“I won’t comment on current affairs. I was told not to. But I can quote the famous American philosopher Lady Gaga: fashion is the thing that saved me from being sad,” said Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger at a dinner hosted by the German luxury multi-brand retailer for Australian designer Christopher Esber on Saturday.
Lady Gaga’s line reflected the mood: Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2025 offered a solid season amid a geopolitical crisis, luxury slump, looming trade war and the woes of wholesale. Grounded collections, strong debuts and sunny weather — at least until Monday — put attendees in good spirits, even though many hadn’t packed accordingly. “I brought shearling!” exclaimed Tiffany Hsu, Mytheresa’s chief buying officer. The main complaint was about the geographically dispersed shows, like the day PFW attendees crossed the city from north to south and north again for the Stella McCartney, Acne and Balmain shows.
With luxury showing signs of stabilisation after a sharp fall in 2024, there’s a desire for authenticity and brands in Paris reflected that by staging more intimate shows. (Except for Coperni — the brand held a LAN party in the Adidas arena, where some 1,000 guests sat between the 200 gamers who were focused on playing Fortnite.) Meanwhile, the industry rallied to support emerging designers, some of which found clever ways to present on a budget, like this shoe brand which took editors for a carpool ride between shows. “After a period of prosperity, we have to reinvent ourselves and fashion is looking to find solutions,” explained PR guru Lucien Pagès.
Here are some of those solutions and key takeaways from the last week in Paris.
The verdict on the three debuts
A lot was at stake with the debut of Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford and of Sarah Burton at Givenchy, but in the end, both collections received standing ovations and rave reviews. Tom Ford himself hugged Ackermann at the close of the show, which Vogue Runway and Vogue Business global director Nicole Phelps called “sensational”. At Givenchy, Sarah Burton immersed herself in the archives and the work of house founder Hubert de Givenchy and succeeded in the exercise. “It feels like Sarah Burton and Haider Ackermann have both found a perfect home,” says fashion consultant Julie Gilhart.
Julian Klausner’s debut show at Dries Van Noten also had a positive reception: “Van Noten turned up today to demonstrate his support. Klausner clearly understands this brand and there was nothing tentative about this beginning. That in and of itself is promising,” Phelps wrote in her review.
Another season of transition
Loewe staged a co-ed presentation this season in Hotel Pozzo di Borgo, where Karl Lagerfeld used to live. On the eve of the event, Anderson posted a Reel on his personal Instagram that felt like a retrospective of his work at Loewe in the last 11 years. People reacted in the comments as if it was a goodbye (though no announcement has been made about his current or future role). “If the Loewe show was sorely missed in Paris this season, the lasting impression of walking through this exhibition was of just how much fun Anderson has had,” wrote Vogue Runway’s Sarah Mower. (We didn’t see Anderson at Monday’s presentation.)
At Chanel, a beautiful collection designed by the studio was a holding pattern, while eagerly waiting for Mathieu Blazy’s debut in October. Willo Perron’s installation in the shape of a monumental black ribbon served as a backdrop for a collection that focused on the codes of the house: the bow, the ribbon, the pearl and the flower along with a cross-body bag resembling the oversized pearl necklace.
Balmain is shifting towards a more toned-down aesthetic, under CEO Matteo Sgarbossa, one year into the role and working alongside longtime creative director Olivier Rousteing. (Balmain parent company Mayhoola also hired industry veteran Riccardo Bellini as managing director in January). The Balmain woman “continues to exude the sexiness she is known for, but she is now softening it with a different approach to sensuality”, Rousteing wrote in a letter sent to guests before the show.
And at Vivienne Westwood, after combining the main line with his eponymous one, Andreas Kronthaler is preparing to show menswear separately. “We definitely want to start showing menswear in Milan again, and if we can be ready, the aspiration is to be there as early as June,” he said backstage to Luke Leitch. That branch of the brand hasn t been shown alone on the runway since 2019. For Saturday s show, Kronthaler sent down an avalanche of heartily gender-bending looks, but also skiwear!
