Rise and shine: It’s a new year and couturiers are hoping for brighter things ahead in 2025, offering a celebration of opulence and the promise of escapism with spring collections that hinged on metallics.
Giorgio Armani, who marked the 20th anniversary of Privé this season, expressed different cultures from around the globe (particularly the Far East) vividly in shimmering or sparkling surface decoration, “more than usual chez Armani,” observed WWD’s Miles Socha in his review.
Socha highlighted glass-like fabrics that Armani has been fond of lately and fully beaded gowns with a tulle overlay, which have made him “a northern star for red carpet regulars.”
But Armani wasn’t the only one who provided megawatt contenders for best-dressed. At Elie Saab, Tamara Ralph and Zhuhair Murad, there were plenty of fishtails and columns so dense with bronze embellishment they could outshine an award on Oscars night. In fact, “Old Hollywood magic” was the central reference for Murad, reported Rhonda Richford.
Others veered far far away from Tinseltown, working hard metal and crystal into showpieces that would feel more at home in outer space. Gaurav Gupta bejeweled the skin of one of his models to match the inside of her swooping conical bustier. He told WWD it was a nod to the resilience of burn victims, having survived a fire last June himself. And Rahul Mishra used silver mirrored disks to make a statement on pollution in densely populated cities.
Elsewhere, the Chanel in-house studio featured gold as part of its exploration into the hidden facets of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s color palette. “Chanel is not just black and white,” Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion for the French brand, told Joelle Diderich. After a parade of pastel tweeds, came a small run of eveningwear that glistened on the runway like a bottle of No. 5 perfume.
Gold was also prominent in Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli collection, named “Icarus” after the Greek mythological character who flew too close to the sun. Dresses made from strips of lustrous satin ribbon could have alluded to the sun’s rays, but according to Roseberry, the theme was more about pushing Schiaparelli‘s atelier to the apex of their craft.
“[Icarus] was looking to escape,” he explained. “And I just think that’s what couture can offer its audience and its clients: It’s the promise of just 15 minutes of a suspended reality.”
