Famous fashion houses focused on craftsmanship and creativity at Paris Haute Couture Week 2025, where Spring/Summer collections were exhibited.
CHANEL Haute Couture: A 110-Year Fashion Legend
For 110 years, Chanel has stood for boundless creativity, unparalleled craftsmanship passed down through generations, and timeless elegance constantly reinterpreted. At the Spring-Summer 2025 Haute Couture show, Chanel celebrated the spirit of renewal that has been at the core of the brand since Gabrielle Chanel opened her fashion house in 1915.
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This season, the Chanel Creation Studio honors Gabrielle Chanel’s sense of color, which played a crucial role in her designs. While she revolutionized the fashion world with her bold use of black, she was also a masterful designer of color. From the timeless contrast of black and white to soft pastels and vibrant hues, she worked with a wide palette.
On the catwalk at the Grand Palais in Paris, Chanel’s iconic double C logo formed a shape representing eternity. Emphasizing the impeccable craftsmanship of Haute Couture, this stage design was created by Willo Perron. The Spring-Summer 2025 Haute Couture collection told a story of color from day to night—a journey that began with the first rays of dawn and ended in the depth of midnight blue.
The first pieces included a silk crepe pajama-style suit, a sunshine-yellow tweed jacket-skirt set, a pleated lilac tweed dress, and black-and-white contrasting tweed designs. These were followed by an orange-pink coat over a purple jacquard dress and a mimosa-toned dress with pale pink ruffles. The color transition extended to the shoes, with a palette ranging from sky blue to violet, white to cream.
Chanel’s signature tweeds, elaborate pockets, mesh details, elegant linings, and precious buttons were among the collection’s highlights. Bronze, pink, green, yellow, navy, and purple satin linings created cheerful contrasts, while graphic-patterned knits and floral embroidery added an artistic touch. Rock crystal, metal, and rhinestone buttons transformed into sun, moon, and camellia motifs, infusing a mystical atmosphere into the designs. The moon and sun figures used on black velvet belts alluded to the significance of black for Chanel.
The dresses floated in the air with the delicacy of the fabric, skillfully balanced between short and long silhouettes. Ruffles, pleats, light fabrics, and embroidered details showcased the technical mastery of Haute Couture. Painted lace and chiffon details created an elegant illusion of tweed texture, opening the door to Chanel’s theatrical and imaginative world.
Since 1915, Chanel Haute Couture has seamlessly merged impeccable craftsmanship and artistry. The Creation Studio brings together freedom, precision, and innovation in the Spring-Summer 2025 collection, carrying the brand’s deep-rooted heritage into the future. As Gabrielle Chanel said: “Comfort has forms, love has colors.”
Rahul Mishra: Mourning, Hope, and the Triumph of Nature
Rahul Mishra‘s Spring-Summer 2025 Couture collection unfolds a profound narrative of grief, hope, and the inevitable triumph of nature. Inspired by American astronomer Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, Mishra reflects on Voyager 1’s iconic photograph of Earth—a poignant reminder of human fragility and impermanence. For the designer, who recently lost his father, these reflections took on a deeply personal meaning. “We are very small, fragile, and uncontrollable beings,” Mishra explains, noting that the awareness brought on by loss has reshaped his perception of nature and life over time.
The collection envisions a dystopian future where nature reclaims man-made cities. Often taking his daughter to chalets to escape Delhi’s deteriorating air quality, Mishra questions what will happen when cities become uninhabitable. Coco Rocha’s striking runway appearance in a cape shaped like a towering building offers a visual response. The window-walled design symbolizes humanity’s entanglement with its own structures—and nature’s slow but inevitable reclamation of these spaces.
Ravens and crows, revered in Hinduism as ancestral messengers, weave Mishra’s personal mourning process into the collection. In Hindu belief, these birds serve as a conduit for communicating with the spirits of the departed. By centering these motifs, the designer pays homage to his father, suggesting that loss is not merely an end, but a continuation of an eternal bond.