Danish export Ganni is also in transition, in terms of brand positioning. This was the second time it showed in Paris, having ostensibly grown in tandem with Copenhagen Fashion Week since its inception in 2009. The company also has a new CEO, Laura du Rusquec, whose brief is to take the brand on a journey of elevation, which she herself calls evolution.
Victoria Beckham had its first show since former CEO Marie Leblanc stepped down and was appointed CEO of Courrèges in October. Chairman Ralph Toledano is acting as interim CEO until the company names a successor. At the Friday night show, the designer opted for more esoteric silhouettes alongside its usual tailoring and eveningwear, with rolls of fabric making the hems of dresses, and sheer panels.
Kenzo is also fine-tuning its strategy: the house showed during womenswear for the first time in eight years and has a new design director, Joshua Bullen, working under artistic director Nigo. The men’s collection presented in January was the first produced by Bullen, who was previously working at Givenchy. The intimate women’s show held at the Kenzo headquarters on Rue Vivienne had good press.
At Chloe, creative director Chemena Kamali is in her third season and CEO Laurent Malecaze is a bit over a year into the role. “Chemena’s third runway show for Chloé was also a highlight,” says Net-a-Porter fashion director Kay Barron. “[It offered] ’70s-inspired boho styles with flowing silhouettes, paired with the reissued Paddington Bag, which will be snapped up by the original Chloé girls and the new devotees.”
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Carven chose to announce the appointment of a new design director, Mark Thomas, in the middle of Paris Fashion Week, before revealing the AW25 collection. The Paris-based British designer was senior designer under Louise Trotter until she left to join Bottega Veneta as creative director in January. His first show will be for SS26.
Fashion as commentary
Designers expressed their concerns about the state of politics, in various but often subtle ways. At Balenciaga, creative director Demna went for a 400-metre-long runway, constructed in the shape of a maze. “It’s very symbolic: a maze has multiple ways that you can take and multiple destinations. I feel like there is a parallel to the moment in which we are right now, especially in the industry and in general. It’s the moment where the choices are being made and the choice is final,” the designer said backstage after the show.
Duran Lantink opened his show with a woman wearing a man’s chest plate and closed with a man wearing a woman’s breast plate: “I don’t necessarily want to go deep with words on that. Playing with elements like that is self-explanatory,” the designer said backstage.
Some are looking to the past. “You can sense a will of avoiding the present, with houses looking inward. Let’s call it a hermit crab season! At Dior, there were nods to John Galliano, Gianfranco Ferré and Maria Grazia Chiuri also referenced her own archives,” says Benjamin Simmenauer, professor at Institut Française de la Mode, who also cites Rick Owens and Undercover among examples. Owens got down to basics this season, following on from his pragmatic AW25 men’s show, with more basic silhouettes, inspired by “travelling light” and the designer’s ongoing Rimowa collaboration. Jun Takahashi’s Undercover was a 35th-anniversary show, with the designer drawing inspiration from his 2004 collection.
“Some designers feel more attached to the reality of the world at the moment than others,” Richard Johnson, chief commercial and sustainability officer at Mytheresa, says. “Alaïa and Dries Van Noten, which are both opulent in their own right, have been a little more inward-looking in the sense they’ve stayed very true to what they do and what they do well, even if they’re both searching for progression and evolution.” Alaïa staged its show at its studio in the 11th arrondissement. “So it was very much on his craft. It was also apparent in the clothes, it was a real couture-sque collection in the studio,” Johnson says.
At a press conference following his show for Valentino, which was as theatrical as we know his shows to be with a set reminiscent of club bathrooms and a collection that played with the houses archive from the 1960s and 1980s, Alessandro Michele said: “I always tell myself that next time it will be simpler. That I should only focus only on the clothes, not try to create a movie. But we live in a difficult historical moment — if ever there was an easy one in history. When I was a child in the 1980s, my parents lived in an illusion and so did I. I grew up in the First Republic — there were cars and red carpets and big walnut trees and we were all deluded. I try to create that illusion with my work; I hope to act as a bridge.”
