Celine’s effortless chic to Messika’s rare blue diamond: Highlights from Paris Fashion Week

With only a few days left, Paris Fashion Week continues to deliver good collections that showcase the best of French fashion. Here’s what you need to know about the top shows of day 5 and 6: Hermès, Celine, Loewe and Givenchy, plus a dispatch from Messika’s high jewellery show. Celine’s Michael Rider knows how to please fashion people. His shows – both the clothes and the events themselves – are always refreshing. Held under a thatched roof reminiscent of a Polynesian hut in the courtyard of the historic Archives Nationales in the Marais district, the lovely Celine spring/summer 2027 show kicked off day 6 of Paris Fashion Week. Placed on every seat was a badge with the message “If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high… hooray for you” emblazoned on it, and a Celine-logo snap band that with a quick motion turned into a pair of visors – or a cuff, if you’d rather wear it around your wrist. These thoughtful gestures have turned Rider into an industry darling. (It also happens that the show took place on a glorious sunny day, which put everyone in a good mood.) This season Rider was in a dressed-up mood. The line-up opened with a little black dress worn with a ladylike bag and black pumps. Rider is a fan of bold colour combinations but some of the best looks in this collection were black, from a draped long-sleeve dress in velvet cinched with a gold-buckled maxi belt to a peacoat worn with matching trousers. Rider loves a good accessory, from piled-on costume jewellery to silk scarves and pins. For spring/summer, he toned things down in that department. One model had her hands adorned with chunky rings on each finger but most of the looks were streamlined and pared down. While each outfit was impeccably put together, this collection was more about silhouettes than styling tricks. High-waist pants paired with roomy jackets or blouses – including one very cool look in army green – dominated the tailoring portion of the show, while the rest of the looks ranged from more little black dresses to a smattering of scarf prints and embroidered velvet gowns. The menswear section offered the kind of clothes guys who don’t really care about fashion want to wear every day: from sweatpants paired with tailored jackets to the perfect corduroy jacket worn with a black shirt and white pants. Many of the male models wore scuffed white sneakers. Rooted in real life – like all of Rider’s collections – this range was truly effortless (perhaps the most overused cliché to describe a fashion collection, but this one truly was). You could picture every single model, especially the guys, walking from the runway onto the busy streets of the Marais on a weekend afternoon. As soon as the show ended, waiters came out with trays of ice pops, the perfect send-off that made everyone, even jaded fashion insiders, make a beeline for the treats with a smile on their faces. Loewe’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez continue to explore the tension between handicraft and technology in their collections for the Spanish leather goods house. Loewe is a very tactile brand, for lack of a better word, and the designers keep reinforcing that aspect of the house in innovative ways. Materials like resin and techno fabrics like neoprene coexist with beads, fringes and the buttery leather Loewe is known for, often in the same outfit. What the designers do best is make those artisanal touches look cool and current. For spring/summer 2027, McCollough and Hernandez referenced their own backgrounds, infusing the collection with elements of American sportswear and juxtaposing them with Spanish flair. The many preppy touches in the range came from the years they spent living on the East Coast of the US, but were reinterpreted in modern ways. Take the polo shirt, that quintessential trope of American Ivy League style. Their versions, which also included polo dresses, came with resin collars in bright hues like orange, and were accessorised with matching sunglasses. The range offered plenty of streamlined outfits that you can easily picture a cool girl anywhere in the world wearing on a daily basis – “reliability, wearability, desirability”, said the show notes – but also plenty of exquisitely made creations that showcased the skills of Loewe’s ateliers. A series of beaded looks with floral appliqués stole the spotlight as did a couple of lovely scarf dresses with matching sandals, and two dresses in a sheer net-like striped fabric rolled up at the neckline; they had the ease of beach towels nonchalantly wrapped around the body. The variety of shoes on display was remarkable, from pumps in stretchy fabrics with curved heels to sandals embellished with dangling charms and soft versions of another preppy staple, the boat shoe. Bags included the signature Amazona and a new take on the brand’s famous Puzzle, named Puzzle Charm. Next year is going to be a big one for the fashion division of Hermès. In January the leather goods house is making its foray into haute couture – the most prestigious form of dressmaking. Also in January, newly appointed men’s creative director Grace Wales Bonner will debut her first collection for the house. The brand is also set to unveil a new look for its refurbished flagship boutique on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, following the recent opening of a new store on London’s New Bond Street earlier this year. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual at the Parisian maison known for its equestrian heritage and coveted handbags. For spring/summer 2027, women’s creative director Nadège Vanhée offered a breezy line-up of easy separates and dresses that allowed for freedom of movement and were meant to look as light as air (the collection was named The Shape of Air). See-through breathable fabrics, dresses and trousers with undone zippers at the sides, cut-out details, and perforated leather were just some of the elements Vanhée used to convey her idea of modular dressing, so to speak. In a season full of bra tops, Hermès has shown the best ones so far: bandeau bras with cut-outs in the middle, some of them wrapped in Hermès’ famous Twilly scarves. The sunset hues of the collection – from sand to orange and yellow, interspersed with shades of icy blue – were meant to evoke sunlight in all its glory. Shoes ranged from flat thong sandals to knee-high suede boots with exposed stitching, while bags included new versions of Hermès classics like the Picotin and the Garden Party as well as a new bucket shape with cut-out holes and a silver rope handle. Shown in an all-white box with barely any breeze, the collection provided the perfect wardrobe for the summer heatwaves Europe and the rest of the world have been experiencing over the last few years. Sarah Burton is an extremely gifted designer. Her sharp tailoring and dramatic silhouettes are always a pleasure to see on celebrities and on real women like herself. Since she joined Givenchy two years ago after a stellar tenure at Alexander McQueen, she has honed in on her strengths while also expanding her scope to suit the French house. Translating her powerful vision into commercial success, however, has been a bit of a challenge at Givenchy, a brand that has gone through its fair share of significant changes over the last decade. Burton is undoubtedly good at reworking brand signatures like the Bettina blouse and the little black dress. With seemingly simple gestures like the placement of zippers or the slashing of fabrics to reveal hints of flesh, she can turn everyday staples into statement pieces and give them a tough edge. For spring/summer 2027, the designer’s goal was “to bring simplicity and precision to dressing as we speed through the multiple perspectives and perpetual motions of all our lives,” according to the show notes. Impeccably tailored suits, leather gowns that gently draped on the body and chic leather shirts paired with matching pencil skirts were among the best outfits. Vivid hues such as deep blues and bright greens dominated the line-up, which also featured a smattering of patterns, including an opera coat printed with a Japanese landscape. Givenchy used to have a thriving accessories business, from covetable handbags to fabulous boots. Rebuilding those categories must be a top priority for LVMH, Givenchy’s parent company. Offerings this season include a very cool biker boot in slouchy leather, crescent-shaped handbags and a series of slouchy bags that were shown with their zippers undone. Messika, the jewellery brand known for its dazzling diamonds, was also part of Paris Fashion Week this season. Founder Valérie Messika held a show at the Grand Palais to unveil her latest high jewellery collection for the house, Terres de Contrastes. Inspired by the striking landscapes of Botswana, one of the world’s most important sources of natural diamonds, the range features one-of-a-kind pieces like Le Okavango Blue, the largest blue diamond ever discovered in Botswana and the eighth largest in the world. On the runway it was worn by model Adriana Lima, who closed the glamorous show, which was styled by fashion editor Carine Roitfeld.