Skip to main content

MEMBER LOGIN

Departures Logo Created with Sketch.

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Departures Logo Created with Sketch.
  • City Guides
  • Travel
  • Fashion
  • Art + Culture
  • Home + Design
Departures Logo Created with Sketch.
  • City Guides
  • Travel
  • Fashion
  • Art + Culture
  • Home + Design

FOLLOW US

LOGIN

NEWSLETTER

More In City Guides

8 Places That Are Best Experienced in August

You know, in Europe, it’s not uncommon to take off the entire month of August.

Tree 'Crop Circles' Sprout in Japan
Is This the Most Beautiful Town in Sweden?
This Las Vegas Hotel Room Has a Bowling Alley in the Room

More In Travel

  • Hotels
  • Travel Guides
  • Restaurants

Iconic Karl Lagerfeld Design Moments Through the Years

With the

Iconic Fashion Designer Karl Lagerfeld Dies at 85
Stylish Kentucky Derby Hats to Round Out Your Outfit for the Big Day
The Best High-fashion Personal Shopper Services

More In Fashion

  • Style
  • Shopping

John Hardy Creative Director’s Guide to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

The largest fair of its kind in the world, every February more than 250 dealers gather in the Ari

The Optical Illusions In This Bookstore Are Worth a Trip in Themselves
The Company That Promised a One-way Ticket To Mars Has Declared Bankruptcy
King Tut's Tomb Restored After 10 Year Process

More In Art + Culture

  • Books
  • Philanthropy
  • Film

Creative Easter Basket Ideas That Aren't Just for Kids

These six unique ideas will give the Easter Bunny a run for her money.

Best Wellness Home Decor to Help Deal With Spring Fatigue
The Best Living Room Color Schemes for a Sophisticated Look
A Look Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio

More In Home + Design

  • Art + Design
  • Architecture
LOGIN
NEWSLETTER
  • City Guides
  • Travel
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Travel Guides
  • Fashion
    • Style
    • Shopping
  • Art + Culture
    • Books
    • Film
    • Philanthropy
  • Home + Design
    • Art + Design
    • Architecture
  • MEMBER LOGIN
  • JOIN OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
  • Contact Advertise Sitemap
Home / Fashion
Fashion

The Most Luxurious Pieces From the Spring 2019 Couture Shows

By Kristen Bateman on January 29, 2019

Earlier this month in Paris, couture week kicked off with a bang.

© Anna Palermo

SHARE:

Couture is the highest form of fashion—a garment can take hundreds of hours to produce, and much of the work is done by skilled artisans, all by hand. It’s such a respected art form in France, that there’s a governing body that presides over the designers who do couture (and those who want to legally use the word to describe their garments) as well as those who want to present during the couture shows in Paris twice a year in January and July. Fashion editors, buyers, collectors and tastemakers flock to the shows to see the most creative, and often the most luxurious interpretations from their favorite fashion houses. Here, some of the most extravagant collections.

 
Courtesy Iris Van Herpen

Iris Van Herpen

The Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen is known for mixing her artisanal craftsmanship with new technology, and this season’s spring 2019 couture collection was no exception. The designer took inspiration from early examples of celestial cartography and the New York artist Kim Keever who creates expressionist paintings and photos. The result? Beautifully lucid gowns printed with Keever’s work, fine laser cut lace that moved like water, 3D printed face jewelry and translucent organza dresses floating down the catwalk like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Ralph & Russo

Imagine if a modern Carmen Miranda or Josephine Baker went to a ball in Havana, Cuba. Those two legendary style icons were just a few of the references behind Ralph & Russo’s latest couture show. The London based designer duo sent heavily embellished flared suits, pom pom and marabou trimmed sheer dresses and matching elegant hats down the runway, all in vivid pastel hues. Another reference point was María Félix, the Mexican actress and singer from a bygone era—and the fun aspects of the show including a live Mariachi band and white gowns sequined with bananas on the train—made the pieces even more glamorous.

IMAXTREE/Courtesy Alexandre Vauthier

Alexandre Vauthier

With previous training from masters such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler, Alexandre Vauthier’s specialty is creating pieces that are either extremely well-tailored or those that have the essence of a dramatic silhouette. This season, the couturier chose to focus on the latter, by presenting animal print mini dresses with angular shoulders, cream puff-like mini dresses, and more than a few heavily sequined trousers, blazers and bodycon dresses that look like they’d be the perfect styles for Rihanna; one of Vauthier’s biggest supporters over the years.

