Fendi's Love Letter to Rome, plus More of Haute Couture's Best Looks

If there is an antidote to all of the stresses and uncertainty that the world is offering, we have to believe that it is beauty. And what does Haute Couture offer if not a sense of escapism, fantasy, and unmitigated beauty? See what Schiaparelli, Dior, Chanel, and more are sending down the runway in Paris for Spring 2022.

Fendi lit up the Palais Brongniart with all things Roman. Upon stepping into the venue, guests were greeted with a light display of the brand's Roman headquarters floating in the air. Once models took to the runway, Artistic Director Kim Jones showed embroidered capes, boned mini dresses and beaded gowns that had long, lean lines that went on for days, all inspired by Roman temporality, ancient and future. Most standout were the hand-painted monastic faces and statues which were applied to luxurious velvet and mink fabrics. Following the trend of draping at haute couture week, the brand also showed the technique in full form, through royal red and navy blue gowns, their boned underpinnings peeking out ever so slightly. The surface embellishments and shapes were pure fantasy for the fashion admirer. —Kristen Bateman

Valentino aptly titled its spring 2022 couture collection, “Anatomy of Couture.” Presented as an incredibly intimate, socially distanced show, Pierpaolo Piccioli attempted to recast the social convention of what haute couture is leveraging diversity in the models who were cast. The collection featured a variety of body shapes and sizes, as well as ages. Rarely, if ever, are curve or older models seen on the haute couture runways, which is a major and relevant statement. As for the clothing itself, there was something for everyone: structured taffeta gowns with bold bows in bright hues, suits with surface embellishment galore, and mini dresses that pulled in references of Roman and Hellenistic draping. The beauty of the collection is that it showed different sides of haute couture–modernity, relevancy and joyousness included. —Kristen Bateman

In place of its usual performance-based show with dancers and live musicians, the small French haute couture brand Franck Sorbier held a digital show complete with an editorial video and lookbook. Still, there was an emphasis on looking on the brighter side of things, with diaphanous silk organza gowns in every shade of the rainbow. In fact, the entire collection was rendered in that sumptuous fabric, with sculpted flowers, ruffles and feather trim. Volume was created through layering of the detailed fabric, and the end result resembled dream-like confections from another planet. —Kristen Bateman

How should a fashion brand leave its mark? Jean Paul Gaultier's answer is literally on one's body. His signature corsetry augments and alters the female form, and if you've ever been lucky enough to wear one of his bodices, you know it literally imprints its bones on your skin. It’s lear Y/Project’s Glenn Martens reveres that stamp of honor, and the designer picked to “remix” this season of couture takes the job very seriously. Witness the corset gowns where the fabric boils over into frothy ruched trains, the wink of pink chiffon arched to look like a Valentine heart, and the sculptural wool wrap-arounds cribbed from Marten’s own acclaimed collections. And though the Belgian designer insists “these looks have no business being on the street,” peep Sara Grace Wallenstedt in a satin corset top and sandblasted denim skirt, and tell me you can't see street style moments for pop stars, movie stars, and 9 out of 10 Euphoria trainwrecks, all coveting the mark of Martens for themselves. —Faran Krentcil

“Fear can be overpowering,” says the Viktor & Rolf show statement, which cites Dracula as an inspiration for the label’s 25 couture looks. And sure, with the models' powdered pallor and black lipstick, the runway was vibing hard on vintage Hollywood vampires. (Therexfs also something to the immortality of a fashion icon, since this collection draws on the V&R bloodline from 1993’s famous Hyères show.) But while the floating shoulders and spines of each garment imply a girl who’s literally jumping out of her skin, the soft lace and swirly grosgrain fabrics bring a sweet sense of calm to the clothes, and draws you in with some serenely-seamed hypnotics... so yeah, Dracula it is. —Faran Krentcil

Shimmering sequins, floaty feather trims, and beaded embellishments, oh my! Alexandre Vauthier made his return to the runway after back-to-back seasons of digital shows. Once known for his signature venue of the glimmering Grand Palais, the designer switched things up and took guests on a journey to a warehouse style building on the outskirts of Paris, with booming music that literally made the room shake. Yet the glitter and glamour was all there. Each season one can count on Vauthier for a heavy dose of adornment with a side of toughness, and this collection was no exception. The designer leaned heavily on couture fabrics with his signature ’80s edge that shone through in oversized sweaters dripping in beadwork and baggy, big-shouldered suits, nipped in all the right places. Vauthier is a celeb favorite for good reason, with a huge range of appeal from Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. We have no doubt these pieces will be a hit on the red carpet and elsewhere, especially the glam dresses with plenty of splices running down the sides and the deep cuts of the cool oversized suiting. Each piece had a hint of revealing skin, subtle or not. Will you choose a sheer maxi gown, a ruffled mini dress, or the thigh-high slit when it comes time to go out again? —Kristen Bateman

