21 of the Most Memorable Couture Looks of All Time

From Kate as a ’90s Versace bride to the Maison Margiela show set social media ablaze, Vogue charts some of the most impactful moments among the high-drama dresses of Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week.

Schiaparelli’s lobster dress (1937)

Roman designer Elsa Schiaparelli’s haute couture salons in the 1930s might seem like modest affairs compared to today’s shows, but her Paris base at 21 Place Vendôme is still a hallowed spot. It was during that decade that Schiaparelli collaborated with Salvador Dalí to create the “lobster” dress, famously worn by Wallis Simpson in Vogue in 1937.

While to modern audiences, collaborations between artists and fashion designers are a relatively regular occurrence, back then it was groundbreaking. Greta Garbo, no less, was a fan.

Karl Lagerfeld’s first Chanel show (1983)

Karl Lagerfeld presided over the house of Chanel for more than three decades, remaining one of the world’s most revered (and recognisable) figures in fashion right up until his death in 2019. In 1983, when the designer was first charged with bringing the maison into the modern era, he admitted he initially found couture a frustratingly slow process. While Lagerfeld’s Chanel would quickly come to epitomise what audiences around the world love about couture – quintessential fashion escapism – back in the early ’80s, Karl’s Chanel couture debut (which focused on the spirit of Chanel’s ’20s and ’30s oeuvre) was met with more than a few raised eyebrows from critics.

All that glitters is Gianni (1995)

While once upon a time, couture presentations were a polite shopping expedition for well-heeled upper-class women, Gianni Versace’s high-voltage shows at Atelier Versace in the ’90s were a noisy, starry affair. Audiences jostled for a front-row view of the Versace experience, and every shimmering look in the autumn/winter 1995 couture collection was met with applause. A masterclass in fashion history, it captured the era’s hedonism in every twinkling rhinestone. Deservedly so. The Versace couture woman was undoubtedly flashbulb-ready, primed for Hollywood’s red carpets rather than Paris’s Bal des Débutantes.

Kate Moss blooms (1993)

The year 1993 was a big one for supermodel-in-the-making Kate Moss. The star’s first Vogue cover (for British Vogue) was the March issue, by which time she’d already graced the Yves Saint Laurent couture spring/summer 1993 catwalk, wearing a romantic bouquet of floral prints that were nothing short of intoxicating.

Chanel’s couture LBD (1994)

While an enormous dress isn’t mandatory for a Vogue-worthy couture moment, an enormous hat is. Naomi Campbell’s Chanel couture LBD, styled with sheer gloves and an oversized marabou hat, was a game-changer back in 1994.

Thierry Mugler’s robot woman (1995)

The cyborg suit created by Thierry Mugler for his autumn/winter 1995 couture show was received as “a frightening and tantalising image for the dawn of the internet age” by Vogue. Later that year, the one-of-a-kind piece was immortalised by Helmut Newton for US Vogue’s November 1995 issue, in the magazine’s cult “Machine Age” fashion story. In 2024, Zendaya casually made this piece of fashion history part of her Dune promo wardrobe.

Alexander McQueen’s mythology (1997)

Shortly after the late Alexander McQueen unveiled his debut couture collection for Givenchy, he revealed he felt the show had not lived up to his own expectations. History, on the other hand, remembers a couture debut that was a startlingly elegant and mythological play on the house codes. Sourcing vintage fashion with a story attached is now a competitive sport for the A-list, and Kendall Jenner memorably looked to this collection for 2024’s “sleeping beauty” themed Met Gala.

Renegade denim (1999)

For his spring/summer 1999 couture show, French designer Jean Paul Gaultier bucked convention to send a single patchwork denim gown (complete with feathered train) down his runway, a look markedly different from the other gilded pieces in the collection. Gaultier’s secret to standing out at the ball? Flout the dress code.

Larger than life (2003)

In the Noughties, John Galliano’s Christian Dior catwalk became the epicentre of theatricality. The British designer, who took the helm at Dior in 1996, emboldened his atelier and it showed in the clothes. Nowhere more so than in the spring/summer 2003 couture collection. “In Galliano’s hands, the vivid colours and patterns of Chinese costume and Japanese kimonos got transformed into some of the hugest clothes ever invented,” Sarah Mower reported for American Vogue. “Models, almost completely submerged in cocooning swaths of brocade, taffeta and exploding chiffon flounces, teetered along on vertiginous platforms.”

Linda as the Chanel bride (2003)

It wouldn’t be a couture greatest hits list if we didn’t include a bride. Enter Linda Evangelista, the woman behind countless iconic Chanel catwalk moments, seen here closing the house’s autumn/winter 2003 couture show in true supermodel style.

Going dotty for Armani (2014)

When Mr Armani’s atelier turned its hand to polka dots, the results were nothing short of spectacular. No big back story here, just a perfect moment of dream-like beauty.

Birds of (internet) paradise (2018)

You’ll remember the pink feathery Valentino couture gown that broke the internet twice in 2018. Model of the moment Kaia Gerber was the first to sport Pierpaolo Piccioli’s masterpiece during Valentino’s autumn/winter 2018 couture show, leaving even hardened fashion editors in awe (and in some cases teary-eyed). Lady Gaga’s people were quick to leap on the look, securing the gown for the A Star is Born red carpet at the Venice Film Festival. Cue internet meltdown number two.

