Eighty years ago, in a groundbreaking exhibition, the curators at MoMA asked, “Are Clothes Modern?” Reviewing the recent collections on Vogue Runway prompted another question: “Is Couture Modern?” Based on what came down the runways in Paris at the fall 2025 couture shows this week, the answer is rarely, but it can be. This shouldn’t be surprising—even in our fast-paced digital world, nostalgia is rife and society is trending conservative. Couture is an anachronism in 2025 precisely because it takes slow fashion to the furthest limits. Given that the métier is so associated with extremes—of cost, of craft, of fantasy—it produces a magnified view on ideals of femininity.
Presented back in May, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s final couture looks for Dior were balanced, with straight-lined silhouettes that alternatively conveyed strength and romanticism. This past week, women were either made from “sugar and spice and everything nice” or they were cosplaying a horror movie. Then there were the mood board characters come to life: Kim Kardashian channeling Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or BUtterfield 8 at Balenciaga; models resembling Marie Antoinette at Elie Saab, or Nancy Cunard, arms stacked with bangles, at Schiaparelli. And how to explain the profusion of female characteristics, particularly breasts and hips, built up with padding on thin model bodies—Ozempic with benefits?
Many of the silhouettes that appeared on the runways were as dramatic as the “upholstered” figures on view at the Charles Frederick Worth retrospective at the Petit Palais. How today’s couturiers achieved these padded effects has changed radically since Worth’s time, of course, and it does seem that at least a few of them have something to say about the body modification that is possible in 2025 through medicine and technology. Viktor & Rolf, for example, showed pairs of dresses, one as-is and the other inflated with stuffing, in a sort of sartorial equivalent of adding fillers to skin.
Similar contradictions were at play at Balenciaga where archetypal haute bourgeois types rubbed shoulders with body builders. Tailoring based on the extraordinary physiques of the latter looked deflated when worn on less beefy male figures. This was Demna’s final collection for Balenciaga, where he is credited with elevating street elements to the hautest of métiers. Nowadays, the trends at couture mirror what’s happening in the ready-to-wear collections, as well as on the menswear runways. Giorgio Armani’s smokings for women looked smart and modern. There’s that word again: modern. Iris van Herpen’s living-algae dress, which glowed with bioluminescence, is as forward-thinking as it gets.
At his Maison Margiela debut, the highlight of fall 2025 couture season, Glenn Martens arrived at relevance from the opposite direction. Whereas Van Herpen grew algae, Martens played with the veneer of decay, referencing “nature morte” paintings and bricolaged designs, many of which were made from deadstock, which challenged the idea of value.
Martens defied a linear understanding of time through a dialogue with the history of the house. By “resurrecting” existing materials he recognized the symbiosis between past and present (as the Smashing Pumpkins’ song that accompanied the show put it, “the killer in me is the killer in you”), creating a sense of continuity with what came before, both chez Margiela and more broadly in Northern Europe of the Middle Ages.
The designer, who was looking at Gothic cathedrals and spires, which are monuments to creative human endeavor, didn’t shy away from the idea of revealing his process, either. As achingly beautiful as many of the clothes were, this wasn’t an easy show, it grappled with monumentality and mortality. Full-bodied and vital, it was a collection with a beating heart.
Custom Taylor-ed
At the couture, mood board dressing was taken to the next level.
Midsummer Romance
Ethereal white dresses and tops are coming your way.
Dangerous Liasions
Dress like a latter-day Antoinette in a rococo dress—or like an Antoine in a frock coat.
Belle-Epoque Curves
From the Worth retrospective to the runways, curves rule.
On Form
Couture was a Build-a-Body masterclass.
Rare Birds
Designers dress taloned birds of prey as well as songbirds.
Chlorophyl Dressing
In a black and white season, green is a sign of hope and new beginnings.
The Lady in Gold
Designers took a shine to Gustav Klimt for fall.
Great Scots
Innovative takes on this traditional weave.
Chin Up
Dashing collars frame the face.
Aura Ring
These clouds are not for storage.
Back in Fashion
Make like Missy Elliott and put it reverse.
Work in Progress
Transparency of a different kind.
First Seed
Paris is coming up roses—at the shows and at the Poiret exhibition.
Hoop Dreams
Full-skirted dresses allow room for kicking up one’s heels.