Virgine Viard was free associating for her Spring 2022 Chanel couture collection. She invited French artist Xavier Veilhan to create an installation piece for the Grand Palais because “his references to constructivism remind me of those of Karl Lagerfeld” and the “avant-gardes of the 1920s and 1930s,” Coco Chanel’s contemporaries. Veilhan, for his part, suggested working with Charlotte Casiraghi because horses are a part of his artistic practice and the longtime Chanel muse is a noted equestrian, so there she was opening the show on horseback in a black tweed jacket with sequins. If that all sounds a bit convoluted, it wasn’t really: the show felt very Coco, very Karl—and very Virginie. Viard reinterpreted Chanel icons like the camellia and bouclé with aplomb, partnering with Lesage to create a dress entirely covered in graphic flowers embroidered from black, white and coral beads, and crafting a bouclé jacket in cheerful pink and white stripe. She danced through decades: there were 1920s drop waist dresses, two-tone Mary Janes from Viard’s beloved 1980s, and peek-a-boo midriffs of the 2020s, embellished with a joyful mix of flounces, fringe, macramé, bright lace, iridescent tweeds, and colorful jeweled buttons. “It’s like a conversation that crosses time,” Viard says. —Alison S. Cohn

Maria Grazia Chiuri brought today’s Dior show to the Musée Rodin set against tapestries by artists Madhvi and Manu Parekh and hand-made by Chanakya, a collective in India that the designer regularly works with. The pieces, which took 380 artisans 280,000 hours to embroider, will be on display for the public from January 25 to 30. While some fashion houses are leaning into NFTs and the metaverse, Chiuri is going back to the luxury of hand craft to “honor human relationships with handmade objects, expressing a desire to abolish the boundaries between art and craft once and for all,” per the show notes. It’s less about returning to the screen and more about returning to each other. To that end, there are intricate embroideries over organza and tulle and bodysuits or tights complete with hand-stitching—lest you thought the catsuit idea was a one-season wonder. A double breasted coat, capes, and cream and gray suiting prove to be more covered up counterparts to so many sheer moments. The result is a collection that is tactile, deceptively simple, and wonderfully human. —Kerry Pieri

Pointing to the uncertainty of the last couple of years, in a letter to accompany his Fall 2022 couture collection, Daniel Roseberry asks, “with regards to this Maison, what does surrealism mean when reality itself has been redefined?” The designer answered that question himself by creating a collection that’s more pared down in color (he used only black, white, and gold) and volume, but no less impactful and fanciful. “I realized that what felt exciting in this moment was something different, something restrained,” he says. “Suddenly, color felt wrong to me. So, did volume. All of the tricks that couture designers (including me) use to communicate grandeur and craftsmanship—big silhouettes, glorious poufs of fabric, huge volume—felt hollow.”

In short, when the world is too much, look to the heavens “as a place to escape from the chaos of our planet, but also the home of a mythical high priestess, at once goddess and alien, who might in fact walk among us." That alien-priestess-goddess wears sharply tailored suiting, gilded cone bras that feel to be an homage to Jean Paul Gautlier, a long tailcoat in satin back faille, embroidered with the Apollo Fountain of Versailles. The Schiaparelli go-tos of the eyes, padlocks, the lobster, the dove, and individual body parts are set in gold, and made into sculpture, more works of art than simple dress. Roseberry finishes his letter by saying, “I design in order to make people feel something....we can be reminded why we love fashion—why I love fashion. It isn’t for the celebrities. It isn’t for the likes. It isn’t for the reviews. It’s because, when it’s done right, when it has something to tell us, it can help us feel the inarticulable. It’s because it still has the power to move us.” —Kerry Pieri

Azzedine Alaïa was fashion’s consummate rule breaker, known for his gorgeous body sculpting pieces that defied the concept of seasons or trends. In his second collection for the French house, Pieter Mulier seems proud to carry that torch. While other ready to wear brands (Paco Rabanne, Kenzo) haven taken to showing during Haute Couture Fashion Week, Mulier presents something more unusual: a mostly ready-to-wear collection with a handful of couture pieces sprinkled in like Easter eggs. Among the ready to wear looks, fanciful feathers (a hallmark of couture) covered the hems of a sheer lace gown and knitted turtleneck dress. Meanwhile, the simple black finale look turned out to be couture. The through-line was construction: lace and laces became a scrim through which the body is revealed. A voluminous gown with a keyhole plunging to the navel and a ball skirt with Swiss cheese holes at the hips offered fresh takes on body-con. —Alison S. Cohn

Giambattista Valli traded his usual Haute Couture Fashion Week show for a video presentation titled the “Valli Experience” that merged his Spring 2022 couture collection with Pre-fall 2022 ready to wear. That made for some unexpected looks among the frou, like PVC-trimmed bouclé jackets and denim. The harder edge even seemed to rub off on the couture looks, which included an uncharacteristic number of black styles cut in silk mousseline, taffeta, and faille. But that’s not to say Valli forwent his signature flights of fancy entirely: there were feather embroideries and, of course, multi-layered plissé tulle gowns, which this season came in romantic hues of blush, peach, and scarlet. —Alison S. Cohn