Paris Fashion Week SS27: Everything you missed from this season’s shows Womenswear

Congratulations. You’ve made it. You’ve completed the final pitstop of the SS27 season, and Paris Fashion Week has been one hell of a ride. Matières Fécales grabbed our attention with its provocative celebration of The Ninety Nine Percent, turning Place de la République into a manifesto-driven runway show. Elsewhere, Anthony Vaccarello delivered a gold-drenched masterpiece at Saint Laurent, Alessandro Michele tackled the ongoing literary crisis, inviting Valentino guests to donate books to Paris’s Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, and Drew Henry made a colourful debut at Courrèges. Across the board, at Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Issey Miyake and Hermès, designers seemed to embrace fabrics with light and airy qualities, perhaps in response to this summer’s extreme heat. 

Click here to revisit all those shows and more – but for everything else you missed, scroll through our list below.

Duran Lantink has reached his first birthday at Jean Paul Gaultier. The Dutch designer was part of that SS26 cohort of new creative directors, and his first provocative collection offended as much as it titillated. After a year in the job, the overdramatic reactions have calmed down considerably, but the designer’s approach to his work is still as thrilling as ever. “With now a full-circle calendar of shows under his belt, Lantink presses his team to retain a sense of curiosity and naivety,” read this season’s show notes. “His ethos in seven words? ‘Always look for something that excites you’.”

With Shygirl, SZA and Jean Paul Gaultier himself sitting front row, models emerged in a white coat with comically broad shoulders, a hulking black leather jacket, and a brown leather vest whose shoulder pads had slipped round to the front to resemble an oddly angular bust. Elsewhere, Lantink worked in lines that dipped and scooped in unexpected directions: typically demure nightgowns had giant keyhole necklines that dipped to expose conical leather bras, while the rigid fabric of a spotted monokini curved off its model’s body and trench coats were constructed with their own protruding breast cups.

For SS27, Telfar Clemens surprised the fashion industry by announcing he would show his famously very New York namesake label in Paris instead. Clemens hadn’t debuted a collection in Europe for seven years, since Paris Fashion Week SS20 in September 2019. Because of this, the international community was anticipating his arrival – but, as always, with Telfar Clemens, things aren’t always as they seem.

Guests to the Paris show were greeted by the French DJ Crystallmess, who opened in a hooded, snow leopard mini dress and matching opaque tights. But before another look could hit the runway, the curtains on stage drew back to reveal a giant screen, and the real show began livestreaming – from New York City. Clemens had trolled the Paris fashion elite, transforming his PFW comeback into one big joke. One thing that wasn’t a joke, though? Those seriously sexy clothes, which ranged from slinky eveningwear to slouchy streetwear, all with that NY nightlife edge Clemens does so well.

What would you wear if you never had to grow up? For Ditte Reffstrup, the answer is rooted in play. Before we know our own style, clothing is a playground. It’s experimenting with your older sibling’s oversized jumpers or teetering around in a pair of your mum’s too-big pair of kitten heels. There’s an unabashed freedom in getting dressed when you’re too young to care what anyone else thinks.

At this season’s Ganni presentation, Reffstrup interpreted this chaotic process through shrunken knits and oversized sweaters to recreate that childhood feeling of wearing clothes that you’ve outgrown, or that you’ll grow into later. Jeans were ripped then patched back together. Midi skirts ballooned into bloomers tied together to create dramatic ruffles. Colours darted from fresh lilacs and mint greens to neon yellows and fire engine red, as though a crayon factory had exploded. Elsewhere, this playful naivety emerged via oversized floppy hats, candy coloured micro bags and a cropped baseball T-shirt cheekily demanding ‘Ask My Mum’ in bright red font. “There’s a freedom and joy that reminds me why I fell in love with dressing up,” Reffstrup reflected via the show notes. “It feels like coming home.”

The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” rumbled in as rain beat down on the pavements outside, setting the tone for Antonin Tronin’s glamorous trip back in time to 1970s California – the playground of Jim Morrison, Joan Didion, Michelangelo Antonioni and Michel Foucault. Garments were characterised by fluidity and ease; a rock idol loucheness rendered in draped jersey, skinny leather trousers and lashings of leopard print. Iridescent coppers, golds, oranges and pale yellows glimmered like a Los Angeles sunset, while wet look hair and skin hugging fabrics gave the impression that models were staggering home from one of Didion’s famed parties. California dreamin’ for days.

We all know what happened to Narcissus when he fell in love with his reflection – but at Tom Ford this season, models didn’t fall in love with the mirror so much as make love to it. Glass mirrors lined the walls as they slinked down the runway dressed in tailored pinstriped suits with little underneath, or full looks crafted from fetishistic black leather. This was a lesson in fantasy, drawing from the classic codes of seduction – red lips, red nails and razor sharp stilettos. Haider Ackermann took Ford’s rich sensuality and turned it up to 100, with fishnet shirts, sheer midis and bra tops leaving little to the imagination. And if there was ever any question about the inspiration, the soundtrack – full of moaning and heavy breathing – quickly put those doubts to bed. Literally.

