Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2026-2027: All The Highlights From This Season
For one week, Paris once again became the centre of the couture world. Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2026–2027 delivered sculptural silhouettes, extraordinary craftsmanship and unforgettable runway moments
Day One: The Void, the Sculpture and the Temple
Schiaparelli
Daniel Roseberry presented the Schiaparelli Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection, titled The Abyss, at Place Vendôme, drawing inspiration from l’appel du vide, the call of the void. Fringed skirts embedded with micro lights glowed as models walked, jackets moved under kinetic latex tentacles and entire ensembles came alive under real flowers and fish scales. The colour palette moved through lobster pink, violet, tangerine, saffron and pale mint set against high-gloss black and the house’s signature gold, which functioned here not as a finish but as sculpture, armour and art.
Notable faces on the runway included Karlie Kloss, Anok Yai and Mona Tougaard, while Michelle Yeoh and Emma Corrin joined the front row at Place Vendôme. The collection set the tone for an opening day that felt genuinely alive with creative risk.
Just hours after the show closed, Zendaya wore the closing look to the world premiere of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in London. A glowing dress with a moulded bustier in white glazed porcelain-effect silicone, mirrored fringes and embroidered gradient details, moving straight from runway to red carpet.
Christian Dior
Jonathan Anderson presented his second haute couture collection for Dior at the garden of Musée Rodin, staging the show inside a giant black structure surrounded by deep green foliage that turned the grounds into a lush tropical oasis. The collection took the work of American sculptor Lynda Benglis as its starting point, building around the gestures of hand-plissé, knotting and draping that connect the art of couture to the art of sculpture. Benglis’s Peacock series from the 1970s was reinterpreted in brightly coloured floral and beaded embellishments, while the Dior Bar jacket returned in fern green tweed and grey houndstooth draped into a large bow.
The show closed with a bride – a pale strapless column gown under a long veil of hand-pleated chiffon trimmed with feathered dandelions and embroidered cactus flowers. Guests including Sabrina Carpenter, Pharrell Williams, Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, Alexa Chung and Josh O’Connor took their seats amongst a forest of ferns, each sent bamboo fans with their invitations, which they used throughout a show staged during another Paris heatwave.
This collection does not end when the show lights went down. From 7 to 12 July, Grammar of Forms occupies the show set in the gardens of the Musée Rodin, an exhibition bringing together pieces from the new haute couture collection, creations from the Dior archive and artworks by Lynda Benglis, some of which are being exhibited in France for the first time.
Rahul Mishra
At the Collège des Bernardins, Rahul Mishra presented Devi: The Eternal Muse, a collection drawn from the apsaras, devis and celestial attendants carved into the sandstone, granite and basalt of India’s temples and cave sanctuaries. Models moved through the historic Gothic space in a palette of stone grey, jet black, stark ivory, beige and antique gold, resembling living statues, while skin-toned bodysuits blurred the boundary between fabric and human form. Zardozi, dabka, crystals and bugle beads built surfaces that read as carved stone, yet the garments themselves were featherweight.
Traditional clay artisan Sumant Kumar created ceremonial headpieces based on the crowns worn by stone temple figures, while Mishra’s partnership with Tanishq integrated natural diamonds and heritage temple jewellery directly into the structure of the clothing. British milliner Stephen Jones completed the presentation with sculptural headwear that added another layer of ceremony to an already deeply considered show.
Cardi B sat front row in a custom ivory corset gown from the collection, while Isha Ambani attended in a custom grey corset and skirt ensemble, both wearing pieces that made the show’s cultural significance immediately obvious.
Iris Van Herpen
Iris van Herpen’s collection Sympoiesis blurs the boundaries between nature and technology. The collection explores the fragile relationship between humanity and the natural world, drawing inspiration from the ocean’s movement, biodiversity, and its ecosystems.
Through translucent fabrics, fluid silhouettes, and sculptural forms that appear to move like waves, Van Herpen captures the beauty and vulnerability of marine life.
