From Christian Dior, Schiaparelli, and Chanel to Valentino, Givenchy, and more, haute couture is the Olympics of fashion. It's where the best handiwork, techniques, embroidery, and construction come to a head on the runways in Paris in the form of veritable confections and perfectly tailored suiting. Here, the best looks from this week's array of collections à Paris.
Christian Dior
What if women ruled the world? That question was not only etched on a floor-to-ceiling banner for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s runway but also in her mind as she crafted a fleet of goddesses that graced her spring 2020 haute couture runways. Chiuri was inspired by second-wave feminist artist Judy Chicago, particularly her goddess works, which brought Chiuri’s Italian (or Greco–Roman) roots to mind. And deities don’t always wear capes—although at Dior, sometimes they do. They also wear barely-there embroidered lace gowns, Grecian draping (to be expected), loads of fringe, face veiling, gladiator sandals, and tons of suiting.
And when it came to tailoring, Chiuri delivered for the modern heroine looking to get hers in the boardroom and the ballroom. This isn’t the first time Chiuri has used her couture collections to make a statement on equality. It seems—and rightly so—that on the couture runways of the new decade, femininity is nothing without feminism. —Carrie Goldberg
-
- Getty Images
-
- Getty Images
-
- Getty Images
-
- Getty Images
-
- Getty Images
