Paris Haute Couture SS26: A Season of Fluidity, Fantasy, and Forward Craft

Open­ing Image Vik­tor & Rolf

Dig­i­tal Fash­ion and Beau­ty Edi­tor Eve Fitzpatrick

Jan­u­ary in Paris ush­ered in a cou­ture sea­son defined by light­ness, both in spir­it and exe­cu­tion. For Spring/Summer 2026, design­ers leaned into ideas of move­ment, trans­for­ma­tion, and renew­al, reflect­ing a broad­er shift toward flu­id sil­hou­ettes, exper­i­men­tal mate­ri­als, and emo­tion­al­ly res­o­nant sto­ry­telling. If recent sea­sons have explored struc­ture and mon­u­men­tal­i­ty, SS26 felt like a release: cou­ture unteth­ered, expres­sive, and alive.

Across the week, six col­lec­tions cap­tured the essence of this moment, each offer­ing a dis­tinct per­spec­tive on what mod­ern cou­ture can be.

Tamara Ralph

Tama­ra Ralph opened her sea­son with a col­lec­tion that dis­tilled her sig­na­ture glam­our into some­thing soft­er and more atmos­pher­ic. Where past work leaned into sculp­tur­al pre­ci­sion, SS26 embraced flu­id drap­ery, diaphanous lay­ers, and weight­less movement.

Sil­hou­ettes float­ed rather than struc­tured the body, with cas­cad­ing chif­fon, silk tulle, and hand-embroi­dered organ­za cre­at­ing a sense of qui­et lumi­nos­i­ty. Embell­ish­ment remained cen­tral, but was ren­dered more del­i­cate­ly, crys­talline bead­ing and soft metal­lic threads catch­ing light like morn­ing dew. The result was cou­ture that felt roman­tic yet con­trolled, a study in restraint with­out sac­ri­fic­ing impact.

Gaurav Gupta

Gau­rav Gup­ta con­tin­ued his explo­ration of the cos­mic, but with a new­found empha­sis on motion and ener­gy. His SS26 cou­ture trans­lat­ed plan­e­tary orbits and astral forces into gar­ments that spi­ralled and flowed around the body.

Airy fab­rics replaced heav­ier metallics, allow­ing his sig­na­ture sculp­tur­al forms to feel lighter, almost air­borne. Iri­des­cent fin­ish­es and translu­cent lay­ers gave the impres­sion of gar­ments in flux, con­stant­ly shift­ing with the wear­er. Gupta’s work this sea­son sug­gest­ed a soft­er futur­ism: less armour, more aura.

Guo Pei

For SS26, Guo Pei stepped away from impe­r­i­al grandeur toward a more pas­toral fan­ta­sy. Inspired by gar­dens, mythol­o­gy, and the pas­sage of time, her col­lec­tion unfold­ed like a liv­ing tapestry.

Flo­ral embroi­dery bloomed across volu­mi­nous gowns, while soft pas­tel palettes replaced her usu­al gold-dom­i­nant schemes. Despite this shift, the crafts­man­ship remained mon­u­men­tal, each piece still bear­ing the hall­marks of hun­dreds, if not thou­sands, of hours of hand­work. Guo Pei proved that del­i­ca­cy can be just as pow­er­ful as opulence.

Rahul Mishra

With his col­lec­tion “Alche­my,” Rahul Mishra trans­lat­ed philo­soph­i­cal ideas into cou­ture. Draw­ing on the five ele­ments, Mishra used tex­ture and embroi­dery to rep­re­sent trans­for­ma­tion, earth, air, fire, water, and ether ren­dered through painstak­ing handwork.

Nature served as both inspi­ra­tion and frame­work, with gar­ments bloom­ing, dis­solv­ing, and reform­ing across the run­way. Mishra’s strength lies in his abil­i­ty to merge nar­ra­tive with crafts­man­ship, turn­ing cou­ture into a med­i­ta­tive, almost spir­i­tu­al experience.

Robert Wun

Robert Wun approached SS26 with a more intro­spec­tive lens. While his work is often asso­ci­at­ed with bold the­atri­cal­i­ty, this sea­son revealed a qui­eter, more inti­mate tension.

Sil­hou­ettes were still pre­cise, but less exag­ger­at­ed, allow­ing detail and con­struc­tion to take focus. Soft tai­lor­ing, con­trolled drap­ery, and a restrained palette cre­at­ed a sense of emo­tion­al depth. Wun’s sto­ry­telling felt inter­nal rather than per­for­ma­tive, prov­ing that cou­ture dra­ma doesn’t always need spec­ta­cle to resonate.

Viktor & Rolf

Vik­tor & Rolf inject­ed SS26 with wit and lev­i­ty, pre­sent­ing a col­lec­tion that toyed with illu­sion, pro­por­tion, and per­cep­tion. Their sig­na­ture con­cep­tu­al approach remained intact, but felt lighter, both visu­al­ly and thematically.

Gar­ments appeared to shift scale and per­spec­tive, with exag­ger­at­ed bows, lay­ered sil­hou­ettes, and unex­pect­ed con­struc­tions cre­at­ing a sense of play­ful dis­tor­tion. Beneath the humour, how­ev­er, lay impec­ca­ble crafts­man­ship. As always, Vik­tor & Rolf remind­ed audi­ences that cou­ture can be both intel­lec­tu­al­ly engag­ing and joy­ful­ly absurd.