Haute Couture SS26: A Testament to Craftsmanship in the Age of Speed

Yesterday marked the close of Haute Couture Week Spring/Summer 2026. With the final shows wrapped, this felt like the right moment to pause and look back at the collections that resonated most, the standout debuts, and the shared threads that quietly wove their way across the week. Not just to understand couture itself, but what it might be signalling beyond its rarefied world.

Before diving in, a brief note — because Haute Couture is not simply the most extravagant tier of fashion. It is a protected cultural practice, governed by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM). Only maisons that meet its strict criteria — from atelier-based craftsmanship and made-to-measure production, to Paris-based workshops employing full-time artisans — may officially carry the Haute Couture designation.

Many designers working at couture-level craftsmanship fall outside these parameters, often due to geography rather than skill. To accommodate this, the FHCM welcomes corresponding members and guest designers onto the calendar, a structure that keeps couture both protected and evolving.

With that context in mind, let’s begin.

Schiaparelli

Daniel Roseberry opened the week with what felt like a true emotional overture. Titled The Agony and the Ecstasy, the collection was born from an October visit to the Sistine Chapel — an experience that shifted Roseberry’s focus from appearance to sensation.

Rather than constructing looks first, the collection was guided by feeling, by reverence, by restraint. The result was couture that asked to be felt before it was consumed. Setting the tone for a week that would repeatedly question how we look, and how quickly.

Dior

Jonathan Anderson’s couture debut was among the most anticipated moments of the season, and it delivered with quiet confidence. Drawing inspiration from nature’s constant evolution, Anderson framed the collection as a kind of cabinet of wonders: objects gathered for the emotions they spark.

Cyclamen bouquets, gifted to Anderson by John Galliano, became symbols of continuity. The ceramics of Magdalene Odundo informed the sculptural volumes of the gowns. Knitwear appeared unexpectedly, celebrated not for novelty but for its craftsmanship. Accessories — from moulded handbags to oversized floral earrings — completed a collection rooted in curiosity rather than excess.

Chanel

Chanel’s couture offering unfolded as a meditation on transience, inspired by a haiku:

Bird on a mushroom I saw the beauty at once Then gone, flown away

Lightness was the guiding principle — sheer fabrics, soft silhouettes, and a sense of metamorphosis throughout. This was a woman becoming a bird, then disappearing. Though sparing in gowns, the collection proposed a modern vision of couture: intimate, wearable, and quietly poetic.

Armani Privé

Presented by Silvia Armani, Made in Jade marked a new chapter for the house. Anchored in the symbolic strength of the jade stone, the collection honoured Giorgio Armani’s legacy while embracing a softer, more wearable interpretation of couture — particularly in its daywear. A reminder that restraint, too, can be luxurious.

Valentino

Alessandro Michele’s second Haute Couture collection for Valentino arrived with emotional weight. Earlier this month, the fashion world mourned the passing of Valentino Garavani — a designer whose legacy is inseparable from cinema, glamour, and the women he immortalised through dress.

Specula Mundi unfolded as a deliberate critique of contemporary image consumption. Guests were seated around circular wooden structures, peering through small viewing windows inspired by the Kaiserpanorama — a precursor to cinema. Each look was revealed slowly, individually, demanding attention rather than instant gratification.

Michele’s message was clear: couture resists speed. It asks to be studied, contemplated, and remembered.

Viktor & Rolf

Ever the conceptual provocateurs, Viktor & Rolf delivered one of the week’s most arresting finales. A single look, constructed from 25 previous silhouettes, was assembled onto a still model, forming a kite-like structure suspended mid-air. Couture as performance, as sculpture, as pure idea.

Guest Designers & Standouts

Georges Hobeika returned to couture’s romantic roots with sweeping gowns built on embroidery and pleating — a study in elegance and emotional softness.

Rahul Mishra, in Alchemy, explored the five elements — ether, air, water, fire, and earth — merging philosophy with surreal craftsmanship.

Zuhair Murad offered escapism in uncertain times, drawing from Renaissance and postwar glamour. Cinched waists, glittering surfaces, and sculpted silhouettes felt poised for the upcoming awards season.

Robert Wun, with Valor: The Desire to Create, and the Courage to Carry On, presented couture as survival. Structured in three acts, the show questioned luxury itself, culminating in a powerful affirmation of creation as necessity.

Celia Kritharioti, helming Greece’s oldest couture house, brought Old Hollywood glamour to the runway through feathers, sequins, and unapologetic femininity. One of the few female designers on the calendar, her work reaffirmed couture as a space of empowerment.

Kevin Germanier closed the week with exuberance and purpose, upcycling materials from LVMH houses — including Berluti’s Olympic uniforms. Neon, feathers, bold headpieces, and a surprise bridal debut reinforced couture’s potential for joy and reinvention.

Common Threads

Across the week, designers responded — directly or subtly — to a shared sense of uncertainty. Some confronted it head-on, others countered it with optimism, fantasy, or reverence. Headpieces emerged as a recurring motif, while references to cinema, mythology, and the heavens grounded couture in timeless storytelling.

Robert Wun, Celia Kirtharioti, Valentino, Germanier

Jonathan Anderson has spoken of couture as a dying art — one worth protecting. Alessandro Michele has warned against the speed at which we now consume images. Haute Couture stands in opposition to both. It refuses immediacy. It resists disposability. It reminds us that fashion, at its highest level, is not content — it is culture.

And perhaps that is couture’s quiet power: to endure, even as the world runs at exorbitant speed.