One of the collection’s most evocative moments comes with the golden dresses, symbolizing the transition from mourning’s darkness to the luminous embrace of hope. The gradual shift from deep tones to earthy and gilded textures mirrors nature’s cyclical renewal, offering a message of resilience and healing.
For Rahul Mishra, haute couture is more than aesthetic—it is also ethical. Crafted by over 2,000 artisans, the collection embodies a conscious, sustainable approach to fashion, standing in stark contrast to the rapid cycle of fast consumption. Every stitch, every intricate embroidery is not just an artistic expression, but a testament to the labor, livelihood, and enduring traditions of a community.
Georges Hobeika Couture: A Poetic Tribute to Family and Legacy
Georges Hobeika’s Spring-Summer 2025 haute couture collection was an emotional homage to his mother, Marie Hobeika, who passed away in 2024. Designed in collaboration with his son and co-creative director, Jad Hobeika, the show opened with deep black tones—a striking contrast to the designer’s typically elegant and romantic aesthetic. This shift symbolized the enduring strength of family bonds, heritage, and the transformative power of fashion. As a poignant visual metaphor for mourning, models walked the runway with dark streaks of makeup dripping from their eyes, foreshadowing a journey from sorrow to celestial beauty.
As the show progressed, the atmosphere shifted. Soft lilacs, celestial blues, and luminous silver hues emerged from the darkness, embodying renewal and transcendence. Flowing tulles and silks reflected the ephemeral nature of memory, while intricate embroidery and feathered accents evoked an ethereal presence. Embroidered constellations symbolized the idea that those we love never truly leave us—they become part of the universe, watching over us.
Each piece in the collection was a masterpiece of sculptural silhouettes, exquisite embroidery, and breathtaking detail, all testaments to Georges Hobeika’s craftsmanship. The collection struck a delicate balance between strength and poetic elegance—much like Marie Hobeika herself. More than a tribute, it was a testament to the power of fashion to preserve memory, honor loved ones, and carry their legacy into the future.
Stéphane Rolland: The Fusion of Fashion and Art
Stéphane Rolland’s Spring-Summer 2025 Haute Couture collection brought together the free-spirited energy of dancer and singer Joséphine Baker with the sculptural elegance of artist Constantin Brancusi. Baker’s rhythmic grace and Brancusi’s abstract forms came to life in Rolland’s bold silhouettes and fluid fabrics.
A reimagined tuxedo in black gazar and ebony satin echoed Baker’s androgynous elegance, while Brancusi’s minimalist aesthetic surfaced in a white crepe cape dress and a cube-embroidered sweater.
Sheer chiffon, crystal embellishments, and cascading layers of organza introduced dynamic movement, while burnished feather details and sculpted leather added a tactile dimension, bridging art and fashion.
Rolland’s masterful contrasts in materials reinforced the collection’s sculptural essence. Pleated brown organza and structured leather referenced Brancusi’s polished bronze and carved wood, while silver lamé gazar and wood-like motifs on velvet deepened the artistic dialogue. Inspired by Brancusi’s The Bird, the collection’s signature chest armor jewelry completed this artistic vision. With Origins, Stéphane Rolland reaffirms that haute couture is not just craftsmanship—it is the highest form of artistic expression.
Imane Ayissi: Cultural Dialogue and Fashion
Imane Ayissi‘s Spring 2025 couture collection embarked on a journey exploring the cultural ties between Africa, Asia, and Paris. By intertwining traditional African garments such as the boubou and kaba with historical Asian and European dress styles, the designer builds a bridge between cultures. Highlighting the structural similarities among these garments, Ayissi presents his collection as a dialogue between past and present.
The collection strikes a delicate balance between simplicity and ornamentation. Ayissi navigates between two contrasting approaches to cut and embellishment, crafting trouser suits, day dresses, and elegant evening gowns from African textiles, all enriched with meticulously executed details.
This season, Ayissi collaborated with Chinese painter Wang Ying, who introduced an artistic dimension to the collection through prints on silk and bamboo fabrics. This fusion of art and fashion lends the designs an authentic, culturally resonant aesthetic.
