Georges Hobeika and Rahul Mishra lead Paris Haute Couture for autumn 2025

The National

5 days ago

Fashion never sleeps, something that was underlined in new and extraordinary ways on the opening day of the autumn/winter 2025-2026 haute couture season in Paris.
As the highest level an atelier can attain, alongside catering to a small coterie of ultra-wealthy clients, haute couture is where designers give their imagination flight, pushing the limits of what is possible.
This week in particular is being closely watched, given that it marks Demna's farewell from Balenciaga, Glenn Martens's debut at Maison Margiela and the first time a Syrian designer, Rami Al Ali, joins the official haute couture calendar.
Here are our highlights from day one.
Iris van Herpen
Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen, known for her experimental use of materials, opened her show with a look made from 250 million living algae bacteria. The result? An otherworldly glow with a bio-luminescent blue tint took over the runway.
It wasn't the only look that was wild and entrancing in equal measure; other cutting-edge fabrics included a metallic cloth so light it hung in the air like wisps of smoke around the model.
At a time fuelled by AI acceleration, the collection seems to theorise how our clothes might be on the verge of achieving sentience.
Schiaparelli
Under the helm of designer Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli's Back To The Future show examined how Parisian fashion reached new heights in the 1940s, just as the city fell to the Nazi occupation. The period forced designers, including Elsa Schiaparelli herself, to flee.
This was expressed as impeccable, two-piece tweedy suits, dresses cut and carved into the waist, or lavished with hundreds of embroidered eyes, as well as exquisite bull-fighter-style bolero jackets and cropped trousers.
Amid elegant coats trimmed with velvet and fur, and capes smothered in silver starburst embroidery, the collection's star appeared as a vivid, blood-red dress made entirely back-to-front.
Anatomically correct, the female form now ran down the model's spine and topped with a three-dimensional, beaded heart at the base of her neck. Thanks to some backstage mastery, said heart appeared to beat, pulsing hypnotically. Despite being surrounded by such handcrafted marvels, the effect brought us sharply back to, well, the heart of the story; the visceral terror of war.
Georges Hobeika
Lebanese couture house Georges Hobeika presented a show called The New Order, which unfolded in genteel elegance. Opening with a moulded corset over frilled bloomers, this was followed by another sculptural torso that was exaggerated around the hips, before slowly unfurling to the gossamer, flowing looks that Hobeika made his name on, scattered with beading and paillets.
Shades shifted from bone white to nude, mocha and eventually to red, and finally to black. Designs ranged from flapper dresses, sheer bodice gowns and sharply pleated skirts to graceful off-the-shoulder looks scattered with fabric petals. Necklines were also a keen focus throughout, from square cuts to high and tight.
The closing bridal look was a silver beaded confection, so tightly worked that it looked as though the model's hips were covered in hammered silver. It served as an apt finale to a show that outlined precisely why Hobeika, and his son Jad, have been a constant presence at Paris Haute Couture Week since January 2017. Catering to women who desire a wardrobe of ravishingly beautiful cocktail dresses and gowns, spun from chiffon and featuring hundreds of hours of handwork, the looks brought to life by this father and son team are the stuff of dreams.
Rahul Mishra
Becoming Love was the title of Rahul Mishra 's show held inside a vaulted cathedral space in Paris. The collection explored Sufism and the notion of the seven stages of love, echoing attraction, infatuation, surrender, reverence, devotion, obsession and even death. In Mishra's hand, these became ephemeral constructions, such as the opening look that surrounded the model in golden curves.
Another look featured a sheer sheath, covered in delicate lotus flowers, while nods to artist Gustav Klimt appeared as swirls that adorned dresses and a billowing cape. With such a skilled atelier at his fingertips, Mishra is able to breathe life into the most lofty concepts, transforming each into a delicate, marvellous creation.