While Paris Fashion Week might mark the final stop on fashion’s world tour – with shows in New York, London and Milan already wrapped up for the season – its comprehensive nine-day schedule, featuring some of fashion’s most well-known names, means that there is still plenty more to come before Louis Vuitton closes out the season on 1 October.
Most notably, Alessandro Michele will hold his much-anticipated debut runway show for Valentino, which marks a return to fashion for the Italian designer after exiting Gucci in November of 2022 following a critically acclaimed and commercially successful tenure. As for whether he will bring the eclectic, maximalist flair that defined his collections at Gucci to the Roman house remains to be seen, though the show will no doubt be heavy on romance and spectacle (look out too for the front row; at Gucci, he was famous for his coterie of starlets, which included Harry Styles and Lana Del Rey). The show will take place on the afternoon of 29 September.
Elsewhere, eyes will be on Dries Van Noten – the first show since the departure of the eponymous designer – and Chanel, where a creative director is still yet to be announced (Givenchy is absent from the schedule; Sarah Burton will instead make her debut next year). Numerous other big names are showing alongside, including Loewe, Rick Owens, Dior, Saint Laurent, Hermès and Balenciaga.
Here, reporting live from Paris, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss picks the best of Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025, as it happens.
The best of Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025
Dior
The roots of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest ready-to-wear collection for Dior could be found in her A/W 2024 couture show, held earlier this summer in the grounds of Paris’ Musée Rodin (the location also served as the site of this afternoon’s show, a shift from its usual venue in the Tuileries). Back then, Paris was on the precipice of an Olympic summer, with Chiuri looking back to the classical roots of the games in Ancient Greece, riffing on the ‘peplos’, a garment from the era which is made from a singular piece of cloth and folded at the waist. For her S/S 2025 ready-to-wear collection – teased with a video of the designer being given a tour of the Louvre’s Roman Antiquities gallery – she looked once again to the ancient era, summoning the mythological Amazons, a tribe of female warriors who appeared in epic poems from the Argonautica to the Iliad (men were not allowed in the Amazons, while any sons born to them were handed back to their fathers). The link to the historic house was Christian Dior’s Amazone dress from his autumn-winter 1951-1952 collection, a cut that was inspired by a group of French female horseriders (‘Amazone’ derives from the Gallic word for ‘side saddle’). Chiuri said the dress is symbolic of ‘a strength of spirit, a reference point for the notion of an autonomous, courageous femininity’.
It was a thematic choice that fits well with Chiuri’s vision for the Parisian house, which is focused on creating clothing for – and inspired by – empowered women, nonetheless infused with moments of mythological grandeur and romance. The show began with an appearance from Sofia Ginevra Giannì, aka Sagg Napoli, a multidisciplinary Italian artist and archer, who, bow slung over her shoulder and wearing a riff on the gladiator’s uniform, walked the runway before setting up in a Perspex corridor and firing shots on an eye-shaped target (the artist had also created the show’s set). The looks that followed continued a sleek, sporty mood: there were criss-crossing asymmetric bodysuits and dresses, evocative of swimwear, elongated mesh dresses, lace-up boxing boots and sneakers, go-faster stripes and racing grid motifs, while later in the show utility nylon shirts and protective bodices recalled professional shooters and archers. Meanwhile nipped-waist tailoring – largely styled off the shoulder to reflect the collection’s asymmetric line – layers of sheer organza and tulle, plissé dresses and glimmering tassels added the requisite feeling of romance that remains at the heart of the house of Dior. The result, said Chiuri, was an exploration of the relationship between body, movement and dress, and in doing so provided a link to her first-ever collection for the house nearly a decade prior, in 2016, which was inspired by female fencers and their uniforms.
Stay tuned for more from Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025.
-
Polestar finally breaks out of its single-model line-up with the Polestar 3 performance SUVLaunched alongside the Polestar 4, the new Polestar 3 is an all-electric SUV that embodies the very best of the Swedish EV brand's approach to design and performance
-
All-new Nothing Ear (open) offers up a different kind of listening experienceIf you find traditional earbuds cancel out too much of the outside world, Nothing has got you covered. We get down with the company’s new Ear (open) to experience this transparent new soundscape
-
First look: Michael Anastassiades looks floor-wards for a new collaboration with MutinaUnveiling a new exhibition, including oak floor tiling, at Mutina’s headquarters yesterday, the designer tells Wallpaper* about his love for the patina of endgrain
-
Augustinus Bader’s Palais-Royal boutique has been transformed by artist Harry NurievAugustinus Bader unveils a pop-up space at its flagship store in Paris by multidisciplinary artist and designer Harry Nuriev
-
These Dior biker boots capture the liberated spirit of the 1960sThe Dior D-Quest boots first appeared as part of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s A/W 2024 collection, which was inspired by Marc Bohan’s 1960s-founded Miss Dior line
-
Why solid soap is the most pleasurable object to bathe withSolid soap provides a tactile bathing experience like no other. Hannah Tindle explores why in the September 2024 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, with soaps by Chanel, Celine, Diptyque, and more, photographed by Sophie Gladstone
-
First look: how Diptyque used synaesthesia to create its poetic new perfume collectionDiptyque’s new perfume collection, ‘Les Essences de Diptyque’, captures the scent of coral and mother of pearl. Ahead of its launch, the maison’s noses tell Wallpaper* how this was done
-
The story behind Dior’s ‘Amphora’ perfume bottle, an icon of mid-century designAn exclusive new edition of Dior’s ‘Amphora’ perfume bottle arrived in Harrods this month. Wallpaper* traces its design history, from post-war to present day
-
The story behind Kim Jones’ showstopping first couture collection for Dior Men: ‘people want something that nobody else has’Kim Jones’ first dedicated couture collection for Dior Men draws inspiration from the public and private life of flamboyant ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. In Paris, he tells fashion features editor Jack Moss more
-
Wallpaper* September 2024, The Style Issue, is on newsstands now: discover the looks of the seasonWallpaper* September 2024, The Style Issue, heralds sensual dressing for the season ahead. Hear from Dior’s Kim Jones, Hermès’ Nadège Vanhée, and tour Karl Lagerfeld’s bookshop
-
In time for the Olympics, Onitsuka Tiger opens a Paris ‘hôtel’Hôtel Onitsuka Tiger, on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, promises an immersive journey into the Japanese brand’s 75-year history, featuring some memorable ’residents’
