Paris couture turns runways into surreal, creature-filled spectacles

At Paris couture shows this week, designers including Schiaparelli and Valentino turned runways into surreal, creature-filled spectacles, according to a review published Jan. 29, 2026 by Vanessa Friedman. At Schiaparelli, creative director Daniel Roseberry said he began the collection feeling “so upset and so angry,” and worked to “turn it into something joyful.” The show featured hand-cut lace shaped into quills around the neck and face, a Chantilly-lace scorpion tail, rhinoceros horns on a mother-of-pearl scaled skirt suit and beaks on hand-painted feathers, staged as if the Petit Palais had become a royal court of exotically dressed predators.

In the audience, Teyana Taylor wore a transparent Schiaparelli lace sheath and reproductions of jewels stolen in the Louvre heist, the review notes. The review argues that couture has become primarily entertainment — “blockbuster, fantasy” spectacle that restores “faith in possibility” even when pieces are not meant to be worn in ordinary life.

Designers, it says, cite art, employment and escapism to justify couture, but most of all the shows aim to astonish. Alessandro Michele’s Valentino show opened with a voice-over from founder Valentino Garavani, who died the week before couture began: “My mom said, ‘You are a dreamer; you always dream, dream, dream, dream,’” Mr.

Valentino intoned. Mr.

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