During Paris Couture Week, designers were particularly playful and explorative this season. Here, Whitewall share our favorites from the shows of Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani Privé, Giambattista Valli, and Schiaparelli.
Simone Rocha’s Debut Collection for Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier, Simone Rocha, Spring 2024 Haute Couture, courtesy of Jean Paul Gaultier.
This week, Jean Paul Gaultier debuted 36 looks for its Spring Haute Couture collection in Paris. Creative Director Simone Rocha left her indelible mark all over the designs, paying homage to the spirit of Gaultier while integrating her own spirit and playfulness. “The narrative was taking the ideas of the technique of haute couture, and very much looking at Mr. Gaultier’s spirit—and bringing that to the table through the guise of myself,” said Rocha.
Lush satin corsetry, panier skirts, tulle and taffeta and silk—this spring’s Couture collection had all the cornerstones of Gaultier’s famously sensual designs. The show began with expansive, ballerina-like skirts and ended with a tight hug between Gaultier and Rocha, suggesting a truly successful couture debut for the Creative Director.
“Haute Couture en Jeu” by Giorgio Armani Privé
Giorgio Armani Privé, Spring/Summer 2024 Couture, courtesy of Giorgio Armani Privé.
This label’s Spring/Summer 2024 Couture collection arrived, offering a cocktail that is equal parts serious and whimsical. Armani said the title of this season’s collection, “Haute Couture en Jeu,” had a double meaning. The designer noted, “On one hand, it means ‘putting couture into play,’ while on the other it can be translated into ‘Couture is having fun.’ Either way, it was time for me to be courageous, to take risks, and to probably be a little less Armani.”
The result was an assortment of 92 looks that the designer himself called “rather peculiar,” with silhouettes ranging from narrow to voluminous. Lacy, sparkling embroidery were countered by angular, kimono-like robes, and colors; pale pinks, jade greens, and midnight blues took center stage.
Giambattista Valli Goes Out of the Ordinary
Giambattista Valli, Spring 2024 Couture, courtesy of Giambattista Valli.
Giambattista Valli said that couture is about going “out of the ordinary,” and his Spring 2024 Couture collection does just that. The shapes of this season’s pieces were defined by their draping, with dramatic expanses of tulle ballooning behind models to offset the tight mini-dresses that accompany them. The genesis of the designer’s collection ended up being the first look to hit the runway: a bustier bodysuit in pitch-black velvet, with massive white roses adorning the chest and arms. Valli explained that the art of couture is “the opening up into the infinite beauty of the unfinished, and into the unfinished beauty of infinity.” Perhaps this is why so many of this collection’s looks seemed to stretch on forever, with rich swaths of tulle lingering and cascading behind the models.
An Out-of-This-World Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli, Spring/Summer 2024 Couture, courtesy of Schiaparelli.
For this year’s Haute Couture Spring/Summer collection, Creative Director Daniel Roseberry went galactic with the theme of “Schiaparalien.” Schiaparelli has always been about contradictions, and this collection was no exception. Here, Roseberry intermingled legacy and the avant-garde, the beautiful and the provocative, the earthbound and the heaven-sent. “Schiaparalien” mixed classic tenets of the brand, like over-embroidered lace and velvet appliqués, with more modern references.
Conversations about the collection have centered on the toddler-shaped assortment of Swarovski crystals and electronic panels carried down the runway by model Maggie Maurer. There was a 3D spine inspired by the movie Alien, dresses glittering with microchips and mirrors and flip phones, pieces that obscure the models’s faces entirely. Technological artifacts aside, Roseberry made multiple nods to his Texas upbringing: bandanas, thigh-high boots with buckles, horse braid dressage knots. Roseberry said these codes are “Easter eggs, a secret message from the designers to the woman who wears them… Part human, part something else. And, therefore, totally Schiaparelli.”
