Another Couture Fashion Week has officially kicked off in Paris. This season's schedule, which began with Schiaparelli, Dior, and Giambattista Valli on Monday, will see the brands present their spring/summer 2025 collections.
Under the gilded ceilings of the Petit Palais, Schiaparelli opened Paris Couture Week with a dazzling spectacle titled “Icarus.” Gleaming gold talismans, envisioned as gleaming suns, lined the runway — a nod to the myth of the boy who flew riskily too close to the sun.
The collection embodied themes of risk-taking by subverting classic couture codes, daring to push boundaries. Unlike Icarus, however, this collection did not fall; it soared.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Marisa Berenson, and Kelly Rutherford watched Kendall Jenner and other models walk with stately grace, deliberately evoking old-school couture shows’ slow pacing.
This traditional presentation style was mirrored in the soundtrack, which blended romantic melodies with George Michael’s (asterisk)Father Figure(asterisk) — a fusion of classic romance and contemporary edge. This duality was reflected in the collection itself: traditional couture techniques and silhouettes were funked up with daring, avant-garde twists.
"When beginning this season of haute couture, I found myself looking for old and unusual colour references," said creative director Daniel Roseberry. "I ended up at an antique shop with an inventory of ribbons from the 1920s and 1930s. Before the war, many of these ribbons were created in Lyon, and shipped around the world. But when Germany invaded France, many of these spools of ribbon were hidden away, lost for a period to history.
"You’ll see some of these ribbons this morning on the dresses in this collection. As I ran my hand among them last year, I realised what I wanted to do: Create something that feels new because it’s old. I’m so tired of everyone constantly equating modernity with simplicity: Can’t the new also be worked, be baroque, be extravagant? Has our fixation on what looks or feels modern become a limitation? Has it cost us our imagination?".
Roseberry’s Icarus reimagined traditional couture codes with a provocative edge. Inspired by vintage ribbons, he turned soft hues like butter, saffron and “toast” brown into bold baroque silhouettes that disrupted tradition.
Feather accents, typically ethereal, became sculptural and dramatic, while embroidered corsets — traditionally symbols of refinement and restriction —featured whimsical rosettes made out of resin, a material more often associated with industrial design. This unexpected choice questioned the seriousness often tied to couture.
Standout pieces included a lace bustier gown with an absinthe green bow-front skirt. Sharp, sculpted hips added architectural structure to flowing gowns. The collection balance between wearability and whimsy — something critics have praised Roseberry’s for — was particularly evident here, making Icarus a testament to the evolution of couture itself.
The audience buzzed with the show’s restrained theatrics, a departure from viral moments like taxidermy animal heads or the unforgettable sight of Doja Cat covered head-to-toe in red paint and 30,000 crystals.
This more measured approach allowed the designs to take center stage.
“Previous seasons were pure spectacle — this felt more focused,” murmured one guest, reflecting on the contrast.
Roseberry reflected on the essence of couture: “Haute couture is by definition a quest for perfection. ... It promises escape from our complicated reality and reminds us that perfection comes at a price.”
He also emphasized his ambition to bridge nostalgia with innovation. “I wanted people to feel the collection was referencing a different time,” Roseberry said.
On the collection’s theme, the designer added, “Icarus is about ambition — creative, bold, and risky. It’s about how far we can push without losing ourselves.”
This season’s Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week runs until January 30 with the buzziest day is likely Wednesday, which will see the couture debut of Alessandro Michele at Valentino. That evening, Ludovic de Saint Sernin will be the latest designer to take on Jean Paul Gaultier couture, the eighth (and youngest) to do so since JPG began the guest couturier program in 2020.
The calendar is rounded out by a handful of other couture mainstays, including Armani Privé, Elie Saab, and Giambattista Valli.
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