FASHION’S biggest runway show commenced and fur, leather, statement shoulders and splashes of yellow dominated Paris Women’s Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2025/26, which wraps up today.
Fur-leather affair
Back on the runways since last year and in the streets for several months now, fur (mostly faux) was everywhere in the collections, whether as subtle embellishment or the main material.
From Chloe to Rabanne, the spolight was on fur — on sleeves, lapes of a long coat or a fox-tail-style charm on a handbag.
Real fur is not banned on Paris catwalks, unlike in London, but leading up to the fashion event, animal-rights activists including Peta and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation protested last week in the French capital.
Leather, a timeless material, also made its way to the mainstream sartorial scene again since the 60s.
Vegan leather was the spotlight at fashion week as the flag-bearer of the ethical material Stella McCartney, a staunch defender of animal rights, has developed a range in vegan leather such as a faux snakeskin blouse.
All out maximalism
Maximalism was full-blown this fashion week as fashion houses such as Victoria Beckham showcased long black patent shoes with ankle straps at her chic and mostly monochrome show on Friday night.
Large shoes and oversized above-the-knee boots were also spotted at Vivienne Westwood by Andreas Kronthaler, Loewe, Balenciaga and Balmain.
A maximalist staple, oversized jackets have never really left the fashion scene, but designers are ditching the shapeless loose fit for defined silhouettes with a cinched waist. Padded shoulders are also back! Think 1980s Thierry Mugler.
Revival of the 80s “larger shoulder, defined waist”, mega fashion names such as Balmain, Victoria Beckham, Stella McCartney, Givenchy, Vivienne Westwood and Paris newcomer Matieres Fecales featured this sought-after silhouette in their collections.
“Shoulders are exploding,“ said Elle magazine fashion journalist Matthieu Bobard Deliere.
Rays of yellow
In the bleak midwinter next year, keep an eye out for flashes of yellow.
Though most designers stuck to a muted palette of greys, blacks and whites, with autumnal greens and browns thrown in, there was a proliferation of yellow in pastels, egg-yolk or bright sunshine tones.
Lead by Givenchy‘s new creative director Sarah Burton, her debut collection for the Parisian house featured just the right amount of yellow that added life to an otherwise almost black and white collection.
Other designers that walked in the same path were Tom Ford and Stella McCartney, truly beckoning an era of where yellow gets its flowers.
Unusual, asymmetrical silhouettes
As explained by fashion journalist Deliere, there is a “real trend” of deconstructing clothing. Pieces, deliberately sown in different lengths, gesture the return of the high-low silhouette that once ruled 2010s.
Meanwhile, Zomer presented a reversible collection where dresses, jackets, shirts and coats were designed to be worn back-to-front.
Alainpaul, on the other hand, featured unusual ruching and sweaters with one sleeve that could have been inspired by a Gen Z fashion trend that took over social media.
Meanwhile Vivienne Westwood featured skirts that were given asymmetrical treatment, as one end is longer on one side and the other shorter.
