From the University of Fashion, the Haute Couture 2021- 22 season rundown. Fashion is back!

Exciting news for fashion insiders, most of the Haute Couture 2021 shows in Paris were IRL (in real life) this season, as runway events began on Monday, July 5th. Haute couture shows are where the most whimsical and fanciful looks are to be found. They are the experimental breeding ground for designers to try new ideas and design concepts.

These one-of-a-kind custom looks are constructed primarily by hand from start to finish. Each piece is made from high-quality, expensive, and often unique fabric, sewn together with extreme attention to detail, and then finished by THE most experienced and capable artisans—often using hand-executed techniques.

An haute couture garment is created for an individual client, tailored specifically to that customer’s measurements. It will compensate for anybody’s challenges (for example, one shoulder higher than the other, a rounded back, etc.). Considering the time, money, and skill allocated to each completed creation, these one-of-a-kind garments have an out-of-sight price tag. If you need to ask the price, you are considered tres gauche.

Haute couture in France is a protected name that may not be used except by firms that meet specific, well-defined standards. Only a select handful of labels can join the French couture calendar and enjoy being considered a haunted house.

For the first time since the global pandemic began, brands could host their shows in real life. As a result, there was plenty of excitement, starting with Jean-Paul Gaultier’s unique collaboration with Chitose Abe, the Artistic Director of the Japanese brand Sacai. These types of designer collabs aren’t new. You can’t help but wonder if they weren’t inspired by the music industry who have been engaging in this type of ‘talent/co-marketing for years, such as Micheal Jackson + Paul McCartney, Nelly + Tim McGraw, Rihanna + Eminem and Lil NAS X + Billy Ray. It’s a great way to broaden the fan base.

Another anticipated show of this couture season was the welcoming of Pyer Moss to the calendar. The brand’s creative director Kerby Jean-Raymond is the first Black American fashion designer to be welcomed into the couture fold. Jean-Raymond was officially invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture (sadly, the outdoor show was postponed due to Hurricane Elsa). Still, the runway extravaganza took place on Saturday in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The show was a fabulous lesson in black invention, joy, and revolution.

Fashionistas were also anxiously waiting for the return of Balenciaga Couture under the helm of Demna Gvasalia. Gvasalia surprised his audience by choosing Ella Emhoff, the 21-year-old daughter of U.S.’s Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and budding Bushwick fashion designer and model, to walk his runway.

Below are some of the highlights of the most anticipated collections from the haute couture fall 2021 season:

BALENCIAGA

Balenciaga’s Couture Fall 2021 show. Courtesy of Balenciaga on YouTube.
It has been 53 years since the house of Balenciaga presented an haute couture collection, so the anticipation was at an all-time high for followers of the fashion-forward label. Demna Gvasalia showcased his first couture collection at Cristóbal Balenciaga’s original couture salon, which today is fully restored to the original version. Aside from press and couture clients, Kanye West and Bella Hadid were seated in the much sought-after front row.

The collection was a balanced combination of men’s and women’s made-to-measure pieces. It paid tribute to Balenciaga’s respected couture history with a slew of direct references to the house’s founder; case-in-point, the initials ‘C.B.’ were hand-embroidered on silk ties, poplin shirts, and leather gloves. Another heritage look was included in the grand finale; a veiled bridal look inspired by one of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s creations, last shown 54 years ago.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER BY SACAI

Jean Paul Gaultier by Sacai’s Couture Fall 2021 Video. Courtesy of Fashion Feed on YouTube.
Right before COVID-19 halted the world, the elusive designer Jean Paul Gaultier announced that he would be collaborating with Chitose Abe of Sacai for his fall 2021 couture collection. This genius collaboration will be part of a new and exciting tactic where Jean Paul Gaultier will team up with a different designer each season. The outcome was met with great success.

This was Chitose Abe’s first time working in couture, and she brought her unique and avant-garde aesthetic into Gaultier’s archives, breathing new life into some of his most iconic looks: Case-in-point, a corseted trench coat-inspired dress.

FENDI

Fendi’s Couture Fall 2021 film. Courtesy of Fendi on YouTube.
Kim Jones’ second couture collection for Fendi was presented through a beautiful fashion film directed by Luca Guadagnino. The film starred supermodel Kate Moss and celebrated “the eternal beauty of Rome”. The designer described the collection as “a contemporary connection between eras, cultures, and aesthetics“.

“Connecting eras, a meeting of the old with the new, the past with the present. The eternal beauty of Rome and its composite history are the protagonists of this haute couture show,” Fendi said.” A collection where nothing is quite as it seems.

ALAIA

Azzedine Alaïa’s Couture Fall 2021 and 2022 Show. Courtesy of Bayoucool2 on YouTube.
For his debut collection for Alaïa, Pieter Mulier – known for being Raf Simons’ right-hand man for years – presented a hybrid of couture and ready-to-wear. The group paid homage to the house’s namesake designer and his original creations, but with a modern twist, turning the house’s signature staples into something new and exciting.

The homage to the founder was a rollout of the house’s signature pieces, including body-sculpting knitwear, multi-strap corset belts, and hooded silhouettes. Mulier also transformed Alaïa staples, like the white poplin shirt paired with his showstopping corsets, into his translation of flowing tops cut away to reveal a triangle of solar plexus paired with bubble-hem maxi skirts or pleated minis.

Nine looks — including the cutaway tops — were couture, while most of the collection was ready to wear. Although Mulier presented during fashion week, the newly minted creative director prefers that the two groups co-exist as women might wear it “without rules or boundaries. “

SCHIAPARELLI

Schiaparelli’s Couture Fall 2021 show. Courtesy of FF Channel on YouTube.
“For two years, I’ve been saying that I didn’t care about nostalgia,” creative director Daniel Roseberry said ahead of the reveal of Schiaparelli’s new couture collection in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “This season, though, it’s where it all started. I found myself wondering, again and again: What if you combined a little Manet; a little Lacroix; a little 1980s; a little 1880s; a little matador; a little space alien; a little Ingres; a little shimmer; a lot of colors? Could I do it? And what would it look like? The answer is this, my fourth couture collection, ‘The Matador’.”

With his haute couture collection – which was presented in a video and lookbook format– Roseberry wanted to pay tribute to the house’s founder and celebrate the history, the beauty, and the joy of fashion.

The young American couturier for Schiaparelli is the first American designer to hold the helm at a French couture house and is known for creating Surrealist fashion for the modern era.

“Here’s what I want: No more cookie-cutter fashion,” he added in his show notes. “No more pieces that look like they could have been made by anyone. No more cynicism. No more irony. No more timidity. No more coolness. Give me more beauty, more earnestness, more romance, more effort. I hope this collection reminds everyone who encounters it of the sheer delight that fashion can bring us in hard times, and with it, the promise of more joy when the clouds part. Give me more fashion. Give me more hope.”