Rare birds of fashion, gowns taking flight on private jets, shoes with fairytale heels and Cole Escola as a Chanel Madame – it must be Paris Haute Couture Week. Plus, Monét Mazur and Natalie Martin drop a charming collection to take you from summer into fall. And L.A. artist Alex Israel designs a Louis Vuitton fragrance coffret with a California twist.
Paris Couture’s Hollywood Flock
Taylor Swift’s Dior wedding gown is the only one anyone wants to see. But alas, it still hasn’t shown itself. And if it is the bride’s plan to keep it as a memory for herself and her guests, it’s actually a serious flex, proof that for some, privacy is the ultimate luxury.
For others, not so much. The Paris Haute Couture fall 2026 shows came and went this week with what seemed like peak celebrity peacocking.
Emma Corrin set the tone for the haute hijinks on Monday, turning up to Schiaparelli looking very bird of prey. Bad Bunny, who brought Schiaparelli into the manosphere with his corseted look at the Grammys in February, was also at the show, tailored in butter yellow with a hirsute necktie.
Setting a Runway to Red Carpet Record
Meanwhile, Zendaya and her stylist Law Roach may have set the record for fastest sprint from runway to red carpet, with the star wearing a Schiaparelli molded bustier gown Monday night at “The Odyssey” premiere in London that debuted that morning in Paris. (The dress flew private, natch.)
New Nepo Model
At Dior, Jonathan Anderson’s front row guest list read like an awards show red carpet: Sabrina Carpenter, Naomi Watts, Ejae, Parker Posey and on and on. Josh O’Connor, who seems the perfect embodiment of Anderson’s new Dior man, wore a fresh-off-the-men’s runway look, jaunty sailor tie and all. But Ruth Negga, resplendent in red flowers and lace, was the best-dressed guest in my book.
Meanwhile, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban hit Dior as a model, wearing a fringed coat that wasn’t one of the better looks paraded.
Celebrity Fans
Paper fans were the trending accessory in front rows, as Paris temperatures continued to soar above 90 degrees.
At Chanel, Teyana Taylor, Pedro Pascal, Sarah Pidgeon, Tilda Swinton, Baz Luhrmann, Michelle Yeoh and others hobnobbed in the heat at the Grand Palais. Of them all, Cole Escola was my favorite Chanel girl though.
I Love Paris
Pierpaulo Piccioli’s debut Balenciaga couture show brought out the glitterati, with Emmy nom-robbed Paris fashion newbie Rachel Sennott joining Hudson Williams, Cynthia Erivo, Gideon and many more in the midday heat. But alas, no “Euphoria” tie-in this time.
Diva Alert
Jennifer Lopez arrived in haute style to the Zuhair Murad show, wearing a sculptural ivory jacket with crystal embroidery, cinched by an oversized black bow, paired with a beaded fringe skirt from the designer’s spring 2025 couture collection. The diva has worn the Lebanese designers’ creations on the red carpet for years (most recently at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar party), but it was her first time in his front row.
Couture’s Material Girls, Fashion Fairytales and Toy Stories
Haute couture is defined not only by exceptional, made-to-measure craftsmanship but also by a relentless exploration of material innovation, as seen in multiple collections this season which balanced traditional with avant-garde.
At Schiaparelli, creative director Daniel Roseberry replaced conventional silks and satins with an exploration of fetish and kink in latex and silicone with nylon hosiery tubes standing in for feathers.
At Dior, Jonathan Anderson was inspired by American sculptor Lynda Benglis, known for her poured latex sculptures and wax paintings. Working between New Mexico and India, she transforms materials through knotting, pleating and molding, and borrows motifs from nature. Anderson integrated those techniques into his florabundant vision.
And in the ongoing footrace for the most incredible runway shoes, he scored with these tricked-out pumps.
Chanel has to be all things to all people, and Matthieu Blazy’s latest collection struck that balance while leaning into the house’s classic codes, with boxy tweed suiting, ladylike coats and below-the-knee pleated skirts taking center stage.
Chanel’s iconic chain belts made a welcome return, reimagined with more of an organic look, and Blazy’s cult of craft was channeled into enchanting fairytale creations with climbing vine, watercolor floral and winged feather embroideries. Sculpted buttons, heels and minaudiere bags borrowed inspiration from storybooks, including golden eggs, magic beans and tiny Jacks from “Jack and the Beanstalk” and ducks and swans from “The Ugly Duckling.” Blazy really knows how to charm with details.
