Paris Runs on Gold, Fur and Featherlight Dior

For his third womenswear collection at Dior, Jonathan Anderson staged the show at the Bassin Octogonal in the Tuileries, where camphor trees rose out of a fog-shrouded pond in a freak late-September heatwave.

The heavy pannier skirts and cage-like constructions of his debut year were gone. In their place: a sheer pinstripe double-breasted jacket over a tiny circle-cut skirt of ten layers of ivory chiffon, waterfall skirts, blazers assembled from hundreds of hand-dyed petals, and menswear tailoring cut out in silk.

Anderson called the project removing the heaviness of heritage. Archive florals resurfaced in calf-skimming dresses, 1950s checks on sheer coats, and the accessories — fluttering scarf bags, fine metallic sandals — were deliberately delicate.

The verdict from the front row: romance, soft-focus, and a house that finally breathes. Anderson himself said he had been trying to rattle the brand and see what falls out of it; this season, what fell out was lightness.

The Montreal duo Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran opened the week at Place de la République with the first runway show ever staged on the square, and they understood the assignment.

Their Spring 2027 show, The Ninety-Nine Percent, fielded 99 models in sculptural tailoring, feathered gowns, embellished dresses and streetwear-inflected looks — a theatrical, inclusive presentation about freedom and individuality.

The front row delivered the season's most photographed moment: Rihanna in a custom golden-thread knit tinsel suit, all dangling metallic embellishment and frayed seams, worn over a sheer black Savage X Fenty bra with a black Ferragamo Cara bag and Matières Fécales x Christian Louboutin curved-heel pumps.

W called it an explosion of gold; Essence called her the most famous face of the front row. At just their fourth show, Matières Fécales has become one of the schedule's true highlights — fashion's most extreme brand, now with the industry's most-watched endorsement.

Day one and two of PFW street style confirmed the same thing every photographer filed: Paris is done being quiet. Fur-trimmed outerwear is the outerwear story — one guest paired a fuzzy coat with an embellished midi skirt, exactly the maximalist combo the season asked for.

Prints are running the sidewalks: zebra, checkered and everything between, with textured black as the base and colour accents on top. FunkyForty, shooting day two outside the Dior show, clocked a distinctly Parisian mood — adventure and liberty, no commercially viable outfit required.

The bag game is playful: a Louis Vuitton trompe-l'oeil bag that looks like it is falling open, a Dior Book Tote illustrated with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and a breast-shaped purse that gave the official PFW account's day-two carousel its most-liked slide.

Accessories elsewhere: shield-style wraparound sunglasses everywhere the sun broke through, and the oversized black blazer — still the fastest uniform in Paris.

Vogue Shopping's fall accessory roundup named five trends that are already visible on the streets of Paris, and they all point the same way: more is more.

First, the floral brooch — a chrysanthemum pin spotted at Chanel, Loro Piana, Khaite and Dior — worn oversized on coats and lapels. Second, wraparound shield sunglasses in the Jimmy Fairly vein, a shape that has moved from sport to street.

Third, western belts with metal accents, styled over coats and trousers in the Polo Ralph Lauren manner. Fourth, opulent fringe stoles to drape over shoulders or waists.

And fifth, charmed life: layered charm necklaces in the Roxanne Assoulin style, the bohemian counterweight to all that hardware. Together they read as the season's thesis — ornament is back on the body.

The quiet-luxury era is being buried in real time. Stylist Tinsley Crisp's fall manifesto — skip quiet luxury, buy glamour; skip animal print, buy brocade and tapestry — has struck a nerve, with her audience flooding the comments asking where to buy the fringe coat and brocade jackets.

Creator Ashley Paige's fall report from New York lands in the same place: gothic lace details, heavy 90s layering, western fringe and big belt buckles, and above all the return of colour — fuchsia, chartreuse, ochre and deep dark plum, moving off the beige-and-brown palette.

The brocade and jacquard revival has runway receipts too: Dior, Valentino and Etro are all pushing richly textured ornamental prints for fall, framed by creators as grandma's tapestry turned into a trend.

And on the high street, Zara's fall 2026 video is selling dark chocolate, burgundy and leather with tailoring — the commercial version of the same maximalist instinct the runways are showing.