished tweed tunic at Chanel's haute couture show in Paris.

Backstage Demna told reporters of his tenure, “I needed to integrate a lot of Demna codes into this house for it to become the business that it is. It was a necessity that I had to do. That’s something that has built the Demna chapter at Balenciaga, a combination of that beautiful but somewhat claustrophobic heritage and my personal style that evolves and has been evolving.”

A beginning, meanwhile, could be found at Maison Margiela, where new creative director Glenn Martens made his much anticipated debut on the same day. Sometimes a show – as Demna’s work at Balenciaga also shows – moves culture and people, in some way. This one will be talked about in this way, so unnerving beautiful and strange it was.

Models wearing the masks Martin Margiela had his own models wear, so the focus could be on the clothes, walked the runway in creations of clear plastic that resembled glass, and rich, almost decayed tapestries of 17th-century Flemish embossed leather wallpaper and peeling lace. Respected critic Tim Blanks described Martens as “one of the most exciting designers working in fashion”.

Fashion always may be looking for what’s next, but there is much to admire in consistency and lasting the distance.

The Giorgio Armani Prive show at Armani’s private Parisian salon on July 8 was the first at which the designer himself, who turned 91 on July 11 and this year celebrates the 50th anniversary of his brand, was not in attendance.

Armani was recovering in Milan from bronchitis and was advised by doctors not to travel. Which is not to say that his hand could not be seen in every detail. As he wrote in an email to several editors, “Even though I wasn’t in Paris, I oversaw every aspect of the show remotely via video link, from the fittings to the sequence and the makeup. Everything you will see has been done under my direction and carries my approval.”

Giorgio Armani Prive, look 71.
Giorgio Armani Prive, look 71.
Giorgio Armani Prive, shown in Paris during haute couture.
Giorgio Armani Prive, shown in Paris during haute couture.

The collection, an ode to “the seduction of black”, was Armani all over – in the way that only Armani can be. Opulent and lush takes on velvet gowns and tuxedos and tactile brocade were worn by models wearing chic little skull caps and with gestures seemingly fashioned to demonstrate the true meaning of elegance.

A sense of continuance and keeping to the codes could be found at Chanel on July 8, the last show before the anticipated debut of new creative director Matthieu Blazy. The collection, shown in a more intimate wing of the Grand Palais that was fitted out to resemble the hush-hush cocoon of a private haute couture salon, was Chanel squared. Attended by house ambassadors such as filmmaker Sofia Coppola and her daughters Romy and Cosima Mars, and actors Keira Knightley and Marion Cotillard, the show paid tribute to the work of the satellite of metiers on which Chanel relies to make its buttons and embroideries – all of the special things that make a piece couture.

The collection – each look grounded in sturdy walking boots – nodded to Coco Chanel’s love for the Scottish Highlands. It’s where she fell in love with the second Duke of Westminster, became a fearsome fly fisher and first discovered the tweed she would make famous. Chanel tweed – rendered here in longer tunics and knee-length skirts – was balanced with looks with more flou and flounce. Very Chanel, but as Chanel’s long-time president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky told The Australian in an interview earlier this year, a new era awaits.

Fantasy at surrealist fashion house Schiaparelli.
Fantasy at surrealist fashion house Schiaparelli.
A smart skirt suit at Schiaparelli's haute couture show in Paris.
A smart skirt suit at Schiaparelli's haute couture show in Paris.

The season’s requisite moments of the surreal and the fantastic could be found in the dress made from live algae at Dutch couturier Iris Van Herpen and, as ever, at surrealist fashion house Schiaparelli, where American designer Daniel Roseberry may have toned down his sculptural silhouettes but installed a “beating heart” in one.

Another resonant fashion moment could be found outside the rarefied air of haute couture with Michael Rider’s ready-to-wear debut for Celine on July 6. The American designer – who has previously worked for the brand under Phoebe Philo, and most recently was at Polo Ralph Lauren – showed a collection brimming with ideas for getting dressed in the real world. Something the haute couture doesn’t need to factor in quite so much. Building on the foundations of Celine, from its founder Celine Vipiana to Phoebe Philo and most recently Hedi Slimane, Rider spliced the brand’s inherent bougie-ness with flashes of prep and American ease.

At a showing the next day at the brand’s HQ, a representative spoke of how Rider thinks about how people really get dressed. How they mix and match. In this collection there are ideas for miles on how to, say, style a scarf or layer a turtleneck under a shirt. Colour and a sense of finding joy in your day-to-day was expressed. And perhaps it’s something to hold on to post the extreme highs of haute couture. Fantasy is an essential currency of haute couture, but clothes that make normal life feel a bit extraordinary are something to seek out, too.

The collection was a masterclass in ways of tying a scarf.
The collection was a masterclass in ways of tying a scarf.
Booked and bougie looks at Michael Rider's Celine.
Booked and bougie looks at Michael Rider's Celine.
Annie BrownWatch & Jewellery Editor The Australian Prestige & Conde Nast Titles

Annie Brown is watch and jewellery editor across The Australian's prestige and Conde Nast titles. She has worked as a luxury and fashion journalist for 15 years, covering all aspects of the industry. Prior to joining News Prestige Annie worked at The Sydney Morning Herald. Her journalism has been published in The Australian Financial Review, The South China Morning Post and fashion titles both in Australia and around the world.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/creativity-and-promise-reigned-during-the-haute-couture-season/news-story/20ff4e960be9b27921b491e2070d6b06