A return to craft and contemplation for Haute Couture

What is the role of couture collections in 2026? It is a question designers seemed to be grappling with this haute couture season. Couture remains the pinnacle of luxury, yet in a world in flux, recent seasons have sometimes rendered its ostentatious creations more vanity project than wearable proposition. This season, however, some voices – both new and established – reminded audiences to return the focus to the clothes themselves, while simultaneously inviting a sense of the fantastical.

A new perspective

A return to the clothes, however, did not mean a loss of splendor. Just days after the fashion world bid final farewell to Valentino Garavani, creative director Alessandro Michele presented his second couture collection for the Roman fashion house. The opening look of the collection, titled Specula Mundi, was a plunging batwing gown in striking crimson – a clear tribute to Valentino and his iconic shade of carmine, first introduced in his debut collection in 1959. Yet it was not the garments alone that set the tone. It was the manner in which they were presented, signalling a shift in how couture is consumed.

Viewed on a hanger, Michele’s clothes were a lavish mix of 1920s and 1970s glamour, gowns fit for showgirls and eccentrics alike. But the presentation itself transformed the experience. The collection was not shown on a runway, instead, it was displayed through twelve Kaiserpanoramas, compelling the audience to observe each creation through individual peepholes.

“The image doesn’t overwhelm the spectator, not yet; it educates him. It teaches one to stay still, to focus the gaze, and to assume a position built on attention,” wrote Michele in the accompanying show notes.

In effect, Michele taught his audience to slow down, to be present, and to focus on the garments rather than the phone screens that now dominate most fashion shows. This makes the title of the collection – Mirror of the World – all the more poignant. Michele both directs attention to the clothes and reflects the world of couture itself, which traditionally ignores instability rather than responding to it. In Valentino Couture’s case, that world is preserved behind small square windows, offering only the chosen few a focused glimpse of its splendour.

Through this deliberate interplay of clothing and presentation, Michele demonstrates that couture’s relevance in 2026 lies not in spectacle alone, but in its ability to command attention, cultivate contemplation, and remind the world that fashion at its apex is meant to be both seen and savoured.

Couture as an antidote?

The horrors persist in the world, but so, somehow, does Daniel Roseberry’s fantastical vision of fashion. In a news cycle that makes even the most hardened among us crave escape, the designer offered precisely that: a temporary suspension of reality, something so unapologetically imaginative it felt almost improbable. At first glance, this might appear at odds with the notion of couture returning to ‘real’ clothes – after all, these garments were anything but real. Yet their purpose, their very reason for existing, was firmly anchored in the present. Roseberry suggested that couture in 2026 need not mirror reality, but could respond to it by reaffirming the value of beauty at a time when the world feels increasingly bleak.

For Schiaparelli’s Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection, titled The Agony and the Ecstasy, Roseberry turned to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel – not as a literal narrative source, but as an emotional one. Rather than translating frescoes into garments, he sought to capture the visceral sensations they provoke: awe, vulnerability, tension and transcendence. This approach defined the collection’s heartbeat: couture not as literal storytelling, but as an invitation to experience sensation rather than to decode symbolism.

That philosophy materialised in a series of reptilian and arachnid features – scorpion tails, snake teeth and chimera-like silhouettes – all rendered in explosive, gravity-defying forms. These creations balanced extraordinary technical rigour with a sense of unrestrained imagination, garments that felt alive in their excess. Here, fantasy was not escapism for its own sake, but a deliberate strategy: a reminder that craft and creativity, pushed to their limits, can still provoke emotion in an oversaturated visual culture.

It is therefore not a stretch to assume that Roseberry’s collection was never intended primarily to be sold, but to inspire. At a time when both couture and ready-to-wear increasingly privilege commercial clarity over narrative ambition, The Agony and the Ecstasy stood as a quiet rebuttal. Its relevance lay not in wearability, but in intent.

New couture

And then there were the newcomers, Jonathan Anderson and Mathieu Blazy, each showing their first couture collections for Dior and Chanel respectively. Two of the most anticipated collections of the season – and the year – yet those seeking instant spectacle might have been surprised. While wholly different, both visions centred on clothing, craft and careful attention to detail.

This is not to say that magic or poetry were absent. There was plenty of both, alongside excursions into nature, but above all, there was lightness. At Dior, this was evident in a flower-filled venue that invited comparison with Raf Simons’ own couture debut, before florals and fauna migrated onto the runway itself. The collection mirrored that atmosphere. Voluminous tunics of delicate feathers hovered over flowing silk trousers, while cashmere knits draped effortlessly off one shoulder atop short wrap kilts. Slim tank tops paired with jacquard skirts, their waists puffed in a playful inversion of the traditional bustle, blending elegance with ease. Even a narrow black python coat offered only a subtle nod to the shrunken Bar silhouette, one of the few overt references to Dior’s heritage.

Beyond the garments, handbags were central to Anderson’s vision, bridging creative expression and commercial strategy. The collection encompassed jewellery forged from meteorites and bags upcycled from 18th-century textiles, offering clients – and the wider public – new ways to engage with the painstaking craftsmanship at the heart of the house. Speaking to The Business of Fashion ahead of his first couture presentation, Anderson emphasised that Dior couture exists to preserve skills that might otherwise vanish, a responsibility that continues to shape his approach and illuminates the enduring value of couture in 2026.

A value that both Dior and Chanel clearly share is a devotion to craft, much like the nature motifs that framed both venues. As Blazy noted in his show notes, “Haute Couture is the very soul of Chanel. It is the foundation and the full expression of the house.” Yet he chose whimsy over realism for his debut, at least when it came to set design. The Grand Palais was transformed into a forest of oversized mushrooms on a pale pink carpet, accompanied first by Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and ending unexpectedly with Oasis’ “Wonderwall.”

Those expecting fantastical, princess-like gowns were met with a more understated reality. The opening looks were restrained, yet the collection fulfilled couture’s true purpose: to reveal the extraordinary skill of an atelier capable of transforming delicate fabrics into near-silent masterpieces. Blazy opened with a nude chiffon reinterpretation of the classic Chanel tweed suit, its sheer layers barely held by fine chains and pearls, stripping away familiar signifiers and introducing details distinctly of Blazy himself. Tank tops and jeans appeared in trompe-l’œil organza, nodding to his work at Bottega Veneta, while fringes and feathers punctuated the collection, marrying technical virtuosity with playful elegance.

In an age dominated by instant social media reactions, where a show can be judged as “boring” within minutes, it is easy to overlook subtlety. Couture does not need to overwhelm or dazzle to justify its place. Its significance often lies in quiet complexity, the precision of technique, and innovations that reveal themselves only through careful attention and repeated viewing – qualities that remain central to its purpose in 2026.