The Most Luxurious Pieces From the Spring 2019 Couture Shows

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.