PARIS -- Paris couture this season did something unexpected: It got lighter and down to earth.Not just in fabric, but in attitude.
Even with major couture debuts at Chanel, Dior and Armani Privé — and a week shadowed by Valentino Garavani’s death in Rome — the strongest message on the runways was restraint with impact.Clothes that looked miraculous up close, but less like museum pieces and more like something a woman could actually move in.Transparency was the season’s easiest headline, but the point wasn’t nakedness: It was craft made to float.
Chanel opened Matthieu Blazy’s first couture collection with the powerhouse’s classic skirt suit rendered in blush organza: familiar, but ghosted.In the front row, the message landed on celebrities too: Nicole Kidman arrived in black feathered Chanel with pearl accessories, proof that “lightness” doesn’t have to read fragile, while Gracie Abrams popped in a light, wispy fringed Chanel tweed in electric yellow.
The tailoring was strict; the fabric was airy.At rival Dior, Jonathan Anderson pushed the same idea through contrast, pairing nearly sheer ribbed tanks with painstakingly embroidered evening skirts: a couture bottom with a real-life top.
Armani Privé, under Silvana Armani — who put on her first couture show since her uncle Giorgio Armani died in September — made lightness look expensive.Organza shirts and ties appeared alongside “mille-feuille” gowns that shimmered through layers of micro-crystals without turning heavy.
Elie Saab, the patron saint of red-carpet spectacle, chased breeziness too, making embroidery melt into tulle and fringe fall like liquid metal.At Schiaparelli, Teyana Taylor amplified the season ’s see-through mood in a sheer lace dress layered with jewelry — lingerie-level exposure, couture-level intention.A second shift ran through the week: couture moving toward the daily wardrobe.Blazy framed Chanel as “real-life couture” — clothes for work, for a play, ...