Valentino

Alessandro Michele’s Spring Summer 2026 Haute Couture show for Valentino was staged just days after the passing of Valentino Garavani. The show unsurprisingly carried an unmistakable emotional weight. Before the first look appeared, Garavani’s own voice filled the space, recalling the images and cinematic dreams that first inspired his desire to dress women. It was a quiet, powerful opening that set the tone and reminded the audience of his legacy.

True to Michele’s instinct for rethinking format, the show rejected the traditional runway entirely. Inspired by a 19th-century Kaiserpanorama, models appeared within circular structures while the audience observed from the outside, peering through small square windows. The result was intimate and disorienting, transforming fashion into an act of looking, pausing and contemplating.

Within these framed moments, the collection unfolded with richness. The silhouettes were layered and ornate, steeped in meticulous craftsmanship. Historical references, romantic gestures and theatrical flourishes were filtered through Michele’s lens, creating a dialogue between past and present.  

Elie Saab

Elie Saab’s collection “Golden Summer Nights of ’71” unfolded like a dream suspended between dusk and dawn. Set to the rhythm of music, laughter, and moonlit glamour, the collection channelled the spirit of a woman whose arrival shifts the night's energy. Dressed in shimmering layers, she moved through summer evenings with confidence, freedom and quiet magnetism.

Drawing inspiration from the jet-set glamour of the 1970s, the collection travelled from Milos to Marrakech, blending high couture with a hedonistic edge. Leather was treated like jewellery, woven textures met abstract prints, and ethnic motifs were illuminated with cascades of crystals. Silver and gold intertwined effortlessly, while fluid gowns revealed unexpected details, from open backs to embroidered straps that caught the light as the body moved.

Craftsmanship remained at the forefront, with ombré chiffons shifting hue and metal meshes glinting like stars. The finale saw the muse reappear as a bride, ethereal and modern, embodying a vision of beauty that felt cinematic, sensual and free.

Zuhair Murad

Zuhair Murad presented a couture collection shaped by the belief that beauty endures, even after the longest nights. Titled Chiaroscuro and conceived as a quiet rebirth, the collection reflects a the beauty that lives on when everything else is gone. It represents hope, and finding light in the dark.

This literally played out across 45 glistening looks. Models emerged like figures of light, moving forward with calm strength and purpose. Inspired by past eras of rebirth, from Humanist Italy to the hopeful femininity of the 1950s, Murad reimagines the hourglass silhouette through sculpted waists, conical corsets, flowing skirts and deep, sensual draping. Each look feels both protective and poetic, garments acting as soft armour.

Craftsmanship lies at the heart of the collection. Fine satins, mikado, chiffon and jersey interact with the body through weight, movement and touch, while embroidery draws from Renaissance frescoes and aged gilding. The palette unfolds in soft pastels rising from shadow, as if stepping gently into the light. With Chiaroscuro, Murad offers a vision of beauty as resistance.

Alexis Mabille

Alexis Mabille pushed haute couture into uncharted territory, presenting a virtual AI-generated collection and exploring the intersection of craftsmanship and technology. What began as a familiar runway setting quickly shifted into something unexpected as the lights dimmed, and a virtual audience appeared, mirroring the real one. When the first model emerged not on the catwalk but on screen, it became clear this was couture reimagined.

Titled Hors-Champs, the show unfolded entirely in a digital space, revealing dresses, jackets and capes rendered in a luminous palette that flowed from vivid red to soft cream, passing through fuchsia, violet, emerald and Nile blue. Though virtual, the silhouettes remained true to couture codes, alternating between fluidity and structure.

These designs do not yet exist in physical form, but the technology allows clients to view each piece to their own specifications and features. For Mabille, this marks a shift in how couture is conceived, reflecting new generations and new ways of creating without abandoning craftsmanship.