PFW: A Couture Touch At Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2027

Fresh off its 55th Haute Couture collection debut earlier this year, Pierpaolo Piccioli reflected on Balenciaga’s beginnings, finding inspiration in the idea of bringing the House’s lauded couture methods to its ready-to-wear offering.

So, what happens when couture gets to work on the everyday wardrobe? For Spring/Summer 2027, Piccioli looked to Balenciaga’s couture techniques as a way of thinking, applying the House’s atelier methods and ideologies to the clothes we already know.

The starting point was Cristóbal Balenciaga’s defining belief that the body should be the basis of every garment. Casual staples like denim jeans, T-shirts, bombers and leather jackets were pulled, draped and reshaped through couture construction, their familiar forms made fresh again by the hand. Internal stitching techniques created new volumes in cotton and leather, while bias cutting altered the relationship between the body and everything from evening dresses to jeans and men’s tailoring.

Basque-like peplum shapes appeared on T-shirts and jackets, while Calais lace became structural, opening windows to the body rather than simply dressing it. Even accessories followed the same philosophy. Supple bags were shaped by hand, shoes softened around the foot, and seashell-inspired jewellery had an ethereally organic quality.

More than making everyday clothes look extravagant again, though, the collection demonstrated what happens when you give them a little more thought. And though it’s not the first time Piccioli has exalted staples—he famously put Kaia Gerber in jeans for the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2023/24 show—his approach has brought a welcome softness to Balenciaga. Even in their architectural feat, the garments were still designed to move rather than simply impose a silhouette.

At the centre of the show was Aude Franjou’s Les Coraux de la Liberté, a linen-wrapped sculpture exploring the relationship between craft and art. Its vein-like forms offered an apt metaphor for Piccioli’s Balenciaga, where couture itself is at the root of all.