As the apex of the four fashion capitals, Paris Fashion Week is a smorgasbord of heavyweight heritage houses. Amid its sprawling nine-day schedule, we’ve already been treated to offerings from Dior and Saint Laurent, with Chanel, Schiaparelli, Givenchy and Hermès still to come.
Now entering his third ready-to-wear season at Dior, Jonathan Anderson’s SS27 offering tread firmly in the realm of ethereality. Signatures from his tenure at the house resurfaced, most notably his enduring affinity with the natural world, where flower-like shapes and volumes bloomed freely within his perpetually vernal world.
Saint Laurent’s SS27 show, meanwhile, was likely the last we’ll see under Anthony Vaccarello. It was a gilded affair, with a twinkling Eiffel Tower providing a fitting backdrop as models took to the runway beneath a dazzling cluster of oversized chandeliers.
Ahead, the collections and moments shaping Paris Fashion Week so far.
Saint Laurent
“I love gold, it’s a magical colour,” Yves Saint Laurent once said, as quoted in the show notes. “When reflecting a woman, it’s the colour of the sun.” Gold has long held an affinity with the house, from the gilded buttons adorning Yves Saint Laurent’s first pea coat at his 1962 fashion show —the first piece he presented under his own name — to his collaboration with artist Claude Lalanne, who created a series of sculptures in gold-galvanised copper, worn over chiffon evening dresses.
Now, across 59 looks, the latest SS27 collection received its own golden treatment. Sahariennes, trenches, blouses and skirts were rendered in a spectrum of burnished, Byzantine and pale gold hues. Yet gold was far from merely an accent: it enveloped the collection, transforming even the most recognisable silhouettes of the Saint Laurent wardrobe, their metallic, reflective surfaces rendering familiar codes anew.
The fabrics, too, lent themselves to the dazzling radiance. Brocade, organza, lamé and guipure lace all made an appearance, while latex was coated in gold leaf, making the hue remarkably chameleonic. Amid the gilded procession, a smattering of black arrived as a counterpoint and, ultimately, the finale.
“What passes sometimes leaves more light than what remains” the final line of the show notes read.
Dior
Jonathan Anderson’s SS27 collection for Dior took on a lighter note, quite literally. “Air is treated almost as if it were a material,” the show notes read, a sentiment translated into silk mousseline and butter-yellow plissé that fluttered down the runway.
Amid the airy fabrications, texture flourished. Pink-tinged petals blossomed across jackets, miniskirts and bags, while cascades of them fell from models’ ears in the form of gemstone-weighted earrings, many finished with a fine black scalloped border.
Metallic snakeskin trousers in silver and green punctuated otherwise ruffled, voluminous silhouettes, while elements from the Summer 2027 menswear collection were brought into the womenswear fold, most notably through sheer suiting and an embroidered trompe l’oeil scarf motif.
Elsewhere, early Dior silhouettes were reimagined with a new lightness, their familiar codes softened through gossamer fabrics and delicate construction. Even traditionally weightier patterns such as pinstripe, tartan and houndstooth were rendered seemingly light as air.
Throughout, movement and weightlessness took precedence, with the collection anticipating the sensation of a warm summer breeze, the show notes summarising it best: “Shifting into a summer sensibility, the collection anticipates a warm breeze: with lightness comes movement.”
