Paris is always a good idea. But this couture week was something else!
This season, Paris wasn’t just the city of light; it was the city of drama, reinvention, and unforgettable silhouettes. Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 brought it all: quiet poetry, wild proportions, emotional storytelling, and history made (yes, finally). And in true KHAMSA style, we’ve rounded up the shows you shouldn’t have missed, because this season, couture wasn’t about fantasy escapes. It was about confronting reality and turning it into art.
From Middle Eastern trailblazers to fashion houses in transition, here are the collections that left us speechless.
١. Ashi Studio: Statues in Lace and Memory
Walking into Ashi Studio’s world this season felt like opening an old drawer of forgotten treasures: lace, feathers, cracked porcelain dreams. Inspired by Parisian flea markets and the poetry of decay, designer Mohammed Ashi gave us silhouettes that looked carved from marble and stitched from history. Think veils like mist, corsets like relics, textures that felt like time.
It was haunting in the best way. A collection full of ghosts, yes, but ghosts dressed in couture. Oh, and Cardi B stole the pre-show moment in head-to-toe lace. Naturally.
٢. Balenciaga: The Final Bow, Demna Style
Demna’s final couture show for Balenciaga was not quiet. It was swan song meets personal archive, a last love letter wrapped in feathers, diamonds, and drama. From Kim Kardashian walking in Elizabeth Taylor’s silk slip and faux mink coat (made of embroidered feathers, no less) to 300 kilometers of tufted embroidery masquerading as corduroy, this was maximalist minimalism at its peak.
Demna called it his “ultimate wardrobe,” and it showed: biker coats in vicuña cashmere, gravity-defying tailoring, one-seam dresses. It wasn’t about ballroom gowns. It was about what couture looks like outside the red carpet. Bold. Weird. Iconic.
٣. Maison Margiela: Martens Goes Full Myth
For his debut Artisanal collection at Margiela, Glenn Martens didn’t just step up, he ascended. Drawing from Flemish architecture and 17th-century Dutch paintings, the silhouettes felt sculptural, almost saintly. Wet drapery clung to the body like marble turned liquid, faces were masked, and recycled materials became couture’s rawest expression.
It was all drama, all mood. Tabi toes became claws, flowers were printed on paper and turned into gowns, and Martens made us forget the line between past and post-future. If couture is about craft and concept, then this was the blueprint.
٤. Georges Hobeika: Beauty as Rebellion
While the world spun in chaos, Georges Hobeika slowed things down. His collection, The New Order, wasn’t about escapism, it was about using beauty as defiance. Every pleat, every bead, every billowing silhouette felt like a quiet protest.
Hobeika reminded us that couture isn’t just about dresses—it’s about discipline, heritage, and the soft power of craftsmanship. In a world that often feels like it’s unraveling, he showed us how to stitch meaning back into fashion.
٥. Chanel: Nature, But Make It Couture
In a final act before Matthieu Blazy takes over, Chanel’s studio team delivered an ode to nature with all the grace and restraint you’d expect, and then some. Set in a recreated 31 Rue Cambon salon, the show brought the outdoors in: ears of corn as motifs, tweed softened with feathers, and silk gowns grounded with thigh-high countryside boots.
There were no fireworks here, just confidence. A whisper of a collection that nodded to the Scottish Highlands, to Chanel’s roots, and to the kind of quiet elegance that doesn’t need to shout to be remembered.
٦. Schiaparelli: Surrealism, Reversed
Daniel Roseberry took us back to the future, literally. His Schiaparelli collection stripped away color and modernity to reimagine the house’s archives with surreal, almost monastic drama. Think matador jackets dripping in baroque pearls, ceramic buttons shaped like body parts, and bias-cut gowns that danced without corsets.
There was no chaos, just control. Every piece felt like an artifact from another time, one that hadn’t happened yet. Roseberry’s question: Can looking back be a radical way forward? His answer: absolutely.
٧. Rami Al Ali: A Syrian First, A Historic Moment
It took a decade, but Rami Al Ali finally made it to the official couture calendar, and he did not disappoint. The first Syrian designer to show on schedule, he brought Guardians of Light, a collection that celebrated Syrian heritage through delicate, architectural pieces that whispered rather than screamed.
Inspired by ancient palaces, mosque tiles, and Ottoman courtyards, Al Ali’s palette was soft: crepe pinks, powder blues, oat, dove grey. But the craftsmanship? Fierce. Pleats that moved like paper. Corsets floating over chiffon. Embroidery echoing lost traditions. It was heritage turned into high fashion. A powerful, poetic debut.
And Just Like That, Couture’s Future Feels Brighter
This season wasn’t about spectacle for spectacle’s sake. It was about why we create, how we remember, and what we carry into the future. Whether it was Margiela’s cathedral gowns, Balenciaga’s emotional farewell, or the quiet rise of voices like Rami Al Ali, one thing was clear: Couture is evolving, and we’re here for every stitch of it.