Valentino’s vision for every body (2022)

Pierpaolo Piccioli topped that fantasy feather moment during the spring/summer 2022 show season, when he outlined an inclusive couture vision, modelled by grey-haired beauties Lynne Koester and Hannelore Knuts, and midsize models Levie Hsieh, Devyn Garcia and Angeer Amol. The boundary-pushing creative wanted to imbue all the women wearing his work with “the same magic; the same emotion; the feeling of couture”, he told Vogue in his lesson to the industry at large. A much-needed step in the right direction.

Off with their (faux) heads (2023)

Daniel Roseberry stole the spotlight during the spring/summer 2023 season with his remarkable innovation at Schiaparelli: the introduction of “faux taxidermy”. Drawing inspiration from Dante’s Inferno, Roseberry challenged his atelier to craft remarkably lifelike animal heads using foam, resin and faux fur. These brilliant creations popped up on the front row care of Kylie Jenner (a sneak peek of the collection ahead of the show), and on Naomi Campbell, Shalom Harlow and Irina Shayk on the runway. The lion, wolf, and snow leopard heads sparked intense debates across social media – but then, isn’t fantasy fashion supposed to get people talking?

A white shirt and jeans – but make it couture (2023)

It wasn’t a gown (not even close), but Pierpaolo Piccioli’s flawlessly executed take on a timeless everyday outfit nonetheless became the standout look of the autumn/winter 2023 couture shows. Kaia Gerber’s slouchy, vintage-inspired jeans were actually made of silk gazar, and embroidered with minuscule pearlescent beads dyed in 80 different shades of indigo to reproduce that “denim” texture. Coupled with a perfect white shirt and a shimmering (but equally wearable) party shoe, Piccioli’s ballgown alternative was a compelling proposition.

John Galliano’s Maison Margiela masterclass (2024)

It’s near impossible to pick just one dress from John Galliano’s widely celebrated underground show for Maison Margiela for spring/summer 2024. It saw a return to the spine-tingling spectacles of decades past, as models strutted down the runway in extreme corsets and sheer tulle, all while sporting oversized wigs and porcelain doll-like make-up. Fittingly, Gwendoline Christie closed the show in a corseted silk-taffeta confection, featuring a translucent latex-like overlay. As Hamish Bowles wrote after the show, it was “indescribably magic”.

The JPG naked-dress bride (2024)

Jean Paul Gaultier’s guest designer for autumn/winter 2024, Nicolas Di Felice, took the naked dress trend to the next level via a nude chainmail dress made from a staggering 40,000 interconnected hooks and eyes. Paired with a matching veil, this couture look was made to be snapped up by an especially daring bride-to-be, or worn on the red carpet by one Kylie Jenner.

Simone Rocha’s Jean Paul Gaultier Debut (2024)

For Jean Paul Gaultier’s spring/summer 2024 couture collection, Simone Rocha brought her subversive codes to the runway, exploring femininity, sexuality, romance and violence through a provocative and sometime humorous, lens. Blush pink cone bras were embellished with ruby-red tips, while Gaultier’s signature corsetry was reimagined with Rocha’s romantic, twisted slant. Alongside a ballerina-soft palette and an abundance of ribbons, the Irish designer dabbled in suggestive garter belts and darkly gothic accents, bringing a dose of transgressive femininity to Paris.

Glenn Martens’s Maison Margiela painted tapestries (2025)

Of the actual couture shows that took place during the autumn/winter 2025 season, the most hotly anticipated – I feel justified in saying – was Glenn Martens’s debut at Maison Margiela. The stakes were very bloody high. The maison’s previous couture outing was, of course, that show by John Galliano under Paris’s Pont Alexandre III. No pressure, Glenn! Pressure, however, is what makes diamonds, and the Belgian designer’s ouverture at his countryman’s house was a crystal-clear gem. Picking one look is a cruel task – the glass-sheet draping, the diaphanous Dune dresses in spectral silver crepe, the Ferrero Rocher confection of a gown in sculptural, scrunched-and-bunched gold jacquard. The real standout for me, though, was this: a model wearing a similarly textured gold facemask (Margiela! Anonymity!) with what looked like a vintage lace shrink-wrap top with an inbuilt bodice, and – the look’s crowning glory – a low-slung, draped and spliced full-length skirt in peeling, painted brocade. So Margiela, so Glenn, so glorious.

Schiaparelli’s Modern Icarus (2025)

Daniel Roseberry is no stranger to a viral moment, often opting for shock factor for Schiaparelli’s couture collection (see the life-like lion heads above). Inspired by Greek mythology, the spring/summer 2025 couture show reimagined the cautionary tale of he who flew too close to the sun, and ascended to new heights of haute couture. Despite the untimely demise of Icarus, this collection was an exploration of inventive design, with architectural corsetry and sculptural construction looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past. “I wanted to challenge this idea that to be modern, it must be simple.” Roseberry said, conveying the intention to make clothes that have “antiquity and modernity at the same time”.

Alesandro Takes The Wheel At Valentino Couture (2025)

For his Valentino couture debut, Alessandro Michele brought the drama. Likening the design process to being “in the middle of a tornado”, the designer drew on his Roman heritage, delving into the Valentino archives, alongside historical costume and cinema. References were many and varied, from Marie Antoinette to Venetian interiors and Cardinals dripping in gold. Reflecting on the collection, Michele said: “I’m not a couturier. I don’t think of myself as a couturier. I mean, I think about myself as a guy with a lot of imagination. That’s me.”

This article was originally published on Vogue.com.