Everything You Need To See From The A/W22 Couture Shows

See all the highlights from this season’s presentations

Couture Fashion Week has kicked off in Paris, and we can’t wait to see what the designers have in store for the season ahead.

The schedule, which began with Schiaparelli and Dior on Monday, will also see Chanel, Valentino and Fendi, among others, present their autumn/winter 2022 collections – and there have already been more than a few breathtaking gowns that we expect to see gracing the red carpet over the next couple of months.

Below, we round up the highlights from the shows and presentations. Here is everything you need to see from couture autumn/winter 2022.

Armani Privé

“Realism, a distinctive trait within Giorgio Armani’s style, always filtered through his personal vision and interpreted through refined art, is a constant presence in a collection that arises from the need to give new space to sparkle and frivolity, offering an escape into dreams and creativity,” explained Armani in its show notes, adding that the team was this season inspired by the Twenties and by a Polish female painted of that time. “The way it was in the 1920s. Here distilled by an ineffable capacity for synthesis, the aesthetics of that decade reverberate in the figure of a strong-willed, independent and brilliant woman: pétillant, just like Tamara de Lempicka.”

Chanel

“I have imagined the AW22 haute couture show in the continuity of the previous show, leaving room for experimentation,” says creative director Virginie Viard. “In this new collection, there are suits, long dresses like Mademoiselle Chanel imagined them in the 1930s: fitted to the body even though they have strong shoulders here, and pleated dresses like the wedding dress for instance. And lace too, inlaid, reworked, not embroidered, but repainted. The palette consists of bright green, khaki, beige, pink, lots of black and silver.”

Dior

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s starting point for the AW22 couture collection was the tree of life, which she described as “the symbol of the connection between cultures, mythologies and all forms of creation”.

For the occasion, the fashion house worked with Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko, who designed the mesmerising set design for the show, inspired by the tree of life, and together, the artist and design team imagined a better tomorrow. “Thanks to refined gestures of the hand, the tree of life is thus transformed into a manifesto for harmonious plurality, allowing a restoration of balance, if only momentarily.”

Giambattista Valli

Giambattista Valli marked his 10-year anniversary collection with an uplifting message about living in the moment. The designer, who is known best for his use of voluminous tulle and punchy colours, did what he does best, while also embracing a little Studio 54 glamour into the collection.

Schiaparelli

“All of us who work in fashion know that much of the rest of the world thinks that what we do is silly,” said Daniel Roseberry in his AW22 couture show notes. “In recent years, though, it’s felt like fashion has tried its hardest to prove it actually isn’t silly. The pressure designers feel to make a statement about the current political situation, our ongoing climatic disaster, the inequalities among people of different races and genders, and an age of war has in fact led to some extraordinary work, not to mention a reengagement of our industry with the broader culture.”

“But it’s also led to a sometimes dreary self-seriousness, one that foregrounds fashion with sloganeering,” he continued. “It’s easy to be self-serious…I think we sometimes get defensive when our critics accuse us of just wanting to make beautiful things. But what’s wrong with wanting to make beautiful things? It’s not the only important part of life, of course, but it is a part of life. And to make truly beautiful things isn’t actually that easy. But it is a privilege — and I’m grateful for it every day.”

Written by  AMY DE KLERK for Harpers’ Bazaar UK