(Paris) Jennifer Lopez at Schiaparelli, Rihanna at Dior: haute couture week opened Monday in Paris, with a glamorous gallery of stars and radiant creations for this “Olympus of fashion”, showcase of an industry which generates billions.
Not to be confused with Paris Fashion Week, Women’s Haute Couture Week takes place in January for summer and in July for winter, only in Paris, as it is a protected French specificity. by legal status.
This is a closed event, where only the press and customers can attend the presentations of unique pieces necessarily made by hand.
As often, the “ front row “, the first row, steals the show on the podium.
At Schiaparelli, squeezed into their chairs: actress Zendaya and singer Jennifer Lopez, wet hair effect bob, and even Carla Bruni. The most famous bobbed woman in fashion, Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of the magazine Vogueattended the dazzling parade, hidden behind her sunglasses, with the acronym hidden so as not to upset anyone.
The brand’s best customers, of all ages, were placed in the front row, dressed with spectacular toiletries, corsets, cages, sculptures in gilding and precious stones, slit dresses…
Black velvet
The announced theme of this parade, designed by designer Daniel Roseberry, was “creatures from the beyond”.
The historic house, which only makes haute couture, has once again pushed the technological limits, creating a minidress made from fragments of hard drives, microprocessors and floppy disks.
But also, it’s impossible to escape the western aesthetic, definitely that of the 2025 season, with in the middle of velvet sheaths and gilding, an explosive fringed jacket, the designer’s nod to his native Texas.
At Dior, at the Rodin museum, an installation by the artist Isabella Ducrot covered the gigantic room built by LVMH for these 13 minutes of fashion show.
The director of Dior’s women’s lines, Maria Grazia Chiuri, explains that she delved into the reflections of the philosopher of aesthetics, Walter Benjamin, for this semester, returning to the definition of what a work of art is.
After initial and timid passages in beige tones, moiré, this finish which makes the fabric ripple, sweeps over the feminine silhouettes sublimated in sheath dresses, velvet look and bare shoulders.
The hairstyle, by British scissor star Guido Palau, is a low, fuzzy bun, where the oval of the face is enhanced by a very chic and very Dior thin black velvet ribbon, tied at the nape of the neck.
“Stimulate transactions”
Also worth noting for this first day of haute couture: a fashion show honoring materials from the sub-Saharan continent at Cameroonian Imane Ayissi, who had invited several football players, from Lilian Thuram to Mamadou Sakho.
Traditionally, haute couture is also a demonstration of “ soft power » in the fashion capital.
In this world tour of talents and economic-artistic influences, the Indian ambassador Jawed Ashref thus received at home the discreet designer Vaishali S., with barefoot goddesses and as if dressed by the gods of nature, all in feather dresses and plant braiding.
From an economic point of view, “with its ultra-select clientele, not only does haute couture stimulate transactions, but it consolidates the French capital’s place as a global center of creativity,” the designer told Fashion Network. head of the French Federation of Haute Couture, Pascal Morand.
Thirty houses are listed on the official calendar for haute couture week, which runs until Thursday.