On the rapturous occasion of Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, Whitewall brings you front and center to pioneering and inspirational Fall/Winter 2025/26 collections. Schiaparelli offered a dazzling ode to the brand’s historical roots and revolutionary codes, while Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen came together for a masterful fusion of science, art, and fashion.
Schiaparelli Takes Us “Back to the Future”
Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
This season, Artistic Director Daniel Roseberry deeply honored the meaningful history of Elsa Schiaparelli—her adoration of Paris and her voyage to New York in June of 1940—within a spellbinding new Haute Couture presentation. Focusing keenly on her conceptual artistry, the deft melding of art and fashion, and the globally uncertain period of wartime, Roseberry astonished and challenged us with every multifaceted chapter in this tour de force.
“Conceived entirely in black-and-white, I wanted the collection to ask whether we can blur the line between past and future: if I deprived these pieces of color, or any notion of modernity, if I focused obsessively on the past, could I actually make a collection that looks as if it was born in the future?” said Roseberry in the collection notes.
“If I focused obsessively on the past, could I actually make a collection that looks as if it was born in the future?”
Daniel Roseberry
“Gone are the expected markings of modernism; what remains is something elemental, a return to principles that in turn feels revolutionary. I’m proposing a world without screens, without AI, without technology—an old world, yes, but a post-future one as well. Maybe they’re one and the same. If last season was about making something baroque look modern, this season is about inverting archives to make them look futuristic.”
The Schiaparelli Fall/Winter 2025/26 Spectacle
Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
Courtesy of Schiaparelli.
With this pure, forward-thinking palette, a parade of iconic corset silhouettes and hidden brand codes within the garments commanded attention with high drama that was both thrilling and meditative. Keyhole and anatomical symbols in ceramic ebbed and flowed throughout the meticulous tailoring of skirt suits, floor-length gowns, and powerful jackets.
A surrealist trompe l’oeil unfolded in hypnotic fabrics of Donegal wool and high-shine satines, with dreamlike dinner suits of silver thread embroidery and iridescent onyx. The Elsa jacket made its luxurious debut, featuring edgy shoulders inspired by archival creations, as did fantastical, bias-cut evening gowns. Otherworldly garments took our breath away. The legendary “Apollo” cape was revitalized in diamanté bijoux offering three layers of metal starbursts, and “Eyes Wide Open” embroidery beckoned on a singular dress of hand painted irises, resin cabochons, metallic threads, and silk tulle.
The Ceremonial Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen Collaboration
Courtesy of Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen.
Courtesy of Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen.
In an unforgettable moment at Haute Couture Fashion Week, Japanese biotech venture company Spiber and renowned Dutch haute couture designer Iris van Herpen united to present one of two wondrous bridal creations. With Spiber at the head of biomaterial engineering, and Van Herpen pushing the boundaries of couture design, a poetic, sustainable, and technological magnum opus unfurled before our very eyes in Paris.
“Biomimicry is ever-present in Spiber’s approach and that is truly similar to our own methods,” said Kazuhide Sekiyama, Spiber Co-founder and Representative Executive Officer, in the show notes. “Fusing the organic with the innovative, recreating nature’s way of making a material, starting with a protein…Spiber has been able to translate a complex technology to meet the needs of designers and create something truly wearable, which is a rare quality.”
“Spiber has been able to translate a complex technology to meet the needs of designers and create something truly wearable, which is a rare quality,”
Kazuhide Sekiyama
“I feel Brewed Protein™ fiber brings a lightness and a softness that I am looking for, resulting in fabric that floats around the skin,” added Iris van Herpen. “It has a very attractive, organic, and natural presence which is embodied in the whole look. The Spiber team and I share the same attention to detail and texture—the sensorial qualities of the material.”
Marrying The Expressive Power of Materials
Courtesy of Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen.
Courtesy of Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen.
In this innovative vein, the resulting gem brought forth sheer organza petals in gradient moon shapes which cascaded across the human form like angelic portals of unity and transcendence. In order to achieve this magical appearance, the shapes were heatbonded to laser cut Brewed Protein™ fabric bondings. With magnificent expertise, hundreds of white coral petals were stitched onto nude illusion tulle, coiling into a sheer and curved train.
“At Spiber, we believe in the expressive power of materials—their ability to tell stories, to inspire emotion, and to redefine our relationship with nature,” added Sekiyama. “Working with Iris van Herpen, whose designs go beyond the physical to evoke the beauty of life’s complexity, has resulted in an extraordinary manifestation of our mutual values.”