It started with a piece of lightweight fabric wafting weightlessly through the air. Satoshi Kondo wanted to see how it reacted and felt on the skin before his team began the garment-making process. He wanted to explore the airy spaces between fabric and body. This sense of weightless ease floated through Issey Miyake’s SS27 collection, with billowing crinkled silks and ballooning trench coats trailing behind the models as they walked. Each of these breezy ensembles created a voluminous, ballooning effect that gave the impression that the clothes themselves were alive and breathing.

Taking place at Paris’ Judo Institute, the show opened with 11 dancers contorting a billowing blue fabric that rolled like a wave. As the wave parted, the first model stepped through it in a bright, cornflower blue bodice that looked like a Plaster of Paris mold had been fused to her skin. More bodices followed in black and butter yellow, adding contrast to the free floating fabrics that followed – fluttering trousers, artful draping, silk scarves spilling out from suits. This was a celebration of movement, ease and the art of being alive.  

Sarah Burton wants to cut through the noise. In her fourth women’s collection for Givenchy, her vision is not a caricature of femininity, but a practical, no-nonsense wardrobe for the kind of woman who is as likely to be found in the boardroom as at the bar. The first look expressed this versatility: a black leather shift dress with a twist. Zips up the side were left open to reveal flashes of bright yellow beneath. These biker motifs revealed themselves throughout and the collection’s most racy, daring moments came in leather zip micro-shorts, zippered knee-high boots and a biker jacket reimagined as a body suit. 

The divisive peplum returned in jewel toned satin blazers paired with straight leg denim in a look straight out of the jeans-and-a-nice-top millennial playbook. Elsewhere, ribbed cotton vest tops were worn with washed blue denim and power suits arrived with razor-sharp shoulders and asymmetric fastenings – but Burton left the best till last. An evening gown heavily embellished with tapestry-like beadwork evoked an impressionist painting, shimmering and swirling like moving brushstrokes when it caught the light. For all the practical, wearable elements of this collection, Burton always makes room for a little fantasy. 

Autumn’s first cool breeze evokes many things – a new school year, Gilmore Girls, planning your costume for Halloween. And anyone who is serious about fashion greets every autumn with a sigh of relief. This is the season when we can start really dressing. 

Margaret Howell understands what it means to really dress. Her focus is rooted in clarity – well-made, timeless pieces crafted from natural fibres. This season, she designed an archetypal autumnal wardrobe from the classic codes of British dressing. Soft, unstructured tailoring, breezy cotton and knee-length pleated skirts felt infused with autumn academia. The palette was mostly neutral, but flashes of red appeared in a polo shirt peaking out from underneath a blazer, or a jumper draped over shoulders. These academic staples were underscored by a literary, vagabond mood via lopsided bucket hats and lived-in, undone suiting. And with durability at the heart of the design, this is a uniform that will last for many semesters to come.

According to Duolingo’s recent intervention in the SS27 season, Hermès is pronounced “air-mess”. While the little green owl didn’t directly collaborate with the French luxury house, creative director Nadège Vanhée has been thinking about air too. This summer in Paris was spent searching for breezes – anything to offer brief respite from the oppressive heat. At Hermès this breeziness was rendered through gauzy, breathable knit dresses and modular zips that could transform a look from spring to summer. The first half of the collection explored a palette of pale colours to reflect the sun rather than absorb it – bluish whites, creams and beige – while the second half showed flashes of primary colours in a sunshine yellow or fiery orange-red. A silk scarf becomes a top while bandeau tops came with extreme cut outs. It was intelligent dressing, proving that functionality doesn’t have to mean heavy fabrics or boring design.

In professional tennis, clay is the most physically demanding surface. It slows the game down, making it more tactical, less like tennis and more like chess. For Lacoste’s SS27 collection, technical precision lay in the details. Tennis balls were embedded in the heels of mesh trainers, creating extra suspension and bounce. Meanwhile, the number 217 appeared as a motif throughout, inspired by the 217km/h serve speed hit by Novak Djokovic in Athens in November 2025. 

Designer Pelagia Kolotouros served up all the elegance and grit of the game, making movement and endurance part of the final look. White trainers and hems were smudged with clay. Crinkled, wet look white polos turned sweat into a source of pride. Kolotouros sought to loosen preppy standards, softening structured silhouettes and unveiling imperfect, washed silks. Cotton T-shirts were crumpled while suits were worn loose and belted. The colour palette centred on red-clay and forest-green, but there were flashes of tennis-ball yellow and wet-look cobalt blue shot through like a 217 km/h ace. Match, set, point.