This season’s most impactful collections didn’t just showcase technical mastery — they provoked, surprised, and seduced. Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli once again exemplified couture’s enduring magnetism, balancing grandeur with intention. As he told us post-show, his hope is that we never come to expect what he’ll deliver next. That tension — between precision and unpredictability — is where his work thrives.
At Maison Margiela, Glenn Martens’ debut sparked immediate conversation. There was reverence for the house’s codes, but also hints of something new beginning to crystallize. Margiela has always been the house that zags when others zig, and Martens feels well-matched to carry that torch — eccentric, sharp, and emotionally strange in all the right ways.
Balenciaga’s Fall 2025 show served as a final bow for Demna, who offered up a collection that felt both conclusive and reflective — a greatest-hits compilation of his tenure. As the house transitions to a new chapter under Pierpaolo Piccioli, there’s a sense of anticipation rather than rupture. If anything, Demna’s farewell gave the house a clean handoff: a silhouette, a vocabulary, a tone.
Lever Couture was a quiet triumph — a collection that proved you don’t need a marquee slot to make an impact. With elegance, experimentation, and expert construction, it reminded us that some of the most exciting contributions to couture come from off-calendar spaces, where the work speaks louder than the PR.
Elie Saab continued to deliver what couture has always promised: impeccable craftsmanship and romantic grandeur. But even within his classicism, there was a sense of momentum — of knowing exactly who his audience is, and meeting them with care and consistency.
And while it didn’t qualify for this list, Michael Rider’s debut collection for Celine — technically Spring 2026 RTW — deserved a moment of recognition. Couture in spirit if not in category, it signaled a thrilling new chapter for the house and will no doubt be a major part of the conversation come September.
Couture has always reflected the world’s elite — but what that elite looks like is shifting. This season’s collections embraced that change, offering us not only fantasy, but feeling. At its best, couture doesn’t just dazzle. It disrupts. And in Fall 2025, that disruption was delivered with precision.
Here are The Impression’s picks for the best couture shows of the Fall 2025 season, as selected by our Editor-in-Chief, Kenneth Richard.
10 – ArdAzAei
9 – Robert Wun
8 – RVDK Ronald Van Der Kemp
7 – (tie) Viktor & Rolf
7 – (tie) Stéphane Rolland
6 – Lever Couture
5 – Iris Van Herpen
4 – Balenciaga
3 – Maison Margiela
2 – Elie Saab
1 – Schiaparelli
