For those fashion-obsessed, September marks a particularly important part of our calendars. Yes, the start of Paris Fashion Week is a time for loins to be girded, GoRunway subscriptions to be re-upped and for the group chat of your most sartorially inclined friends to be popping off.
The Paris Fashion Week SS27 calendar is simply teeming with some of our most propulsive and prescient contemporary designers and legacy fashion Houses. Whether it’s luxury juggernauts like CHANEL or Saint Laurent, or emerging designers newly on our radars (we’re simply too sat for both Matières Fécales and Julie Kegels), there’s plenty to get excited about. And if you need an in-a-nutshell review, you’ve come to the right place.
Luckily for you, we’re keeping a keen eye on the comings and goings happening in Paris (we even have a few RUSSH team members on the ground doing the tough job of attending shows and re-sees). So, we’ll keep you updated with all the must-read news, highlights and show notes from Paris Fashion Week’s SS27 calendar, below.
Saint Laurent
In what appeared to be Anthony Vacarello’s farewell to the House (we all saw that video of him quite literally “handing back the keys to the House” post show), Saint Laurent’s SS27 show was staged under an extravagant setting of oversized, gold chandeliers, which illuminated a black runway under a Parisian night sky. Behind it, the glowing backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. The clothes themselves followed suit in that palette – the first half of the show was entirely fashioned from gold lamé and intricate golden embroidery (Vacarello obviously known for his singular-palette shows – who could forget the fuchsia iteration from AW22?). The second half of the show descended into inky blacks and softer, more diaphanous silhouettes. The show was a nod to the “golden age” of Yves himself, as well as a marker of Vacarello’s decade at the brand. Although his leaving is as-yet unconfirmed, it certainly felt like a swansong for the designer, under whom the House burgeoned to new heights. “A light shines all the more brightly because we know it cannot be held. What passes sometimes leaves more light than what remains” the designer said in a statement accompanying the show.
Dior
Dior’s latest collection was all about the symmetry and irregularity of nature. The show invitation was accompanied by a pair of walnuts a nod to the Chinese tradition of wénwán, where they are rolled as a kind of fidget toy and develop a natural patina with age. Uneven hemlines and mismatched earrings, raw hemlines and organic materials were all key tenants of the show. I particularly loved the way traditional tailoring was reimagined in soft, see-through organzas. A perfect summer suiting situation if you ask me.
Maison Margiela
Just a week after bidding adieu to Diesel in Milan, Glenn Martens turned his attention to his second ready-to-wear show for Maison Margiela SS27. What immediately caught my eye was the set – models walked along a herringbone parquet runway in front of a towering wall of dried flowers. Of course, the collection’s name “Hard and Soft” felt apt for this setting in the most literal sense, but the clothes, too, spoke to this juxtaposition. The most interesting looks, in my opinion, were the florals. Contrasting floral patterns on trenches, on draped gowns and on leather boots. It added this really lovely kitchy/70s element to that was bolstered by graphic tees, button-up vests, gladiator-style sandals and graffiti-d and draped t-shirt dresses.
Julie Kegels
The 2026 LVMH Prize recipient opened the Paris Fashion Week calendar with her collection “Apple of the Day”. The show’s name was likely a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fruit that inspired Newton’s law of gravity, and was, according to a conversation she had with Vogue, an exploration of “falling in all its forms”. Indeed, gravity pulled at the edges of many of Kegels’ garments – whether it was the sagging open fly on a pair of jeans, or floral patterns that sloped as if the fabric was being pulled while embroidered.
Matières Fécales
I’ve had Matières Fécales bouncing around my brain since July. Between their angel-winged Zendaya and their Gothic bride Gabbriette – Hannah and Steven (the duo at the brand’s centre) have been the industry’s hottest designers. They may have only made their PFW debut last March, but their SS27 show already had a FROW that included everyone from Rihanna to Rick Owens – and was the first to be hosted in Place de la République (the city’s usual gathering spot for protests and marches). Naturally, it was a show dedicated to immigrants and outsiders, titled “Ninety Nine Percent” (an adversarial nod to their last-season show, “The One Percent”), and featured an entirely POC cast of 99 models that again included some of their own family and friends. Hannah and Steven crafted some incredibly intricate, couture beaded gowns and draped dresses, all perfectly distressed by hand, of course.
Hodakova
One of my current favourite designers is Ellen Hodakova Larsson, head of her eponymous brand HODAKOVA based out of Stockholm. She’s doing – I think – some of the industry’s most provocative work, both in terms of her sustainability (the brand is built on discarded materials and an ethos of upcycling), as well as in performance. This season, models wore these sort of ‘Other Mother’ style painted-on eyes that created a sense of uncanny unease. Hodakova Larsson told Vogue that this collection was about “the aquatic world because the oceans are essential for us to be able to live” – which translated to models in dresses and blouses made from repurposed and knitted together fishnets and hawser rope. Sheer, water-repellent waxed cloth looks opened the show, before transitioning to pieces made from sails themselves. Look 31 was a particular favourite of mine, made entirely from leftover scraps of leather used to mimic the grain of crocodile skin.
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