Paris Fashion Week: Fall/Winter 2022 wraps up today, March 8th! Here’s our recap, featuring some of the standout collections showcased during the iconic week of fashion.

Some specific highlights include a look at collections by fashion powerhouses Valentino and Dior. Read on to discover the list of collections that caught our eye at PFW FW22.

Valentino Fall/Winter 2022

Valentino hits us with a shocking hot pink RTW collection this season. The runway set features pink from wall to wall, including the runway. While the pretty in pink collection is unapologetically loud, it also features more than a third of all-black monotone looks. Valentino gave us eighty-one looks of both menswear and womenswear. The first fourty looks are monotone pink, then it switches to all black for looks 41-73, with the last eight looks moving back to pink.

Famous Faces in Attendance

Valentino was a star-studded event. Euphoria star and Valentino brand ambassador, Zendaya, had a crowd of cheering fans outside. The star of the moment wears a head-to-toe neon pink look with a blazer and flare pants; both featuring embroidered floral appliques, a v-neck blouse, and platform square toe heels. Also in attendance: Latin pop star Maluma, race car driver Lewis Hamilton, and Vanessa Kirby from the hit show The Crown.

The Takeaway: Pink, Pink and More Pink

The runway show itself is dazzling and despite the whimsical colour choice, the looks feature classic impeccable Valentino tailoring and seriously intricate construction. The creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s brilliance is on display here – without the bold choice in monotone looks, the more finessed design elements could’ve been lost.

Valentino explains the bold fuchsia frenzy on Instagram, announcing pink as the centre of the collection,

“Pink as a manifestation of the unconscious and a liberation from the need for realism.”

We couldn’t agree more!

Check out the full presentation below:

Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2022

The next stop is Balenciaga! Balenciaga’s runway show this past Sunday was hauntingly and methodically put together to bring attention to the war in Ukraine and the climate change crisis.

This iconic brand understands the assignment when it comes to showing the powerful silhouettes that insiders predicted for most of the F/W 2022 runway shows. It also provides a sobering and voyeuristic peek into the future of fashion; in conjunction with some of the modern and future challenges humanity faces.

A Heartfelt Message For Ukraine

Creative director Demna Gvasalia makes the show personal to his story as a Georgian refugee. He wrote a message that was left on each seat along with a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag T-shirt. The note read,

“The war in Ukraine has triggered the pain of a past trauma I have carried with me since 1993, when the same thing happened in my home country and I became a forever refugee,”

He then fearlessly addresses the elephant in the room, speaking on the place of fashion in times of political crisis.

“In a time like this, fashion loses its relevance and its actual right to exist. Fashion Week feels like some kind of absurdity. I thought for a moment about cancelling the show that I and my team worked so hard on and were all looking forward to. But then I realised that cancelling this show would mean giving in, surrendering to the evil that had already hurt me so much for 30 years… This show needs no explanation. It is a dedication to fearlessness, to resistance, and to the victory of love and peace.”, he beautifully concludes.

War, Climate Change, The Metaverse and…Fashion

Just days before the show, Balenciaga wiped their Instagram feed, declaring that they were going to use their platforms to bring awareness about the crisis in Ukraine. The runway show that was to come was art at its finest. The show was designed before the war in Ukraine broke out, and the original concept was meant to draw attention to climate change while also commenting on the future of virtual reality.

The space used at Le Bourget Airport was transformed with the use of fake snow and wind into a kind of gigantic snow globe. The models varied from being bundled up in fur coats, Balenciaga’s signature skin-tight bodysuits, billowing dresses, and even some clad in just underwear and accessories. Some of the accessories were staples like Balenciaga shades, tote bags, pointed-toe heels, and oversized thigh-high boots. And also a special accessory that looked like the world’s most expensive bin bag made of leather that models symbolically lugged behind them. In fact, the symbolism was heavy throughout the show. A clear boundary was set between the models and the audience, adding to the mystifying voyeuristic peek into the future. The presentation was titled “360° Show’, very fitting for a show described as not only an experience but an art installation in itself.

Celebrity Guests

Kim Kardashian, who sat front row, wore a skin-tight bodysuit covered in Balenciaga packing tape. Other attendees included Salma Hayek and her daughters, Euphoria star Alexa Demie, Diplo, A$AP Ferg and more.

Check out the full presentation below:

Christian Dior Fall/Winter 2022

This new Dior ready-to-wear collection is functional and innovative with the theme of beauty and protection. Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior’s creative director, has been very vocal and honest about her angle to integrate fashion design and feminism. In regards to this collection, she says, “Clothes are themselves a form of protection…they reassure us. That aspect is very present in what I do – emotional protection as well as protection in its proper sense”. And by protection Dior set out to create a collection that literally and figuratively protects the human body while remaining functional to the female form specifically.

D-Labs Collabs

Dior collaborates with D-Labs this time, creating clothing that features internal heating regulation. It’s made with hi-tech fibres that can maintain a constant body temperature. The classic bar jacket got reinvented with tech that regulates body moisture, can provide warmth and even take an imprint of the wearer’s body. It’s wearable tech on the most luxurious level.

The protection aspect of the designs uses utilitarian functionality in cohesion with feminine laces, gingham and floral prints, waist snatching corsets and padded exaggerated hips. Some pieces resemble bulletproof vests, featuring heavy padding, nylon waterproof fabric elements and designs reminiscent of sports gear, like American-football inspired corsets, biker jackets and motorbike gloves. Dior’s message of protection hits on multiple fronts, feminism, wearable tech, and fashion as a protective shield in these tumultuous times.

Check out the full presentation below:

Off-White Fall/Winter 2022

The late Virgil Abloh’s Off-White paid homage to the genius designer, creative and pivotal voice in the black community. The show, ‘Spaceship Earth’, literally took the audience on a trip which celebrates the brand’s creator. Not only do the designs include ready-to-wear clothes, but also looks for its high fashion haute couture line. The latter is one of the angles Virgil was very passionate about in terms of impacting luxurious spaces that are rarely accessible.

Check out the full presentation below:

Rick Owens Fall/Winter 2022

The newest collection from Rick Owens has a catholic school theme with an eerie tone thanks to the use of fog machines and a poignant colour scheme. The fabrics range from pure white to sterling silvers, grey and of course, black. And it also had some refreshing use of colour. The draping is beautiful and the silhouettes are sharp and intentional.

Check out the full presentation below:

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