For his Balenciaga couture debut, designer Pierpaulo Piccioli turned away from his detour into streetwear, returning to the bold, sculptural shapes we fell in love with when he was at Valentino. The result was everything one expects from couture: ballooning volumes and feathers galore, but anchored with a casual sensibility that saw him pairing a tank top with taffeta and opera gloves.
On the innovation front, he introduced a new textile called AMSilk, a bioengineered silk alternative created by DNA editing and lab protein engineering. It’s fossil fuel-free and renewable, and its fibers are 2.5x stronger than steel, the collection notes said.
Little chance of ripping a red carpet train made of that.
Of course, when it comes to innovation, Paris’ most forward-thinking designer is really Iris van Herpen, who has been working at the cutting edge of nature and technology for years – and whose work is currently on view in a sweeping exhibition open through Dec. 6 at the Brooklyn Museum.
Her runway collections are equal part fashion and science lesson, and this season, she was inspired by starquakes (I had to look it up) to create otherworldly looks. The showstopper was the “Fractal Universe” dress that, days before the show, was charged inside a particle accelerator and cryogenically preserved. The process transformed the dress into a reservoir of energy, with billions of trapped electrons generating an intense electric field inside it, the description read.
Once the dress was worn, the model’s body became a conductor for the energy, creating fractal constellations that spread across the dress like flashes of lightning.
Far out.
And Cardi B came out to see Robert Wun, the designer who made headlines for dressing eight guests in jaw-dropping avant-garde looks for the Met Gala in May. The London-based couturier did not disappoint with his fall couture runway collection, either, spinning a story of his own with surrealist designs recalling fairytales both dark and light.
L.A. Maker and Muse Co-Create
Rooted in two decades of friendship, the new Natalie Martin x Monét Mazur collaboration brings the L.A. maker together with her longtime muse. Inspired by the ease and glamour of the ’70s, the capsule collection is awash in black and tan dots and stripes on Martin’s easy silhouettes, and it’s perfect for packing for a summer getaway, but sophisticated enough to wear in the city into the fall.
“I first met Monét when I was fresh off the boat from Australia. She had that rare kind of beauty that feels both cinematic and completely effortless — somewhere between Brigitte Bardot and Anita Pallenberg — but what struck me even more than her beauty was her warmth,” said Martin, who has had the actress on her inspiration board since starting the brand 15 years ago, calling her “glamorous without trying.”
The feeling is mutual.
“When she was just starting to develop the brand, ‘boho chic’ was having its peak moment (I cringe when I hear that term now) but I think we were both individually starting to define what our own personal style was and out of that came this other thing,” said Mazur, who first spotted Martin at a yoga studio, a very L.A. meet-cute.
“Natalie came up with these styles and silhouettes that felt effortless, not trendy, not contrived, just timeless. It was like those cotton Indian floral hippie blouses we all used to troll vintage stores for in high school … but elevated. She redefined those into the perfect dress, the perfect blouse and then it became this iconic moment where suddenly everyone at school drop-off was wearing them. They were everywhere you looked, it was insane.”
Martin’s Fiore dress, which is indeed a part of the L.A. uniform, is in the collection, as well as blouses, camis, pareos, easy lounge pants, shorts and more.
NM x Monét Mazur, $158 to $498, at the Natalie Martin boutique, 8203 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046, and nataliemartin.com.
A Fragrance Coffret With a California Twist
Alex Israel’s relationship with Louis Vuitton has grown into a long-term creative partnership spanning fashion, accessories and fragrance that have made the L.A. artist’s distinctive Southern California aesthetic an enduring part of the house’s contemporary visual language, even before men’s creative director Pharrell Williams created a surf break as a runway set in the middle of Paris.
Israel first collaborated with the house in 2019 as part of its inaugural Artycapucines project, reimagining the Capucines handbag with his signature playful surf-inspired details. The same year, Louis Vuitton invited Israel to create the visual identity for its California-inspired fragrance collection, designing the gradient bottles and packaging for the house’s delightful scents including Afternoon Swim, Sun Song and California Dream.
Now, he’s created the mac daddy of coffrets to carry them all, inspired by the iconic Woody Wagon, the wood-paneled station wagon synonymous with California road trips, surf culture and mid-century Americana.
Limited to just 66 pieces — a tribute to the legendary Route 66, which is celebrating its 100th year anniversary — the Woody Wagon is crafted of leather and mahogany with LV monogram details, requiring more than 7,000 hours of work by 60 artisans. Smells like a collector’s item.
Louis Vuitton Woody Wagon Colognes, $11,700, Available by pre-order (delivery in late September), louisvuitton.com.
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