Another January, another haute couture season. For the haute couture spring 2025 season, we saw everything from couture-ified mermaids and denim ball gowns to elegant takes on the golden age of haute couture. There were new calendar debuts, new designers and even better, shiny new concepts. It was without a doubt, a lighter schedule than recent seasons, with brands like Balenciaga (presenting during the summer only) and Iris Van Herpen missing in action. But all the same, this couture season was actually one of the most exciting compared to others: the craftsmanship was incredible, the storytelling was great and the extreme takes on high fashion were iconic. Here are the top 10 haute couture spring 2025 best moments.
Best show overall: Schiaparelli haute couture spring 2025
Schiaparelli sent out sculptural, Golden age of couture style corsets, gowns and open Basque jackets that sculpted and shaped the body surreally like no other brand can. Creative director Daniel Roseberry alluded to the escapist idea of couture as well as the theme of Icarus flying too close to the sun, leaning into the comparison of haute couture designers and just how far they can go. Couture is, and should be, an experimental playground where no idea is too fantastical and no material is too impossible, and we think Schiaparelli is one of the few brands that makes the dreamlike possible. With impeccable craft, thought-provoking shapes and incredibly luxurious materials, Schiaparelli’s haute couture spring 2024 was the best overall show of the spring 2025 season.
Best emerging designer: Gaurav Gupta haute couture spring 2025
Gaurav Gupta’s haute couture spring 2025 show is the kind of increasingly rare collection you think about for hours, days, maybe even months. The Indian based designer has over 1 million followers on Instagram, but for many who aren’t extremely familiar with haute couture, his name might not be recognizable. Navkirat Sodhi, the designer’s life partner, poet and performer, opened the show with a powerful homage of resiliency after suffering in a recent house fire, deliberately showing her scars under a sheer, diaphanous dress. Gupta specializes in surreal, new world alien-like looks, like futuristic warped gowns and wildly imaginative dresses that wrap around the head and body like otherworldly, glittering shields. This is couture for a new world.
Best accessories: Armani Privè haute couture spring 2025
Armani Privè celebrated 20 years this season, and we saw all the beautiful kinds of things we know from the brand, like master tailoring, sheer crystal gowns and a hefty influence of Southeast Asian inspired aesthetics. But what really stood out were the incredibly magical crystal netted rhinestone caps that were equal parts 1920s antique store dream and 1980s fantasy. They are perfect and we would wear them with literally anything–hands down, the most standout, exciting accessory of the spring 2025 haute couture season.
Best red carpet option: Miss Sohee haute couture spring 2025
Miss Sohee’s gowns are always unique and expressive, entirely dramatic in their shape and silhouette. This season, the designer was on the official schedule for the first time and also took on a darker angle, indulging in black Chantilly lace and sumptuous velvets. Her gowns were the most well-suited for a major, high fashion red carpet moment in our opinion. For someone who likes to take risks and push boundaries: maybe Rihanna or Lady Gaga at the Met Gala, perhaps? Especially the seashell-like capes and hand-embroidered trains based on traditional Korean folk art. There is really nothing else like Miss Sohee’s work right now.
Best viral moment: Viktor & Rolf haute couture spring 2025
Viktor and Rolf’s spring 2025 haute couture collection proved that the designer duo are still the kings of camp and also adept at designing high concept pieces that aren’t lacking in humor. The designers approached this season with the theme in mind of “a human interpretation of AI,” working with an underlying narrative of repetition. We saw all different iterations of Italian silk gazar by Ruffo Coli, turned into various white shirts, beige trench coats and navy pants. It may have been the best rebuttal and take on the recent quiet luxury epidemic yet. And yet, the model holding a Victorian doll with a matching outfit and hairstyle that looked like a mashup of Princess Diana and Banana Republic catalog style was actually one of the most memorable, and viral moments to stick in our minds.
Best theme: Jean Paul Gaultier by Ludovic de Saint Sernin
Hate him or love him, Ludovic de Saint Sernin presented his strongest body of work yet as guest designer for Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture spring 2025. The theme was also one of the most curated and directional for the entire season: shipwreck chic. Ripe for editorials and red carpet dressing, there was wet hair, a gown inspired by The Little Mermaid, character building and a literal miniature ship done as a hat inspired by one of Gaultier’s own in the ’90s.
Best debut: Germanier haute couture spring 2025
Germanier has been creating explosions of color and shape for his ready-to-wear collections for a few years, and for spring 2025, he finally got to show his first couture collection, closing the week out with a bang. This collection felt joyous and entirely its own, totally expressive of the individualist aesthetic designer Kevin Germanier has built. From the wildly whimsical knit sets to the sparkling Koosh ball gowns, there was absolutely no shortage of inspiring originality here.
Best gowns: Valentino haute couture spring 2025
Alessandro Michele debuted his first couture collection for Valentino, and it was full of references and delightful weirdness that one might expect from the designer. Much of the mainstream criticism of the collection called it “costume”. But is that not what couture is at the end of the day? That’s what we want to see when we see couture. People usually aren’t wearing it to go grocery shopping. Give us the full fantasy, or else! This is the final frontier of dressing up, not merely relegated to the idea of “costume”. These gowns were spectacularly dreamlike, so devoted to their madcap aesthetic that they could never ever be replicated by any other designer at any other time or place. If you’re going to invest in couture (and the fantasy of it) you might as well do it with one of these incredibly unique gowns from Michele’s couture debut.
Best casting: Alexandre Vauthier haute couture spring 2025
Alexandre Vauthier had a quiet, off-schedule show that felt more toned down and earthier than usual. Gone were the neon jackets, club-ready mini dresses and sexy, loud, in-your-face pieces. Surprisingly, Vauthier’s latest collection looked incredibly wearable and beautifully crafted, with lots of oversized, remixed suiting, luxe fringe and plenty of chic, black gowns with touches of velvet and small doses of sequins. This newness looks good on you, Vauthier. Also notable: the casting which included women of a variety of different ages and backgrounds. We would have loved to see some more size diversity too, but let the record state: this was the best casting of the spring 2025 haute couture season.
Best surprise moment: Elie Saab haute couture spring 2025
We all know Elie Saab for its fantastic embellished gowns that so easily fit into the arena of haute couture and traditional weddings. The brand simply always excels at this. So when a parade of gowns made of denim came down the runway this season, it was a pleasant and interesting surprise. Done in corsets, with long trains and sculpted, it was a welcome breath of fresh air among all the silk tulle and chiffon. More unconventional, lesser seen materials like this make couture closer to reality and at the same time, more exciting.
Photos// courtesy of brands & Vogue Runway
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