The Best Looks From the Fall/Winter 2023 Couture Shows in Paris

Fendi closed out the week with a show focused on bringing jewelry to life through clothing. Kim Jones continues to bring his eye for contemporary dressing to the world of couture with simple column gowns and intricate separates taking on the air of the everyday, but infused with embroideries dripping off the body like high jewelry. The color palette was muted with pops of rich red, symbolizing rubies, and tones of green and tan, taking on the life of emeralds and gold, giving new life to gems and metals. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate

For Pierpaolo Piccioli's latest vision for Valentino couture, showgoers were treated to a trip outside of Paris to the Château de Chantilly for an epic show at golden hour. Piccioli's vision for couture continues to embrace modernity, with an opening sequence of couture-ified jeans and white shirts. Menswear and womenswear alike both were treated as nothing too delicate, with even the most embroidered and decadent looks taking on a lightness that only expert artisans can bring to textiles like brocade, crushed velvet and lace. The range of colors, silhouettes, and textures brings something for truly everyone, whether heading to the bakery or the opera. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate

Leave it to Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf to couture-ify the bathing suit. True to form, their couture collection included an exaggerated number of bows and ruffles, big, statement making text elements, and, of course, some strangeness. How should one interpret the tuxedo-ed mannequin forms draped, or rather clung to, the models walking the runway? Sure, you can float on the surface, or you can dive into the possibilities.—Madison Rexroat, fashion & accessories assistant

Jean Paul Gaultier's guest designer couture show series continued this week with Rabanne's creative director Julien Dossena taking his turn at reimagining JPG's history in his vision. The resulting show was one of dark glamour, with Rabanne's signature chainmail and heady metallics meshing with Gaultier's hallmark corsetry, romance, and sexuality. The collection was far-reaching in its references, with a re-issue of Gaultier's iconic tie corset, plus his marine strips and feathers making an appearance. A few of the most special gowns were connected by a chainmail train, proving two is almost always better than one. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate

For Balenciaga's 52nd couture show, creative director Demna continued to mesh the world of high fashion with technology for another collection honoring both the past and future. Supermodels like Eva Herzigova, Liu Wen, and Natasha Poly, plus French icon Isabelle Huppert, walked somberly to an AI-generated soundtrack of Maria Callas in expertly cut tailoring, outerwear and scarves that were painstakingly hand-sculpted to appear windblown, and gowns cut in guipure lace and crystals that laid on and off the body just so, embracing and rejecting traditional forms of eveningwear in equal doses. The finale dress presents Joan of Arc in the year 3000 in a 3D-printed resin and chrome armor gown that embraces everything Demna is pushing for in couture, as the press release summarizes beautifully: "perfection will now only be neared if technology is included as an addition to the most important factor in dressmaking: the human component." —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate

For Giorgio Armani this season, it was all about the rose. The eternal symbol of romance and beauty was spun in Armani's vision of couture, with a delightful array of beaded and sequined dresses, delicate Chinosiere gowns, and flowing pantsuits that reimagined the flower in symmetrical, romantic ways that provided one of the purest visions of the week. The effect was one of great beauty, never falling into clichés as one may expect of florals, but instead a great expertise that demonstrated why Armani is one of the truest names in couture. —Kevin LeBlanc, fashion associate