"All things/ are too small/ to hold me,/ I am so vast/ in the Infinite/ I reach out/ to the Uncreated/ I have touched it." In the 13th century, Hadewijch of Antwerp pursued in her poetry what, in 2025, Alessandro Michele seeks in his debut on the Paris Haute Couture runway. Through ruffs, floral patchwork, diamonds, hoop skirts, armor with embroidered scales, and trapezoidal skirts, the Roman designer has studied the vertigo induced by contemplating the infinite, turned into a celebration in his hands. The ideas of Umberto Eco come into play to guide the collection: lists, Michele reflects, aim to define the immeasurable to make it manageable. In the show, the aesthetics of computing and flashing lights emphasized the Italian's intention: the immeasurable can become a nightmare. Humanity molds it to its dimension and, master of juxtapositions, turns it into divine.
The limits of the human are also surpassed at Schiaparelli. Daniel Roseberry, its creative director, acknowledges the hybris (arrogance) involved in pursuing perfection and names his Haute Couture line Icarus, tinted with the color of the sun that burned the wings of Daedalus' son. A vanilla tone bathes the obsessions that have consumed the American's recent months: the almost liquid curves of the 1920s and 1930s, the work of Poiret and Alaïa, feathers treated with keratin to imitate monkey fur, and satin leather. Roseberry's goal rises like Icarus: with fashion as a tool, he aims to "make the world better."
While at Chanel they await the arrival of Matthieu Blazy, their new creative director, the studio of the French house reiterates their codes: with lamb sleeves, gauzes, and tweeds are reinterpreted in a pastel palette, and white finds its limit in black bows tasked with outlining, on collarbones, waist, or hips, the silhouette's proportion. Dior also delves into its archives to land in the present. The Trapèze silhouette, with which Yves Saint Laurent debuted at the maison, alternates with evening coats, punk-inspired Mohican headpieces, and farthingales that, when revealed, are adorned with floral applications in shades of mauve and nude. To demonstrate the relevance of sewing techniques, Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative head of the firm, portrays a woman capable of, like Alice in Wonderland, altering at will the proportions of the place she inhabits.
Focusing on nautical and urban elements, Jean Paul Gaultier and Rahul Mishra celebrate human creation. In the intersection, Giorgio Armani Privè and Giambattista Valli: in the light on nature, the Italians find a new path to explore the world.