The 5 Paris Fashion Week Women's FW25 shows you may have missed

Fashion has been complaining for over a year: too many brands are changing creative direction, too many designers are seeking refuge in the shadow of recession-core, and too many consumers are succumbing to the allure of nostalgia. Yet, during this latest fashion month, we can say that the light at the end of the tunnel has finally given us a glance, thanks especially to a new wave of young and enterprising creatives eager to make their voices heard. It's worth noting that even at the top of luxury, there have been a couple of surprises, from the ethereal muses of Chloé to the alluring secrecy of The Row, from the 80s plasticity of Saint Laurent to the sensational debut of Sarah Burton for Givenchy. There’s nothing better than writing a summary article of the best shows of Fashion Week and being spoiled for choice.

Here are the 5 shows from Paris Fashion Week Women’s FW25 that you may have missed.

1. Vaquera

Vaquera’s mission is to create a new language, and with this week’s show, the brand proved it knows how to do that brilliantly. FW25 played with the canons of the chic bourgeoisie that fills the streets of Paris, with wool gray tones, fur, and spotted patterns. Always with a touch of irony, the classics are reinterpreted according to the brand’s punk ethos, presenting a large number of pieces that could easily integrate into many wardrobes. The padded shoulders were the focal point of the line, capable of totally transforming the silhouette, while the bra became a dress and the hats conversed with a distant era. There were also references to Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel, a style code that Patric di Caprio, Bryn Taubensee, and their senior designer Laura Spence may have explored to hint that Vaquera is ready to permanently move from New York to Paris. Well, usually Americans and French don’t get along, but in this show, love blossomed.

2. Rokh

Inside an old French house with peeling walls and bare floors, Rokh – founded in 2016 by Korean designer Rok Hwang – presented Fractured Motion. As the title suggests, the collection explores structured silhouettes that move with the models, with cuts, pleats, and knots carefully designed to evoke a sense of comfort and craftsmanship. It’s not about deconstruction, as Rokh’s looks for FW25 were architectural masterpieces: trench coats become low-waisted dresses with added ruffles and belts, the traditionally rectangular line of wool coats is rounded off with capes sewn to the edges of the headgear, while the combination of a plaster bust and a trench tied at the waist made the artistic tool surprisingly wearable.

3. Matières Fecales

Debuting at Paris Fashion Week must be a stressful experience for a young designer, especially if the brand you’re bringing to the runway is called Matières Fecales. However, founders Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran had nothing to fear: punk-chic is liked by everyone. The two designers, former artists and DJs passionate about extravagant makeup, presented a beautiful balance between eccentricity and discretion, between structured total black outerwear – where the padded shoulders stole the show – and white leather gloves covered in silver spikes. There were practical streetwear-inspired pieces like bomber jackets and graphic sweatshirts, but also showstopper looks worthy of a theatrical performance rather than a red carpet. On white evening gowns, angel wings made of feathers appeared from the models’ shoulders like a cape or stretched toward the sky from the neckline of an organza suit. Delightfully unsettling.

4. Ann Demeulemeester

On X, users enjoy writing that Ann Demeulemeester and Chloé are two sides of the same coin, like Yin and Yang. They do resemble each other, although their artistic references are quite different: while Chemena Kamali at Chloé explores boho chic through the it-girls who popularized the aesthetic in the 2000s, at Ann Demeulemeester, designer Stefano Gallici looks at a past era but especially at art, architecture, and the brand’s underground community. Dennis Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Abbie Hoffman Glenn Lutchford, and Richard Serra were the protagonists of the new collection’s moodboard, a reimagining of the romantic spirit of the Belgian brand with the fresh addition of boho references. Gilets and long leather skirts were paired with white shirts with large balloon sleeves, and the traditional jacket and shirt ensemble was softened with a black knit poncho held together by a silver brooch. What made Gallici’s new collection for Ann Demeulemeester extremely captivating was the way he celebrated a subculture without uprooting it, how he told his world (and the brand’s) story without chasing nostalgia too much. In short, it was true authenticity.

5. Vautrait

Vautrait’s FW25 collection, founded by Yonathan Carmel in 2021, can be interpreted as a thesis on the meaning of “timeless.” Too often the term is used without restraint, but in this case, it’s the right one. You can’t assign a decade or an era to this collection: every piece could belong to any age – which makes the line extremely desirable. The classics, like shearling jackets and argyle knitwear, biker jackets, and tartan, have a whole new face: the silhouettes are more enveloping, more structured, more seductive. The looks reveal little of the models’ bodies, yet the plasticity of the sleeves, the draping of the silk around the shoulders, and the crumpling of the total white, as well as the cascades of pleats, narrate a femininity that is confident, strong, and independent.