Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week kicked off this Monday. An unmissable event presented twice a year in the French capital, with an array of celebrities attending the shows of the most emblematic fashion houses. However, a few brands are standing out from the crowd and appear in the program alongside the long-established ones such as Dior, Chanel, Schiaparelli etc… Here’s a compilation of the emerging brands and designers whose talents catch the eye.
Georges Hobeika
Lebanese designer Georges Hobeika returned to the runway this week as he unveiled his Fall/Winter 2023 collection during Paris Haute Couture Week. This is Hobeika’s first show with his son Jad Hobeika, who was recently named the co-creative director of the celebrity-loved brand. The father and-son duo’s newest release featured glamorous gowns with metallic feathers, ornate embroidery, dynamic cuts, and daring silhouettes. Unexpected cut outs marked the collection, with the models’ midriffs and hips on full display in some of the eye-catching gowns. They also showcased a few menswear designs, including blazers, luxurious coats, and tailored pants in earthy tones, completed with Hobeika’s signature embellishments and pattern work. German influencer Leonie Hanne made a remarkable appearance, opening the show wearing a mini dress with metallic feathers and crystal embroidery.
Maison Rabih Kayrouz
As much as his style is about purity of lines, ingenious cut, and volumes as airy as they’re exact, there’s always an element of sensuous fluidity to Rabih Kayrouz’s design. In his collection, the Lebanon designer gives ready-to-wear pieces an inventive haute couture twist, while keeping couture anchored to a more IRL vision. Presenting sculptural shapes alternated with more fluid ones in both haute couture and ready-to-wear lines.
Rahul Mishra
Rahul Mishra called his flamboyant haute couture collection The Tree Of Life, recalling a banyan tree growing in the courtyard of his ancestral home. Proud to be the only Indian designer admitted into the inner sanctum of French couture, he wanted to celebrate this new cycle with an ebullient, opulent collection, “whose meaningful concept just felt right for this moment,” he said.
He captured the golden light of sunset with shimmering gold pieces and wanted to replicate the majestic shape of century-old trees. His collection mainly consisted of mini-dresses and bodysuits embroidered with hundreds of tremulous golden-thread leaves.
Alexis Mabille
“Do you think I’m a diva? Then okay, I’m a diva!” enthused Alexis Mabille, reprising Aretha Franklin’s quote as the headline of his couture collection. The French designer celebrated self-empowerment through his creations while proposing daring looks. “I didn’t want the collection to be coherent but embracing many different directions, like on a red carpet,” he mused. The designer touched on many couture archetypes such as long draped dresses, see-through black lace pieces, and elegant smokings.
Stéphane Rolland
Stéphane Rolland dedicates his collection to Barbara, who died 25 years ago, in a fashion show at the Théâtre du Châtelet, where the French singer from the ’60s gave her last concert. “I have loved Barbara since I was a child. It is bewitching, exciting, it is part of my references when I draw, “declared the French designer. The staging of the show will retranscribe to the guests “the emotion when Barbara sang in front of her public” he promised. He succeeded in creating bold silhouettes, using contrasting materials and 3D, sculptural elements. Colorways included red, black, white, and beige.
Julien Fournié
“I cried a lot making this collection”: French designer Julien Fournié put on a sexy and “ultravulnerable” woman in reaction to the pandemic, war, and rising extremism in his haute couture show on Tuesday. The music was dramatic, and the models, draped in figure-sculpting maxi dresses, looked slightly distressed with their tousled hair and dark green lipstick. Manta rays and jellyfish were evoked in the colours and elements of some of the dresses, to evoke both fascination and dread. As with many of the collections this season, most of the looks were ultra-sexy, with plays of transparency and lots of openings on the body.
Ronald van der Kamp
Each look in this fall collection was constructed from deadstock fabrics, archive scraps, and even old looks from past collections reworked for new customers. If the clothes adhered to the idea of conscious fashion —well, that was on-message too. “For me, it’s about eccentricity. If people know who they are, they become a more sustainable person, because they build a wardrobe around their personality,” said the Dutch designer. In other words: stop falling in love with new-season looks, and embrace the chaos of an upcycled one-off.
Words By Melodie Bitala-Samba
Header Image Stephane Rolland