Meanwhile, an Oscar Wilde quote from 1891 opened Seán McGirr’s notes at Alexander McQueen: “‘Know thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world ‘Be thyself’ shall be written.” The collection featured pointy boots, long ruffled silk dresses and evening jackets made of pieces of shearling put together to look like wings.
Courrèges, on the other hand, was an explosion of optimism with a can of red, pink, blue and silver confetti, signalling a necessity to rejoice. “Instead of raining down in a standard end-of-party cliché ritual, it proceeded to stay up there for the entire show,” Vogue Runway’s Sarah Mower noted in her review. “This astonishing, endorphin-inducing metaphor for togetherness served not just as a pretty backdrop but as Di Felice’s formation of Courrèges as a club.”
Togetherness was also on Nicolas Ghesquière’s mind whose collection for Louis Vuitton was inspired by travel. At the end, the models stood on the balconies above the venue. “There’s no separation,” he said to Phelps. “We’re all together. That’s what is important.” The intimate show (400 guests) was held at L’Etoile du Nord, a secret station adjacent to Gare du Nord, reminiscent of the 19th-century rail travel, a story of “adventure and enchantment”, the show notes read. There was suppleness to the collection, which LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault seemed to appreciate greatly. He was seen giving it a thumbs-up.
Simplicity is one answer to the ongoing complexities of the world. At Saint Laurent, creative director Anthony Vaccarello wanted the pieces to be free of superfluous details and he made his point. The rich patterns of the onyx set reflected “a snapshot of human complexity”, according to the show notes. He also received a standing ovation from the crowd, which included Zoe Kravitz, Blackpink’s Rosé and parent company Kering chief François-Henri Pinault.
At the Hermès show, which took place on International Women’s Day, models walked the runway with determination. “It’s really about being assertive. It’s about strength. About being sexy and sophisticated — and just owning it,” artistic director Nadège Vanhée told Mower.
Gabriela Hearst was the only designer to address the political situation directly. She had American artist Rashid Johnson, a voice on Black cultural identity, walk the show and took her bow wearing an ACLU cap (an American nonprofit civil rights organisation). When exiting the show, guests were handed ACLU flyers informing people of their rights with American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Giving young talent airtime
Emerging talent continues to flourish in Paris, with the support of local prizes and incubators. Design duo Matières Fecales made a well-received runway debut this season, as the newest brand to enter the Dover Street Market Paris incubator last year. Fellow DSMP label and fashion insider favourite Vaquera opened PFW with a dramatic, vampy show, as always prompting scores of private orders from editors.
The 2024 LVMH Prize winner Ellen Hodakova Larsson of Hodakova held her sophomore show on the official PFW schedule on Thursday, the day after the LVMH Prize 2025 semi-finals. The Swedish designer’s career is a testament to the elevation the prize can bring: this is her second season working with star stylist Lotta Volkova (who also works on Miu Miu), and she’s developed new upcycled leather goods for AW25, including weekend bags made from leather trousers, to entice new stockists. Vetements and Louis Vuitton alum Alain Paul, who’s one of the 20 LVMH Prize semi finalists this year, staged his fourth show at Théâtre du Châtelet with Vetements co-founder Guram Gvasalia in attendance.
“ We’ve just come out of a 10-year period in which the luxury sector crushed everything, even though there were a lot of initiatives in favour of young designers. People who love fashion need new energy. This industry only works through fresh points of view. As it’s a season of transition and we’re all waiting for something, we’re going to see more young designers,” says Hélène Guillaume, editor-in-chief of fashion at Le Figaro. “We’re lucky enough to have Duran Lantink and Marie Adam-Leenaerdt. Zomer was a pleasant surprise, Ludovic de Saint Sernin has not gone unnoticed.”
Fur mania
Faux fur was everywhere this season, as seen on the runways at Valentino, Rabanne, Schiaparelli, Chloé, Ganni, Kenzo, Coperni, Miu Miu and Vaquera. “There’s a lot of shearling that has been worked to appear like very convincing fur,” says Mytheresa’s Johnson notes, who thinks it will sell well. Simon Longland, buying director of fashion at Harrods, agrees: “Shaggy faux fur and shearling were omnipresent, making statement outerwear the key investment, best layered over rich brown leather.”
