Women's fashion in Paris/4

Hermès, new nocturnal sensuality. The abrasions of Balenciaga, the poetry of Yamamoto and Miyake

Lyrical and enveloping Japonisme in the collections of historic oriental brands. Sarah Burton at Givenchy proposes a sumptuousness that convinces, the playground of craftsmanship by Loewe

by Angelo Flaccavento

9 March 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

This Parisian fashion show tour continues under the banner of identity redefinitions, for brands where there have been changes in creative direction but also for solid maisons and designers with long careers.

Now eighty years old, for example, Yohji Yamamoto continues to challenge himself first and foremost, and then his audience, on the subject of boredom. With a boldness that does him credit, for the first time he tackles a subject that for the Japanese is maximally taboo: japonisme, or kimono, haori, geta, and prints from the repertoire of the magnificent Hokusai. It is a Japonisme à la Yohji, of course: lyrical, enveloping, full of melancholy but never cloying, made of forms that flow and intertwine on the body in infinite embraces.

Hermès, la collezione per l’AI 26-27
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At Hermès the atmosphere changes: it becomes nocturnal, in an exploration of twilight as a magical moment in which thoughts and fantasies are set free. For a couple of seasons now, Nadège Vanhee, the creative director, has taken to injecting massive doses of sensuality into the definition of her Hermès woman, without renouncing the equestrian world and a taste for the plein air. This time the movement is particularly decisive, so that the leather peeking out from a zip left open, or between the shorts and boots, is part of the discourse. The result is penetrating.

Michael Rider at Celine reflects on an idea of irregular elegance, in which the character and experience of various characters, from the faun with feathers in his curls enclosed in a little black coat to the bon ton lady with the bobble hat, are imprinted on the clothes they wear, disrupting respectability and classicism. The work Rider is doing for the brand is truly remarkable: by tackling the topos of infinite variety as an author, he is creating a way of summing it up in a repertoire of highly desirable pieces.

Issey Miyake, la collezione per l’AI 26-27
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Sarah Burton, from Givenchy, finally finds her own way, now free of obligations and obsequies to the codes of this maison as well as of McQueen, where she has worked for a long time.

Givenchy, la collezione per l’AI 26-27
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The constant core of his work is the translation of feminine multiplicity into an enveloping, articulated and prismatic proposal, which this season becomes, in addition, sumptuous, amidst echoes of Flemish painting - the turbans - and reverberations of Gianfranco Ferré's sensational lexicon, constantly cut by the taste for dry and androgynous male tailoring.

Balenciaga AI 26-27

At Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli is still searching for a balance between his personal stylistic experience and the spirit of the maison, as summed up by Cristobal, the founder, and Demna, the creative director of the stellar successes. The proof is good and well articulated, but the Valentinesque persistences are still too evident, as is the effort to be edgy, abrasive. It all needs to be smoothed out and amalgamated.

Loewe AI 26-27

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are transforming Loewe into a playground in which the idea of craft, the maison's identity, takes on a synthetic and industrial vein, with a cartoonish spirit. There is leather, then, as shiny as fibreglass, but there is also silicone, cast in the form of a coat or petticoat; and then there is also sheepskin, shaved to create gradients between teddy bear and playful primitivism. The rehearsal is convincing, but does not move much forward from the debut. At Jean-Paul Gaultier, Duran Lantink continues to play with the signs of the inveterate enfant terrible and with his characters - sycantines and policemen, conical breasts and burgundy velvets - looking at them through his lens, capable of fusing sculptural forms with a rough and sexual humour. Solemn and mocking, the collection is one of the week's best.

The same applies to Issey Miyake, where Satoshi Kondo gets back on track by questioning the elastic space between creation and letting the unfinished speak for itself. This translates into abstract volumes as always with new, infinitely poetic movements, almost as if the clothes wanted to go back to being just fabric. Ineffable.