In Paris fashion, skin is in and celebrities rule the runways

PARIS (AP) — Paris Fashion Week is delivering a forceful reminder of why it remains a capital of fashion, with blockbuster celebrity front rows, boundary-pushing design, and collections that are tackling big ideas about power, craft and the female body.

Oprah Winfrey turned heads at both Stella McCartney and Chloé. Sissy Spacek, Julia Garner and Lil Yachty claimed front-row seats at Loewe.

The star wattage has matched the creative ambition — and both have been running high.

Halfway through the fall 2026 shows, several clear themes are emerging from the runways: dress with intent, dress with pleasure, and don’t be afraid to show up.

Here are the trends defining the season so far.

The tuxedo is back — again

The women’s tuxedo turns 60 this year, and no house owns that legacy like Saint Laurent.

Creative director Anthony Vaccarello, marking his own 10th anniversary at the helm, sent out a parade of razor-sharp Smokings — the house term for its iconic women’s tuxedo — with plunging necklines and elongated silhouettes that crackled with the same transgressive energy founder Yves Saint Laurent unleashed in the 1960s.

But Vaccarello didn’t stop at evening.

He extended the same sensual, body-skimming tailoring into daytime suits in fluid pinstripe fabrics with almost no interlining, effectively arguing that the tuxedo silhouette belongs in a woman’s life around the clock.

Plenty of brands in Milan showed strong black pantsuits this season, but the Saint Laurent version still occupies its own territory — sleeker, sharper, more loaded with meaning.

The other half of Vaccarello’s equation was lace, stiffened with latex and tailored into structured cardigan-like jackets and straight skirts.

It was lace with backbone — tough, not delicate.

Paired with smoky eyes, chunky gold jewelry and slingback heels, the collection made a case that Saint Laurent’s codes are as potent as ever.

Skin is in

Designers aren’t being shy about the body this season.

Vaquera’s Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio staged a provocation-filled show inside a Paris church, with exposed skin at almost every turn — hip-cut trousers, leather pieces with strategically placed zippers and references to fashion’s most boundary-pushing moments from the past six decades.

At Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice built his collection around a day-in-the-life concept that traced a woman from bed to club, with body-conscious cuts and geometric cutouts on pinafore dresses.

Isabel Marant’s designer Kim Bekker went short and tight with tiny cut-off shorts, miniskirts and slim leather pencil skirts.

Craft gets weird in a good way

At Loewe, the design duo of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are rapidly redefining what luxury craft looks like — and having a blast doing it.

Their sophomore collection was a sensory jolt: inflatable channels pumped into outerwear and leather raincoats, shearling sculpted and groomed to resemble prize-winning poodle fur, and latex cast in 3D-printed molds to reimagine boudoir staples.

The venue was drenched in taxi yellow, the soundtrack was pounding techno, and stuffed sea creatures shared the front row with Hollywood stars.

The designers have cited artist Cosima von Bonin as a key inspiration, which explained the gingham accents and hand-painted floral prints scattered through the lineup.

Their take on craft is deliberately different from designers who celebrate the imperfect or the handmade.

McCollough and Hernandez are interested in craft so refined it erases the evidence of the hand entirely — leather jackets skived to feather-thinness, fused so smoothly they look like they rolled off a factory line. It’s a provocative inversion: the highest skill made to look effortless.

Fringe and texture go hard

Fringe is having a moment across multiple shows.

At Carven, designer Mark Thomas made it a signature of his assured sophomore collection — fringed gloves, shaggy textures and paper-thin mille-feuille panels that brought movement and dimension to skirts and dresses.

He layered gauzy organza with lace in tones of wine and chocolate, creating a romantic but purposeful wardrobe.

Fringe has been visible elsewhere too, becoming one of the season’s quieter but most persistent trends.

Minimalism with a pulse

Courrèges under Di Felice has become one of the week’s most reliable propositions.

His fifth-anniversary collection featured slim flared coats, A-line skirts and vinyl knife-pleated into dresses — a slick Parisian minimalism that has won over both young customers and fashion critics.

That’s a rare double audience, and Di Felice has earned it.

The urban woman at speed

Isabel Marant’s Bekker sent models racing down the runway in distressed denim, reversible statement jackets and sparkly knitted minidresses with curved-heel pumps.

The mood was fast, social and unapologetically fun — a woman running between shows and parties, living at full tilt.

Rich reds, cobalt and Mondrian-style colorblocking punched through the denim-heavy palette.

Evening had a disco edge, with fluid sparkly dresses and high-slit satin skirts.