Fall 2023 Couture Trend: Florals
While florals for spring are far from a groundbreaking proposition, they are a bit more unexpected blooming from the runways for fall, which they did in abundance during the Paris couture.
There were enough flower varieties in the form of lace, beading and appliqués to delight even the most enthusiastic horticulturalist, but the most prominent was by far and away the classic rose. Long a symbol for romance, the rose is a fitting motif for couturiers to showcase their love of craftsmanship.
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At Armani Privé, Giorgio Armani cultivated his slowly, arriving first “as a fabric flourish punctuating a tailored ensemble, or an alternative to a metal buckle or jewel on an evening shoe,” observed WWD’s international editor Miles Socha.
Roses later reached a crescendo, swallowing up entire evening gowns for the finale. “While the show sometimes felt like a cake with too much decorative frosting, or an overgrown rose garden,” Socha wrote, “there were at least a few dozen long-stemmed beauties.”
The ones seen here looked as sweet as they might have smelled had they come from a garden and not an atelier, but as WWD’s Alex Wynne wrote in her review of Zuhair Murad’s medieval-inspired collection, roses can have thorns too.
Murad, who is known for his love of bright colors, stuck mostly to black this season. “It’s a symbol of mystery, of energy, a symbol of seduction, a symbol of power,” he said. With pops of regal purple and scarlet, his nocturnal bouquets added to the gothic romance of lace- and cobweb-embroidered corsets.
Elsewhere, rosettes also bloomed from the bust of a bodysuit at Viktor & Rolf and the shoulders of Balenciaga’s black velvet opener, an exact recreation of one of the house’s archival designs from 1966.
Pierpaolo Piccioli exaggerated the three-dimensional trend at Valentino, constructing petals into a bonnet-like hood on a searing pink evening dress. Rahul Mishra did the same, but with caplets and bodices worn atop leggings. Dedicating his collection to the craftsmen who made it, Mishra also put their skills to use with meta moments like embroiderers embroidering stitched flowers onto a number of his looks.
Launch Gallery: Couture Fall 2023 Trend: Flowers
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