The collection features pioneering collaborations, including a living garment created with biodesigner Chris Bellamy using bioluminescent algae, alongside innovative materials and kinetic designs that respond to movement. From jellyfish-inspired silhouettes to coral-like textures, each piece reflects Van Herpen’s fascination with the forces found in nature.
Georges Hobeika
Georges and Jad Hobeika (the inimitable father and son couturier duo) looked to the beauty of the natural world through a collection inspired by James McCrae’s poem Instructions Before Visiting Earth; a reminder to remain curious and aware of the wonders around us.
The result is a collection built around lightness and movement, where the house’s signature craftsmanship meets a more architectural approach to couture. Intricate embroidery, shimmering beadwork, and delicate lace appear across flowing silhouettes, sculpted bustiers, and sharply crafted jackets.
Blue dominates the collection, ranging from soft sky tones to deeper ocean-inspired shades, balanced by beige, touches of pink, and shades of green. Nature appears not only as inspiration but as decoration itself, with beetles, orchids, and snails transformed into intricate jewellery and embroidered details.
Day Two: Fairy Tales, Italian Glamour and a Different Skin
Chanel
For his Haute Couture collection at Chanel, Matthieu Blazy enters the world of Gabrielle Chanel’s imagination, transforming the house’s ideas into something playful and fairytale-like. Inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s personal library and her love of imagination, the runway was filled with delicate references to nature: flowers blooming across tweeds, magpies appearing among intricate details, and vines climbing the house’s iconic silhouettes.
Blazy reinterpreted Chanel’s signatures with a softer approach. The classic tweed suit returned in unexpected forms, from versions with oversized stitching to intricate designs woven with ropes, lace, and pearl details. Light silk fabrics replaced heavier couture structures, allowing the pieces to move freely and naturally.
The collection also brought a sense of fantasy through its accessories. Chanel’s iconic slingbacks were reimagined with playful heels shaped like golden eggs, butterflies, fairies, and pearl-filled pea pods.
Sheer layers, fluid skirts, and relaxed tailoring gave the collection a modern ease, while pastel shades of lilac and mint offered a refreshing change from recent seasons. Instead of the traditional couture finale, Blazy closed the show with the ultimate reimagined Little Black Dress.
Giorgio Armani Privé
The collection was inspired by the idea of the boudoir: an intimate space where a woman can slow down, reflect, and dress for herself. This sense of privacy shapes the silhouettes, balancing structure and softness, from tailored jackets inspired by menswear to evening gowns with sculptural volume and movement.
Shimmering details meet velvet textures, while daywear and eveningwear blend together in a collection that feels both effortless and refined. The colour palette is deep and atmospheric, with shades that appear black at first glance but reveal hints of green, brown, red, and blue. Subtle animal-inspired motifs, delicate embroidery, and restrained embellishment add depth to the collection.
Ashi Studio
Mohammed Ashi opened his Fall/Winter 2026-2027 couture collection, titled A Different Skin, with a single idea at its centre. Working from a warped kind of historicism, he drew from another century without being bound by it, borrowing the silhouette of the ball gown as a starting point and then completely dismantling it.
The result was a collection that did not dress the body so much as rebuild it entirely, using sculptural corsets, shell-like structures, feathers, fringe, veils and high-gloss finishes to transform each model into something between human and otherworldly. Narrow waists met exaggerated forms, strength met fragility and the boundaries between woman, bird and insect dissolved into something that felt entirely its own.
Teyana Taylor attended the show wearing a look from Ashi Studio’s Spring/Summer 2026 couture collection. Mohammed Ashi has been building something quietly and with complete conviction at his house for years, and A Different Skin felt like the collection where all of that architecture, all of that patience and all of that refusal to settle for the obvious, arrived at its fullest expression yet.
