Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027: The Shows That Defined the Season

The clearest thread running through Paris was weightlessness.

• Hermès: Nadège Vanhée took ceiling-fan blades as her starting point, producing perforated suede jackets, open-knit dresses that looked almost like fishnet, and featherweight denim.
• Dior: Jonathan Anderson treated air almost as a material, building tailoring from lace, silk mousseline and organza. Accessories included a bow sandal and a silver minaudière shaped like a walnut.
• Louis Vuitton: Nicolas Ghesquière closed the week with clothes cut from scarf-weight silks, jersey and cashmere, shown beneath a suspended traffic jam of futuristic cars.

For Indian wardrobes, where heat and humidity rule most of the year, this is the most wearable idea of the season. Light layers, breathable knits and sheer fabrics translate easily into summer dressing.

Looking back: Chanel, Schiaparelli and Balmain

• Chanel: Matthieu Blazy revisited the house's history: sheer ivory knit slips with feather corsages, reworked shirts, tutu skirts and a new stretch tweed. The show opened and closed with the archival 2.55 bag.
• Schiaparelli: Daniel Roseberry returned to essentials, opening with a backwards tuxedo dress and keeping the palette mostly monochrome, with broderie anglaise and archive embroidery.
• Balmain: Antonin Tron reworked mid-century silhouettes from the house's early years, using animal prints and silk lamé, in a Left Bank mansion once occupied by Karl Lagerfeld.

Spectacle and storytelling: Valentino and Saint Laurent

• Valentino: Alessandro Michele staged his show under the iron arches of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève. Guests were asked to donate a book, and the collection mixed everyday denim and plaid with fuchsia satin and rosettes.
• Saint Laurent: Anthony Vaccarello's gilded show on September 29, staged under golden chandeliers with the Eiffel Tower lit at the start and end, turned out to be his last for the house. Kering confirmed his departure on October 9. Read our report on his exit.

Everyday clothes, atelier technique

Several designers applied couture methods to ordinary garments.

• Balenciaga: Pierpaolo Piccioli brought atelier techniques to T-shirts, jeans and leather jackets, including corset stitching worn on the outside and a pale-pink taffeta ballgown cut like an oversized T-shirt.
• Céline: Michael Rider showed relaxed pieces in creamy whites, hay tones and tomato red, including collarless leather capes.
• Loewe: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez blended New England and Andalusian references, with backwards polos and chiffon slips shaped like basketball jerseys, at the Château de Vincennes.

Purpose and sustainability

• Stella McCartney: A marine theme with dolphin graphics and a rock-pool palette, using deadstock fabric, recycled polyester and lab-grown wool. The show opened with narration by David Attenborough.
• Matières Fécales: The duo staged "The 99 Per Cent" at Place de la République, with 99 looks on 99 models of colour, a follow-up to an earlier collection about the wealthiest one per cent.

What it means

Read together, these collections suggest a season more interested in identity than in novelty. With creative directors still changing at major houses, Saint Laurent being the latest, designers spent this season defining their houses' core codes rather than chasing one-off moments. That is our reading of the season, not a forecast of what will sell. The clearer, practical takeaway is the move towards light, breathable construction, which suits Indian climates well.

Closer to home, the next big runway moment is Lakmé Fashion Week x FDCI in Delhi from October 13 to 18. See our preview.