For fall 2025, designers pumped up the volumes in their couture collections, some of which playfully nodded to the natural world.
For Viktor & Rolf, that meant colorful bird feathers (another one of this season’s trends), which the duo used to put a new spin on an old experiment from 1998. Half their looks came stuffed to the brim with “feathers,” which were made out of fabric, while the other half were left deflated, further contrasting the various proportions.
“Side by side on the runway, they couldn’t have looked more different,” observed WWD’s Lily Templeton. Her preference seemed to lie with the oversize versions that had “a cool punk vibe” well-suited for Effie Trinket in the “Hunger Games,” she wrote.
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From the skies to the sea, Iranian Swedish designer Bahareh Ardakani dove into the geometry of marine life at ArdAzAei for her rigid structures, which comprised accordion pleats mimicking the ribbed surfaces of shells.
Also leaning into aquatica, Iris van Herpen created amorphous volumes by suspending Japanese “air” fabric from wires that drifted “like a jellyfish in invisible currents,” noted Miles Socha. Meanwhile, Alexa Wynne pegged the oceanic blue fabrics undulating from the sides of Yuima Nakazato’s models as “gill-like,” a descriptor that could also apply to the up-flipped lapels on Demna’s lady-like jackets at Balenciaga with hulking body-builder shoulders.
Elsewhere, Kevin Germanier combined elements of both air and water, working inflatable circus balloons into gowns bigger than a big top, like the spiked one shown here made from the tail-ends of dolphins.
Taking things out on dry land — or perhaps the red carpet — some equally large dresses swept up the runways of Ashi Studio, Elie Saab and Lever Couture.