Day Three: Color, Childhood and a Mother’s Love
Balenciaga
Pierpaolo Piccioli presented his couture debut at Balenciaga at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, models pacing the palatial steps wearing all shades of electric pink, neon orange and brilliant mint green. Known as one of fashion’s greatest colorists, Piccioli brought his naturally romantic sensibility to the architectural rigour of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s legacy. A spectacular balloon jacket in sunset red silk gazar opened the show, paired with a white silk duchesse satin T-shirt and extra-large pants in Sahara beige wool, an immediate declaration of intent. Floor-length hooded cloaks, expertly sculpted hourglass dresses with leather opera gloves and feather upon feather moved between austerity and exuberance throughout a 52-look collection that felt alive from start to finish.
The focus throughout was on craft and many hours of hand work. For the cashmere coats and dresses, the house scanned real bodies, then hand-moulded leather panels from those scans and sewed them inside as hidden structure. One gown was covered in circa 24,150 individually hand-shredded gazar petals. Gigi Hadid made a surprise runway appearance, her couture week debut, in a mass of hand-set black rooster feathers created with milliner Philip Treacy, while Anok Yai closed the show in a striking trapeze wedding gown drawn from the spring/summer 1967 archive.
As the show came to a close, Pierpaolo walked down the stairs with the entire atelier, around 50 artisans all dressed in white coats, to a standing ovation from the crowd. The moment had been foreshadowed in the show notes. This collection, he wrote, is the result of the work of the people in the atelier, human beings who are couture, because couture is made by the people who live it. Cynthia Erivo sat front row, and the room felt every word of it.
Robert Wun
Hong Kong-born, London-based designer Robert Wun titled his Fall/Winter 2026-2027 couture collection Childsplay and drew inspiration from fairytales and Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, whose films are beloved by kids and adults alike. The collection evolved like a growing child, with opening looks in white featuring colourful embroideries in the form of naïve paint splashes, before wooden shapes in bright colour blocking followed. Disney heroines and autobiographical references were worked through Wun’s unmistakable flair for sculpting fabric into silhouettes that feel completely impossible until they are standing right in front of you.
More minimalist looks were complemented by oversized accessories including a teddy bear plush toy, a horned helmet and an enormous glittered butterfly perched on the chest. More elaborate pieces drew on icons of international childhood culture, from Harlequin reimagined as a suit with a paint-splattered bolero to a skeleton in a coat and finally Cinderella, whose influence inspired blue bows rising above a model’s head and two lifelike doves lifting a pair of electric-blue shoulder straps. Colourful balloons decorated the crinoline of a black dress, whose shoulder straps echoed the roundness of the inflatables it carried, and the whole thing felt like watching the Nutcracker ballet for the very first time.
Cardi B sat front row in a sculpted red mermaid gown from the collection, complete with dramatic opera-style gloves and a matching 3D circular bag, her hair styled in an exaggerated donut bun.
Elie Saab
Elie Saab’s Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection, “Le Bal des Rêves Indomptés” (The Ball of Untamed Dreams), invited guests into a world where couture met fantasy. Presented as an evening of mystery and transformation, the collection played with the idea of dreams becoming reality through dramatic silhouettes, intricate craftsmanship, and rich textures.
The collection moved between deep black, burgundy, and jewel tones before shifting into softer shades of beige, silver, powder pink, and lilac. Roses appeared throughout: embroidered, sculpted, and transformed into delicate details, while crystal embellishments, feathers, and flowing trains added to the sense of theatrical elegance.
Signature Elie Saab glamour was reimagined through flowing gowns, sculpted silhouettes, and intricate beading. The finale continued the dreamlike narrative with an unforgettable bridal look, featuring shimmering layers of champagne, crystal, and gold, bringing the collection’s vision of modern fantasy to life. The show, held at Paris’ Palais de Chaillot, welcomed guests including Heart Evangelista, Poppy Delevingne, and Olivia Palermo, who joined the Maison to witness the latest couture chapter.
Jean Paul Gaultier
For his debut Haute Couture collection as Creative Director of Jean Paul Gaultier, Duran Lantink stepped into a house built on provocation, craftsmanship, and the art of challenging expectations. Presented in a minimalist white space in Paris, the collection explored the relationship between traditional couture techniques and new forms of technology. Lantink played with the idea of clothing as sculpture, transforming familiar silhouettes into unexpected shapes that questioned how a garment can exist on the body.