Yannis Vlamos

Jean Paul Gaultier

A couple of years ago, Jean Paul Gaultier made the decision to only present couture (as opposed to doing ready-to-wear collections) which means that when he shows a collection twice each year, it’s entirely worth the wait. Gaultier’s looks were especially luxurious this time around: the designer was inspired by Japan and the sea, and he took the aesthetics of both and mixed them together to create jumpsuits with luscious pleating and sky-high shoulders, skirts with intricate fringe and candy-colored ruffled gowns. He also reinvented the marinière (the classic striped boatneck shirt by which fans know him best) with a couture attitude: it came pleated and worn under sharp blazers.

Team Peter Stigter

Viktor & Rolf

The Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf had one thing on their mind this couture week: the art of expressive dressing. To explore that idea in the fullest form, the two concocted some larger-than-life, Victorian-feeling tulle dresses in black, white and nearly every other color imaginable. To add a modern twist, each confection-like piece was embellished with meme-like text, such as: “No photos please” or “I’m not shy I just don’t like you.” To make each look even more of a fantasy, each model had extremely long Rapunzel-like hair.

Peter White/Getty Images; Kristy Sparow/Getty Images (2)

Guo Pei

Most fans of fashion know the Chinese couturier Guo Pei as the one who designed Rihanna’s elevated yellow gown and cape for the 2015 Met Gala. Each season, the designer pushes the limits of what’s possible in fashion while expressing her own cultural heritage. Pei focuses on myths of the east and the set of the show reconstructed the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing’s Forbidden City with red columns in Paris’ Palais de Tokyo. The designer wove together highly textured, almost holographic fabrics with essential motifs from the East and plenty of architectural silhouettes that elicited gasps from the audience.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Valentino

Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli brought a palette of bold and beautiful color to couture week with his latest show. It was apparently so stunning, that it brought a front row Celine Dion to tears. The collection was no doubt luxurious, but also inherently modern. Trench coats came covered in sequins, chocolate hued organza gowns had strong silhouettes but were still approachable in terms of wearabilty and for extra flounce, makeup artist Pat McGrath attached feathers to some models’ lashes and eyebrows.

Courtesy Cindy Chao

Cindy Chao

Aside from all the glamorous runway collections shown during Paris Couture Week, the world’s most elite fine jewelers also hold private appointments during the last couple of days. Cindy Chao, the Taiwanese jeweler know for her art inspired pieces, presented her annual butterfly (a stunning brooch she reiterates each season) with a 10-carat red diamond center and over 180 pieces of rose-cut diamonds and 2,578 diamonds totaling 175 carats. The piece took two and a half years, or over 10,000 hours, to complete. She also presented her 2018 Black Label Masterpiece XVII “Greenovia Brooch” featuring a 105.37-carat Cat’s eye chrysoberyl and nearly 2,500 pieces of 6 varieties of green gemstones to create 16 different chromatic shades on the petals.

Explore More in Fashion

tout-img

Iconic Karl Lagerfeld Design Moments Through the Years

tout-img

Iconic Fashion Designer Karl Lagerfeld Dies at 85

tout-img

Stylish Kentucky Derby Hats to Round Out Your Outfit for the Big Day


Marketing Events & Promotions

Become a DEPARTURES VIP

Join our Weekly Newsletter

Privacy Statement
Join our Weekly Newsletter
Departures Logo Created with Sketch.
  • City Guides
  • Travel
  • Fashion
  • Art + Culture
  • Home + Design
FOLLOW US
Other Meredith Corporation Travel & Leisure Group websites: 
  • Travel + Leisure
  • Food & Wine
  • Wallpaper
Related Websites for DEPARTURES International Editions:
  • DEPARTURES-International.com
Learn more about the American Express Platinum Card® benefits

View Terms of Service  and  Privacy Statement.   Ad Choices EU Data Subject Requests All users of our online services subject to Privacy Statement and agree to be bound by Terms of Service. Please review.

© 2019 American Express Company. All rights reserved. Departures® is published by Meredith Corporation Travel & Leisure Group, a subsidiary of Meredith Corporation. Departures is a trademark of
American Express Marketing & Development Corp. and is used under limited license. Meredith Corporation Travel & Leisure Group is not affiliated with American Express Company or its subsidiaries.

  • RSS
  • Advertise
  • Advertise
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Promotions
  • Site Map

Member Login

The current issue of DEPARTURES is available exclusively to American Express Platinum Card® Members.

Cancel