Paris Fashion Week: Highlights from the latest couture shows - CNN

Written by Allyssia Alleyne, CNN

If the ready-to-wear shows are about selling product, Paris' haute couture shows, staged each year in January and July, are about selling the dream. This is where, season after season, the few designers working in this rarefied space erect their most elaborate sets and parade their most fantastical designs, while showing off the savoir faire of their ateliers.

In the age of coronavirus, and the restrictions around travel and gathering that come with it, world-building becomes more difficult --- but not impossible. After all, last season, a number of designers found ways to awe through the computer screen alone.

Working with British photographer Nick Knight, Valentino's creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, delivered high drama on camera with a live video that featured models perched on rotating risers or sat on aerial rings. (All the better to show off the Autumn-Winter 2020-2021 collection's exaggerated proportions.) At Dior, meanwhile, Maria Grazia Chiuri showcased her Surrealist-inspired collection in a narrative short film, with models cast as sirens, fawns and other mythological beings.

Watch all the latest shows from the Spring-Summer 2021 season's virtual Haute Couture Week below.

Day 1

Top image caption: Models take part in the shooting of a film to present French fashion designer Julien Fournie's Spring-Summer 2021 collection for Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week on January 7, 2021 in Paris.

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