The collection began with a sharply tailored coatdress before quickly moving into more playful territory. Classic eveningwear was reimagined through exaggerated proportions, unexpected volumes, and surreal details. A black dress appeared traditional from the front, only to reveal a sculptural silhouette from the side, while corsetry, lingerie references, and distorted shapes paid tribute to Jean Paul Gaultier’s long history of challenging fashion conventions.
The show also reflected the ongoing conversation between Gaultier’s legacy and Lantink’s own design language. From the house’s iconic relationship with corsetry to its celebration of individuality and self-expression, the collection looked to the past while pushing couture into new territory. The front row included Jean Paul Gaultier, Teyana Taylor, Cardi B, and Catherine Deneuve, who came to witness Lantink’s first couture collection for the Maison.
Manish Malhotra
Manish Malhotra made his official debut at Paris Haute Couture Week, presenting his Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection titled Maa at the iconic Pavillon Cambon in Paris, an intimate tribute to his late mother Sudarshan Malhotra; the collection blended French haute couture silhouettes with Indian hand-embroidery techniques including zardozi and resham, featuring luxurious velvets, silks and brocades drawn from the distinctive colours of the sarees his mother wore during the 1970s. In his show notes, Malhotra wrote that her passing had transformed memory into reflection, and reflection into creation, describing the collection as a tribute to the architecture of a mother’s unconditional love.
The debut placed Malhotra among a select group of Indian designers on the official Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode calendar, marking a significant moment for Indian fashion on the global couture stage. Alongside the couture presentation, Malhotra also unveiled his latest jewellery collection, extending the world of the show beyond the runway and into wearable pieces that carried the same emotional weight as everything else on display.
For a designer who has spent more than three decades shaping how Indian fashion looks and feels, arriving in Paris with a collection this personal and this considered felt less like a debut and more like a long overdue arrival.
Day Four: Frozen Eden and Threads Of Light
Celia Kritharioti
Celia Kritharioti titled her Fall/Winter 2026-2027 couture collection Frozen Eden, imagining a world suspended in the moments after the forbidden fruit, where innocence and temptation exist in the same breath. Deep black velvet carried the weight of mystery while delicate white lace, sheer tulle and weightless fabrics spoke of something far more fragile.
Vivid red couture gowns broke through the monochromatic palette with an urgency that felt entirely intentional, gold accents hinted at a lost divinity and shimmering silver reflected light like ice, holding the whole collection in its frozen dreamscape without ever letting it thaw.
Jennifer Lopez sat front row, her presence reaffirming a longstanding connection to the designer and her house that needs no introduction. Kimberly Guilfoyle was also among the guests, adding to an atmosphere that matched the spectacle on the runway in every sense.
Rami Al Ali
For his Haute Couture collection, Rami Al Ali looked to the landscapes, traditions, and cultural exchanges of the region, transforming familiar symbols into a celebration of modern femininity. Drawing inspiration from the Gulf’s desert landscapes, heritage, and the movement of cultures along the Silk Road, the collection explored the relationship between history and contemporary couture.
The show opened with a powerful statement: a gown inspired by the ghutra. Reimagined through geometric folds and mother-of-pearl embellishments, the piece transformed a symbol traditionally associated with men into an expression of feminine strength. The colour palette reflected the changing beauty of the desert, moving from pearly whites and golden tones to deeper shades of grey and black.
Throughout the collection, intricate details brought elements of the natural world to life. Layered mother-of-pearl sequins and crystals echoed the texture of palm trees, while an asymmetric gold gown drew inspiration from traditional tent fabrics. While the inspiration was deeply rooted in heritage, the silhouettes remained distinctly modern. Long, fluid columns and softly draped gowns created an effortless sense of movement, with carefully placed asymmetry adding a feeling of spontaneity.
Lead Image Courtesy of Instagram /@chanelofficial