Give archive: Russian designer shows couture collection in Paris

The Haute Couture Week Autumn-Winter 2025/2026 started in the French capital on July 7. The world's leading fashion houses, including Schiaparelli, Chanel, and Iris van Herpen, will present their collections on the catwalk. As part of the event, the couture collection was traditionally presented by Russian designer Yulia Yanina. Read more about the main shows and unexpected design decisions in the Izvestia article.

The Russian designer's show was held in Paris

The 19th—century French mansion of the Hotel Marcel Dassault became a meeting place for the fashionable public - residents and guests of Paris. There, on July 8, as part of the Haute Couture Week dedicated to the autumn-winter 2025/2026 season, the Russian house YANINA Couture showed, which continues to participate in the event every year, despite the fact that it has been doing so for the past few years by decision of the syndicate outside the official schedule.

Yulia Yanina's past couture collection with playful prints and embroidery in the form of fruits and vegetables was inspired by childhood memories. In the new season, the designer turned to exploring her own creative heritage. She presented a new interpretation of the iconic developments of the past, sketches and techniques.

The desire to demonstrate the achievements of man-made art is reflected, for example, in dresses made of transparent mesh, which are decorated with delicate applique ornaments. The collection also includes models made of wool, velvet and silk.

Schiaparelli

The Schiaparelli fashion house has opened the official program of the Paris Haute Couture Week. The show took place on July 7 at the Petit Palais (Small Palace), on the outskirts of which, before the start of the show, star guests posed, whose appearance made no less impression — 76-year-old Vera Wang once again struck with a slender figure, Cardi B shocked by sitting on a raven's arm, Dua Lipa herself was like a bird in a snow-white dress With a feathery effect and a keyhole neckline, the star of "Emily in Paris" and a favorite of the audience, Philippin Leroy-Beaulieu, wore an elegant bronze-colored dress that successfully accentuated her waist and playfully exposed her legs.

As for the show, from rethinking the baroque aesthetic last season, its creative director Daniel Roseberry also came, on the one hand, to rethink the archives of the fashion house and the legacy of its founder Elsa Schiaparelli, on the other, turned to thinking about the future. The new autumn-winter collection is called Back to the Future. It combines traditional ideas of elegance with futuristic, even surreal motifs. If it's a corset, it's in the shape of a saddle. If it's a hat, it looks like a bell. A matador—style jacket in metallic color with a leopard spot. Working with the archives, Roseberry presented a transparent cape, embroidered with pearls, sequins and rhinestones, referring to the iconic cape "Apollo of Versailles" from the Zodiac collection in 1938.

Turning to the past, the designer deliberately abandoned color, focusing on black and white tones like in an old movie. Although I allowed myself to be red in several images. One of them is a dress with an imitation torso on the back with a necklace that repeats the anatomical shape of the heart, which, in addition, also pulsates.

Iris van Herpen

The fashion house Iris van Herpen presented to the Parisian public the fantasy collection Sympoiesis, dedicated to the study of the relationship between man and nature and their symbiosis. Each model is a complex story in its form and embodiment, a work of art.

Some images are made of fragile and so weightless fabric that it does not just flutter at the slightest movement, but seems to float, plunging into the depths of the ocean. Others, with iridescent scaly skirts, introduce its inhabitants. Still others are greenish clouds frozen in unusual shapes, either plants or mythical creatures.

Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen is known in the fashion world for her passion for experimentation with materials and innovation. For example, she was one of the first to test 3D printing. But even an audience ready for surprises was surprised by her this time. The main thing on the catwalk was a luminous "living" dress created from 125 million bioluminescent algae with the participation of scientist Chris Bellamy.

Chanel

One of the main events of the second day of the couture week in Paris was the Chanel show. Among the guests of the show were Penelope Cruz, Kirsten Dunst, Keira Knightley, Naomi Campbell. The house presented the autumn-winter collection in the atmosphere of the first Coco Chanel salons.

And in models with low waists and layered skirts, in puffy blouses, collars and capes, in familiar tweed images, there were references to historical silhouettes. Everything is in soft shades from cream to green.

The main detail of the collection is the ears of wheat as a symbol of abundance, which are present in the form of buttons decorated with precious stones and as embroidery designed to emphasize the skill of the creators. In the end, the bride of Chanel came out with a bouquet of wheat sprigs instead of the traditional one at the end of the show. They are likely to become one of the main wedding trends.

In the following days, Balenciaga, Elie Saab, Maison Margiela and other fashion houses will take over the baton, presenting their collections on the Paris catwalk.