Provisional calendar of Paris Haute Couture Week revealed, minus Balenciaga

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Dec 23, 2021

The next edition of the Paris Haute Couture week will feature some thirty participants, similarly to previous editions. There will be a notably absentee, Balenciaga, while Yanina Couture will enter the official calendar as new guest member. The event is scheduled from Monday January 24 to Thursday 27, and will showcase 31 collections for the Spring/Summer 2022 with 33 runway shows (Chanel and Christian Dior will be showing twice), according to the provisional programme released by the French Haute Couture association.

For the time being, it is impossible to say how many physical shows and how many digital presentations there will be. Participating labels will decide how to showcase their collections depending on the health situation and the Covid pandemic’s spread, and only the publication of the definitive calendar in early January will bring clarity.

All the main Paris Haute Couture regulars will be showing, from Schiaparelli to Franck Sorbier, Giorgio Armani Privé, Fendi Couture, Alexandre Vauthier, Julien Fournier, Elie Saab, Maison Rabih Kayrouz and Viktor & Rolf, alongside newer names like Iris Van Herpen, Rahul Mishra and emerging label Charles de Vilmorin, which joined the official Parisian calendar exactly a year ago.

Instead, Balenciaga will be conspicuously absent. The luxury label had made its return to the haute couture week last July, after a hiatus of more than half a century, with the first couture collection for women and men designed by Demna Gvasalia, which was an unreserved success. Also absent this season are Maison Margiela and New York prodigy Kerby Jean-Raymond, who in July became the first African-American designer to show on the official Paris Haute Couture calendar, with his Pyer Moss Couture label.

Among the new names to follow there is Maison Yanina, which by dint of sheer perseverance will finally debut on the official calendar with a show scheduled at 6.30 pm CET on January 27. “In my life, I’ve learned to be strong, to work hard, to be the best I can be, faithful to myself and to others. I’ve tried to be happy,” said Yulia Yanina in a press release.
 
“Being invited to the [French] Fashion and Haute Couture Federation is a great joy and an accolade bestowed on me by Parisian couturiers and designers,” added Yanina, who founded her label in 1993 and has been showing in Paris since 2010, outside the haute couture week calendar. Her creations blend “the expertise and avant-garde spirit of French couture with the heritage of Russian decorative arts,” as Maison Yanina stated.
 
Other shows will be held during the week, alongside those on the official calendar. Among them, the show by Jean Paul Gaultier, whose label has decided to invite a new independent designer each season to create a new couture collection. This time, Jean Paul Gaultier is giving carte blanche to Belgian designer Glenn Martens.