Paris couture pivots: Lightness and tailoring make shows feel wearable

Paris couture this season offered an unexpected economy of drama: garments that felt miraculous up close yet plausible for ordinary movement and life. Designers favoured weightless construction, sheer layering and disciplined tailoring, so couture read less like museum spectacle and more like refined utility.

Blazy’s first haute couture whispers refinement, not volume, across Chanel’s codes.

At Chanel, Matthieu Blazy opened with a whisper: the house’s emblematic skirt suit reimagined in blush organza and feathers, a debut that leaned into levity without sacrificing polish. The set and silhouettes framed craft as the spectacle, not volume.

Dior, under Jonathan Anderson, pushed contrast as a principle — near-transparent ribbed tops paired with painstakingly embroidered evening skirts, knit given structural purpose and a couture topography that felt modern and useful. Street evidence of the shift arrived in the front row, where relaxed suiting and intentionally softened tailoring mirrored the runway.

Armani Privé, presented by Silvana Armani in the first couture outing since Giorgio Armani’s death, channelled the maison’s classic suiting while trimming the line for calm glamour: organza shirts, soft ties and layered “mille-feuille” gowns that shimmered without mass. The collection suggested continuity and lighter refinement.

Elsewhere, houses from Elie Saab to Schiaparelli translated traditional ornament into movement: embroidery melting into tulle, fringe falling like liquid metal, and jewellery layered over sheer lace. Schiaparelli in particular amplified nature with a fiercer edge — wings, spikes and sculptural appendages that read as transformation rather than prettification.

A clear second thread was wearability. Designers framed couture as something to inhabit: fewer tableaux, more suits and separables, tailoring softened for living. The result felt like a gentle redesign of aspiration — still precious, but no longer entirely untouchable.

Motifs drew from nature as code — birds, cyclamen and animal forms surfaced across collections — but were employed to signify agency and change rather than mere decoration. The season closed on a note of disciplined imagination: garments that float, cut clean, and point outward to everyday life. Photos of the shows and front-row looks reinforced the message: couture is settling into a softer, more human rhythm without losing its technical bravura or theatrical excess altogether.

For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels