Everything we loved at Paris Haute Couture Week SS26 (so far)

Hot on the heels of Paris Men’s Fashion Week AW26, anticipation for women’s haute couture is already at a fever pitch. Across the city’s historic salons and gilded venues, storied maisons like Dior and Chanel, couture stalwarts including Schiaparelli and Robert Wun, and Indian couturiers Rahul Mishra and Gaurav Gupta are set to return with their most ambitious visions yet–couture as fantasy, as rebellion, and as a reminder of why fashion, at its highest level, still matters. From gravity-defying constructions to embroidery that borders on the surreal, the season feels especially charged: a meeting point of legacy and reinvention, restraint and excess.

This edition is foreshadowed with brimming anticipation–major debuts, emotional transitions, and a growing shift toward broader global representation. All eyes are on Jonathan Anderson’s Dior couture debut and Matthieu Blazy’s first haute couture outing for Chanel. The season also marks a historic moment for Armani Privé, as we’ll see the house presenting for the first time without the late Giorgio Armani. There’s also a heightened sense of expectation surrounding Alessandro Michele’s vision for Valentino, following the recent passing of founder Valentino Garavani.

Below are the hottest moments from Paris Haute Couture Week Spring-Summer 26.

Schiaparelli

Schiaparelli didn’t just open couture week–it cracked it wide open. Titled The Agony & The Ecstasy, Daniel Roseberry’s latest collection was an emotional exhale, sparked by a visit to the Sistine Chapel, and realised through a symphony of heavenly feathers, flowers and tulle.  Inside the Petit Palais, where the likes of Demi Moore and Carla Bruni took their seats, Roseberry unleashed a flight of fantasy where nature came alive. Models emerged in razor-cut blazers with cathedral-high feathered collars, scorpion tails arcing over their heads, and avian gowns blooming in tulle, resin and crystal. Standout pieces– like the Elsa jacket, its collar unfurling into a wing–felt less like clothing and more like emotion made tangible. One standout blue gown alone required 8,000 hours of work, 27 shades of blue, and an astonishing 65,000 faux feathers. Alex Consani walked in a feather-and-lace peacock-inspired gown. Couture, Roseberry reminded us, isn’t meant to be worn daily. It’s meant to be felt–viscerally, unapologetically, and without explanation.

Christian Dior

Dior’s couture debut under Jonathan Anderson unfolded like a poetic reset. On the front row, Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, Karlie Kloss, and Anya Taylor-Joy set the tone. The collection was softer, more playful, and deeply sentimental. Anderson went big with blooms: supersized silhouettes, 3D flowers, and tactile detailing that demanded a closer look. Inspired by a simple posy of cyclamen gifted by John Galliano, the collection bloomed into an exploration of flora, form, and feeling. Iconic Dior jackets were elongated and reimagined, pear-shaped floor-length gowns curved gently around the body, and conical silhouettes nodded to couture history with a lightness of touch. Nature appeared everywhere– painterly prints, green fringing, and jewel-like ladybug and bee bags. Watching from the front row was Galliano himself, taking it all in up close. Closing the show, Mona Tougaard emerged as the Dior bride in a flower-embellished white gown–romantic, hopeful and quietly joyful. It was Anderson’s Loewe-era whimsy, translated into Dior’s language, proving couture can still surprise.

Rahul Mishra

Rahul Mishra’s Alchemy unfolded at Paris Couture Week as a meditation on creation itself. Rooted in the Panchabuta– the five elements of Indian philosophy–and expanded through scientific ideas of space and time, the collection translated abstract thought into painstaking couture. Months of coordination between India and Paris, involving what Mishra described as “almost an entire village,” revealed themselves in garments dense with labour and intention. Signature protruding silhouettes shimmered with sequins and hand embroidery, structured forms blooming outward as if shaped by air and fire. Rather than literal references, Mishra offered hyper-real interpretations of nature–earth, water, heat and light rendered through texture, volume and craft. Classic yet continually evolving, Alchemy felt like a quiet assertion of Mishra’s worldview: couture not as spectacle alone, but as process, patience and belief–an invitation to slow down, look closer, and remember our place within something far larger.

Lead image: Getty Images 

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