{"id":795657,"date":"2026-07-11T20:05:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T20:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/795657\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T20:05:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T20:05:21","slug":"chanel-dior-balenciaga-highlights-from-paris-haute-couture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/795657\/","title":{"rendered":"Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga: Highlights from Paris Haute Couture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 A version of this feature ran in the Big Style newsletter \u2014 a weekly portal into a world where clothing meets culture. Sign up here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Paris\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n My official business in Paris this week was to attend the haute couture shows, but throughout my time in the French capital I kept bumping into art. This is unsurprising in a city where you can\u2019t walk more than a few yards before being drawn into a gallery or museum, but art was also woven into many of the collections. Fashion and the art world have long been bedfellows, and haute couture in particular is as close to art as fashion gets, but there\u2019s something else going on. My take: In a challenging economy, the luxury world is hustling to connect with its customers, and art and culture are tried and true conversation starters.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even at Chanel \u2014 a brand that, with the creative steer of Matthieu Blazy, is having absolutely zero problems selling things \u2014 a live artist by the name of Jo\u00ebl Blanc was stationed front row to paint the show<\/a>. Blazy\u2019s collection centered on the idea of fairytales \u2013 the large twisting vines in the Grand Palais, recalling \u201cJack and the Beanstalk,\u201d set the scene for whimsical storytelling through perfectly made clothes, with magic beans (and the occasional golden egg!) scattered throughout. See: delight-inducing shoes,<\/a> a little row of ugly duckling to swan buttons, and a black revenge dress with wings that chased down the bridal gown.\n <\/p>\n

\"Chanel\u2019s<\/p>\n

\n Jonathan Anderson is a well-known lover, collector and curator of art, and within Dior he joins a long lineage of designers who had a similar partiality. Christian Dior himself was a gallery owner before he became a couturier and many of the creative directors of the house have been inspired by the artists of their time. For Anderson\u2019s sophomore couture collection<\/a>, presented within the Mus\u00e9e Rodin, he turned to the work of a more modern sculptor: Lynda Benglis. The 84-year-old American makes unruly mixed media sculptures that have challenged the traditional art establishment (conventionalists found her use of latex and glitter most unsettling). Benglis has worked all over the world, but it was her connection to Santa Fe, New Mexico and Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, India that Anderson became most enraptured with, and the colors and textures of these two very different landscapes appear throughout the collection.\n <\/p>\n

\n While sitting in the grounds of the Mus\u00e9e Rodin, I could not help but think that it would have made a beautiful wedding venue for a certain very famous pop star and her sporty beau who, inexplicably, chose to celebrate their love in a filthy midtown stadium. Imagine instead, vows in front of Rodin\u2019s \u201cThe Kiss,\u201d cocktails within the beautiful 18th century former H\u00f4tel Biron. But, alas, Anderson was only in charge of the dress.\n <\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/p>\n

\n While there were no literal art references at Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli\u2019s first couture collection<\/a> for the house was so artful. On top of being a master of the craft itself, the Italian is an emotional designer \u2014 so much of what he does is about generating a feeling, like joy, or one similar to that little choke you might experience from a song, or a film or a piece of art. \u201cCouture isn\u2019t only about the dress,\u201d he told a small group of press backstage. \u201cIt\u2019s about the mindset.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Piccioli\u2019s<\/p>\n

\n Outside of the shows, I nipped into the Azzedine Ala\u00efa Foundation, a place of pilgrimage for many fashion enthusiasts, and for good reason \u2013 it\u2019s an emporium of archival fashion, books and art. It also features Ala\u00efa\u2019s studio, now entombed behind a circular glass window, completely untouched since his death, thanks in many ways to Carla Sozzani, a fashion fairy godmother of sorts, and the friend Ala\u00efa left in charge of his legacy and archive. At the end of my visit, I asked Sozzani to describe Ala\u00efa\u2019s legacy and she quickly replied, \u201cintegrity,\u201d something hard-fought in the business of fashion.\n <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n On the subject of integrity, Michael Stewart\u2019s Paris Couture debut created a little fizz in the fashion world. The Irish designer\u2019s label Standing Ground has been gaining momentum, thanks to a growing word-of-mouth private client roster who come to him for his modern take on eveningwear. Stewart, so far, appears to be dancing to the beat of his own drum \u2013 proposing new ideas and gently resisting some of the conventions of the fashion system. His collection was a reminder that fashion feels like art when you see designers develop and perfect techniques that support a razor-sharp point of view \u2014 rising above the horrid churn of the industry. Speaking to a small group of us backstage, he said, \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t feel pressure as designers to abandon everything and come up with something new every season.\u201d He also talked about an \u201coff kilter\u201d idea of beauty, not beauty for beauty\u2019s sake but something with a little\u2026 something. In the show, freaky looking models with eerie stares (thanks to contact lenses) in kinky beaded skirts and impossibly cinched waists looked as though they might be siring into vampires and turning on their wealthy but witless husbands. So good!\n <\/p>\n

\"Manish<\/p>\n

\n Rahul Mishra, who become the first Indian designer to show on the Paris couture calendar in 2020, cited a famous Michelangelo line from history in his show notes: \u201cI saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free,\u201d before reminding us that same philosophy can be seen centuries earlier in the Indian subcontinent, where ancient artisans transformed stone into eternal muses, divine lovers and gods \u2013 filling temples with sculptural work (which the Europeans would do their best to plunder later on). Mishra\u2019s collection looked ancient and talismanic, the clothes often towering high above models\u2019 shoulders<\/a>. \u201cThe standards of couture are exacting, but Indian craftsmanship has met, and in many cases exceeded, these benchmarks for centuries,\u201d Isha Ambani, who had been sitting front row, told me afterwards.\n <\/p>\n

\n I asked Ambani about Manish Malhotra, who made his debut on the schedule this season (her company has stakes in both brands and he was the creative director of her brother\u2019s superwedding last year). The designer draws from another artform: cinema (he started his creative career in costume design for Bollywood blockbusters). \u201cManish has played a defining role in shaping contemporary Indian glamour,\u201d Ambani said. while pointing to the \u201ccinematic sensibility,\u201d he brings to fashion. The art in Malhotra\u2019s work is evident in the craft, but it is also evident in his ability to tell a story. The night before the show he told me he was less interested in presenting an Indian\u2019s take on couture, but rather wanted to tell his story, which begins with his mother. \u201cOn this global platform, of course I\u2019m going to introduce my work, but I also wanted to introduce myself,\u201d he said. The collection, sweetly titled \u201cMaa,\u201d is told in four chapters, and is an ode to the woman who gave him life. The first look includes a row of 3D-printed busts of mother and child through time.\n <\/p>\n

\"Nazareno\u2019s<\/p>\n

\n The Opera Gallery, a space that was once Versace\u2019s flagship boutique in Paris, is currently hosting a show of fashion obsessed Brazilian painter Gustavo Nazareno. Speaking by phone from Sao Paolo, Nazareno told me he would escape to the library as a child to read about Renaissance art. Later, he discovered Irving Penn \u201cand that changed my life.\u201d \u201cI would spend days looking at photos. I trained with my eyes,\u201d he said. That independent study paid off: His pictures of Afro-Brazilian deities draped in fabrics in a distinctly couture-like manner, posing as if models in 1980s-era Vogue Italia, are so rich and seductive (so seductive, in fact, that most of the paintings in the show have already sold).\n <\/p>\n