“We’re embracing this trend and naturally growing our offerings,” says Net-a-Porter’s Barron. “This season, we’re not just seeing faux fur and shearling on outerwear, but also on accessories like scarves and footwear, as well as in the detailing of ready-to-wear styles such as collars, skirt hems and coat linings.”
“We ve had requests from all over” for this season’s collections, confirms Christopher Sarfati, founder of Ecopel, a faux fur supplier. “There is a trend towards more realism: mink, Mongolian long hair, sheep. Faux fur has become mainstream and we are going to revolutionise the sector with a new line using biopolymers derived from the sweet part of starch plants.” The new material will be on the market starting AW26.
Until then, faux fur remains mostly synthetic, which is why some people argue that real vintage fur is better for the environment. And real fur did make an appearance on the runway: Gabriela Hearst sent a repurposed vintage mink jacket down the runway and Hodakova too featured vintage fur.
A smaller celebrity scene
Paris Fashion Week was held one week later than usual this time. It started the day after the Oscars, which prevented some Hollywood A-listers from attending. Or was it because smaller shows replaced big spectacles?
Insiders confirmed that fewer A-listers were making the rounds in Paris than seasons past, but some did find their ways to the shows. Adrien Brody, who won the best actor Oscar, made it to the Lacoste show on Sunday, as did Claire Danes. Zoe Saldana, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her part in Emila Perez, produced by Saint Laurent, attended the house’s show on Tuesday night. Brands have their eyes on streaming platforms and so unsurprisingly, the cast of The White Lotus season three came to Paris., including Leslie Bibb at Balmain and Sarah Catherine Hook attended at Hermès, while Leslie Bibb was spotted at Balmain and Roger Vivier. The latter held a presentation on Tuesday to celebrate its rose-themed AW25 collection. American rapper Doechii and singer Chappell Roan were spotted frequently. Doechii became this season’s breakout star, with multiple appearances, show-stopping street style outfits and a performance at the afterparty for the Grand Dîner du Louvre, which opened PFW as Paris’s answer to the Met Gala.
K-pop and Asian celebrities turned up in force. Chinese pop stars Xin Liu and Mingyu were at Dior, creating a frenzy. Juyeon of South Korean boyband The Boyz attended the Balenciaga show, which Seonghwa of fellow K-pop band Ateez walked. Stray Kids’s Felix drew crowds to Gare du Nord where the Louis Vuitton show was held.
Miu Miu brought some fresh celebrity talent to the end of PFW, with A$AP Rocky, Sydney Sweeney and Chinese singer-songwriter Roy Wang sat front row, while actors Sarah Paulson and Laura Harrier walked the runway. Miuccia Prada once again straddled opulence and wearability, with sexy conical bullet bras under knits and silk slip dresses, fur scarves and huge silver earrings contrasted with more casual separates, styled and layered in the brand’s signature kooky way by Lotta Volkova. This careful balance of creativity and commerciality is perhaps one reason the brand is in hyper-growth, despite the slowdown affecting most labels.
Back to the office
A number of brands used office spaces as sets this season, including Stella McCartney and Duran Lantink, as corpcore continues to reign supreme. The trend is well timed — as scores of major companies go back to a four or five-day office schedule, consumers will need to invest in workwear.
“We have seen lots of suits and prescription glasses this season — think in Balenciaga in Paris or in New York earlier in the season at Veronica Leoni’s debut for Calvin Klein, as if the industry was looking for depth and an intellectual side,” says Pagès. “We’re in crisis mode with lots of uncertainties in the world so it felt like the message was: let’s get to work!”
And work we will. The industry is bracing for a big season in September, and a few big news stories in the coming weeks. Like Vogue creative editorial director Mark Guiducci said: “Fashion, like so much else in the world, is in the middle of a massive sea change. Question anyone who pretends they know where all of this is going.”
The Vogue Business editorial team was able to cover the shows thanks to the support of DS Automobiles.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
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