Twice a year (well, four, if you include ready-to-wear) the usual calm and serenity that is the romantic streets of Paris explode with a parade of colour, extravagance and traffic-stopping influencers trying to get that perfect Eiffel Tower shot. And that’s before you’ve even got inside the Haute Couture Fashion Week shows.

Early July heralds the arrival of the AW25 Haute Couture collections – i.e. the gowns and garments you’ll see at billionaire’s Christmas parties and on the Oscars red carpet. A typically a star-studded event, so far this season we’ve seen Kim Kardashian doing Elizabeth Taylor cosplay on the Balenciaga runway (walking in the same show as Naomi Campbell – a tough gig), while Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, Cardi B, Keira Knightley, and Lorde have all been spotted sitting front row.

But, even among that celestial and audience, the true spectacle at coterie week will always be the clothes. From voluminous Elie Saab to crystal-spangled Robert Wun and sleek Armani Privé, see all the highlights from the AW25 Haute Couture collections below.

Elie Saab

Named La Nouvelle Cour, or The New Court, Elie Saab’s AW25-26 Haute Couture collection was truly fit for the modern queen. As ever with Saab’s collections, this season was all about the gowns and nothing but the gowns, with a sumptuous palette of golds, pearly pinks, ebony and Regency blue adding an unashamedly feminine and utterly regal vibe to proceedings.

Sculptural silhouettes cinched the waist and exaggerated the hips in a nod to the crinolines and bustles of the 19^th century while ornate embroidery and a recurring motif of floral bouquets at lapel, bust and hip brought to mind the corsages of girlish debutantes. Which is not to say this was in any way an old-fashioned collection. Rather playful cut-outs, sheer fabrics and figure skimming drapery, complemented by loose beachy waves and understated make-up, lent a contemporary, rebellious attitude. If there were ever a way to lion nonchalant while wearing a few hundred thousands pounds worth of dress, this was it.

Giambattista Valli

AW25 marks Giambattista Valli’s 29^th haute couture collection and, in that time, he’s rather mastered the art of creating dresses that are impossible to ignore. Case in point: a floral embroidered lemon yellow ballgown comprised of layers of tulle approximately five metres in diameter. Like I said, hard to ignore.

Truth be told, however, this represented something of a more demure collection for Valli. While there was, of course, plenty of froth – that belong Valli’s bread and butter – the diaphanous gowns were outnumbered by sleeker, almost Grecian style chiffon draperies, textured floral bodices and silhouettes made extreme with bow-style structures at the hips and shoulders. All rendered in a sherbet-hued palette, this was a refreshing and meticulously crafted collection made with the modern couture customer in mind. 

Armani Privé

While unable to be present at the show himself due to ill health, Giorgio Armani’s AW25 Haute Couture collection was definitive proof that, even at the age of 90, he remains as sharp as ever. Named Noir Séduisant (Seductive Black), Armani took the shade so many of us turn to as a failsafe, blend-into-the-background hue and explored its many and varied uses, creating a collection that simultaneously adopted and defied the old Henry Ford adage.

Particularly strong in its use of texture, the shade was seen across luscious velvets, spangled with crystals on lapels and cuffs, as chiffon draped over metallic fabrics, and as feathery fringing. While some colour did sneak in by way of sequinned embroidery, in truth, its absence only served to highlight the savoir faire of the house’s tailoring and the striking potential of monotone garments. The Witches, but make it fashion.

Tamara Ralph

“Each collection carries tremendous meaning – and bears its own inherently unique story – however this season is particularly meaningful as I celebrate two years since the debut of my namesake brand,” said Tamara Ralph after her show at the Paris’ Orbe New York. “It has been a whirlwind, but I continue to design and create with endless inspiration, infinite creativity and an unwavering love for what I am so fortunate to do.”

Ralph has always been one to make her collections highly personal (in previous years her daughter has accompanied her for the final bow), and AW25 was emblematic of the designer’s penchant for glamour made simple. Ralph’s favoured monochrome colour scheme dominated, interspersed with feminine pinks and sophisticated navies, while silhouettes remained simple: almost uniformly figure-hugging sheaths and A-line ballgowns throughout. For Ralph, the devil is always in the detail. Here it shone through in fabulous pearl, crystal and mother-of-pearl embroidery, voluminous feathers and carefully placed embellishment to add movement and drama as the wearer walks. I’m sold.

Robert Wun

With his latest Haute Couture collection, Becoming, Robert Wun composed an “exploration into the ritual of dressing and the purpose of fashion into life’s moments”. It’s a fitting theme for couture which, more than any other category of garment, is saved for the biggest, most important and glamorous occasion and worn with serious pomp and ceremony. 

All of which may come as a bit of a surprise if you were to simply look at Wun’s surrealist collection. Telling the story of a day, from getting up in the morning, to dressing, having your hair down and finally donning your gown, the invisible hand of the hairdresser, designer, makeup artist et al were seen literally in prosthetic arms added to gowns and hats and worn around necks. A ‘half-finished’ dress was accessorised with a sheet mask and a model in a bralet carried a suit jacket as a handbag while elsewhere fabulous feathered headpieces were worn with dazzling gowns that wouldn’t look out of place at even the most exacting of black tie events. This isn’t a collection you’re likely to forget in a hurry.

Maison Margiela

A highly anticipated debut from Maison Margiela’s new creative director Glenn Martens – who took over the helm in January – he proved he was more than capable of filling the big shoes John Galliano left behind with this couture collection. Building on Maison Margiela’s penchant for the avant garde, silhouettes were inspired by medieval architecture of Flanders and the Netherlands while references to 16^th century Flemish and 17^th century Dutch artwork turned bodies into canvases. 

Lace, wet drapery, veiled silhouettes and hand-painted garments were all at play here, while Martens stayed true to the maison’s codes of anonymity by keeping models' faces masked. If the world of fashion ever needed a lesson in making an impactful debut, this would be it. 

Schiaparelli

One of the most exciting names on the couture circuit, Schiaparelli’s creative director Daniel Roseberry ironically looked to the past, namely eponymous designer Elsa Schiaparelli, to create his most futuristic collection to date. Inspired by Elsa’s move from Paris to New York during the Second World War, Roseberry introduced an entirely new monochrome palette while moving away from the maison’s signature corseted styles to showcase a new range of silhouettes – think designs which define the waist and hips with modern tailoring, while paying homage to the techniques of Elsa’s era. 

A highlight is the Elsa jacket – a sharp-shouldered piece that references Schiaparelli’s archives – and the fantastical ‘Apollo’ cape: an original design by Elsa that has been reimagined, as Roseberry says, as “an enormous spray of diamanté bijoux in three layers of metal starbursts, galvanized in different shades of black, gunmetal, and satin silver”. As always, Schiaparelli is dripping with drama. 

Read more: The most dazzling high jewellery collections of 2025