Paris Fashion Week: Best of Matières Fécales, Saint Laurent, Dior and Maison Margiela for SS27

Anthony Vaccarello’s golden affair at Saint Laurent and Jonathan Anderson’s contemplative mood at Dior were among the standout moments in Paris

Paris Fashion Week is under way in the French capital, where powerhouses ranging from Chanel to Louis Vuitton and Dior are showcasing their spring/summer 2027 collections.

The blockbuster show of day one was undoubtedly MatiEres Fecales, the label that went viral earlier this year for designing one of Zendaya’s most talked-about red carpet looks.

Held in the Place de la Republique and named The Ninety-Nine Percent (a follow-up to last season’s The One Percent), the label’s spring/summer 2027 show was a celebration of marginalised groups around the world, from India’s pariahs (co-founder Steven Raj Bhaskaran has Indian heritage) to underground queer communities.

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The highly varied line-up – also diverse in terms of casting – ranged from punk-inspired get-ups to takes on the Indian sari and exquisite feather gowns.

As statements go, it was a moving and poignant moment – notwithstanding a major delay due to front-row guest Rihanna’s tardiness. Bhaskaran and co-founder Hannah Rose Dalton clearly have talent in spades; now they need to focus on building a signature fashion identity for a brand that, in only a couple of seasons, has become one of the hottest names in the business.

Over more than a decade at the helm of Saint Laurent, designer Anthony Vaccarello has set a very high bar for fashion show production. Always held opposite a gleaming Eiffel Tower at night, the brand’s Paris shows are riveting and enrapturing spectacles. Without relying on gimmicks, and instead on great ideas and often very simple sets, the designer never fails to wow, season after season.

For spring/summer 2027, which rumours suggest could be Vaccarello’s swan song, models walked down a jet-black runway with rows of baroque chandeliers suspended above.

They were clad in all-gold looks. Saint Laurent classics such as the safari shirt, the blouse and the pencil skirt, and Vaccarello’s signatures like broad-shouldered coats all came in matt, shiny and pale shades of gold. Against the night sky and those gilded chandeliers, the show felt more like a theatre performance than a runway presentation.

The fabrics were just as rich as the deep shades of gold on display. From brocade to organza and lame, they shimmered and glinted, transforming models into walking jewels. Cropped tops and jackets with fur cuffs, paired with matching gold brocade trousers, looked fabulous. Tone them down with jeans, and you have the perfect outfit for a night on the town.

A smattering of black looks at the end – including gowns made of layers of chiffon and velvet blouses paired with matching skirts – felt almost like a palate cleanser after the radiance of the golden parade.

As the models returned for the finale, Charlotte Gainsbourg walked on stage to perform a song, later joined by Vaccarello himself and the entire cast of models.

If this is really the designer’s last show, he is going out with a bang. Few designers have stayed as consistent and clear-eyed over a decade. His laser-sharp focus and unmatched vision – which touched every aspect of the label, from its boutiques to its campaigns and celebrity endorsements – will be hard to replicate. Vaccarello’s Midas’ touch, indeed.

Dior‘s Jonathan Anderson was in a contemplative mood for spring/summer 2027. After discovering the Chinese tradition of wenwAn walnuts, he felt it was time to truly get to the core of the brand – to its kernel, so to speak. Often used as a meditation tool, wenwAn walnuts have a porcelain-like finish achieved through months, even years, of hand rubbing (the show invitation came with two wenwAn walnuts, which also appeared on the runway as a minaudiEre).

Thinking about the origin of things – and garments – inspired the designer to reimagine pieces that are pillars of the Dior lexicon. Take the Bar jacket, the quintessential tailoring item at Dior. In this collection, it lost its structure and became as soft as a silk blouse.

Deconstructed tailoring, tweed coats that looked as cosy as robes, and airy chiffon confections conveyed lightness and ease.

Even the accessories were “let loose”, from scarf bags decorated with fringes to mismatched chandelier earrings (one ear adorned with cascading petals and the other with strings of pearls) and sandals with undone zippers as straps.

“What looks symmetrical in nature is often not quite,” said Anderson in the show notes. It was nice to see the designer relinquish some control and show a bit of vulnerability in a thoughtful collection that captured the fragile beauty of imperfection.

After unveiling his final collection for Diesel in Milan last week, Maison Margiela‘s Glenn Martens, who until this season was working on both brands, returned to Paris for the house’s latest collection (Maison Margiela’s last show took place in Shanghai earlier this year).

Upholstery fabrics, flower-printed synthetic materials reminiscent of shower curtains, nude undergarments worn under tailored jackets, and reinterpretations of wardrobe staples such as the trench coat were among the key looks in a collection that distilled the codes of the brand known for its four-stitch label.

Held on a runway made of walls plastered with bouquets of wilted flowers (a homage to fellow Belgian designer Raf Simons’ haute couture debut at Dior), the collection was “a study into the concepts of hard and soft”. Tailored jackets, for instance, were folded and draped at the sides, while stiff panels were inserted into flowy dresses to add structure.

It was a simple yet clever idea that showcased Martens’ skills as a dressmaker and tailor. The pantsuits, including one in a houndstooth pattern and a double-breasted tuxedo jacket paired with matching pants, stood out in the line-up.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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