Paris Fashion Week Day Two: Dior, Saint Laurent and Maison Margiela Take the Spotlight

If Monday belonged to the newcomers, Tuesday belonged to the titans. Day two of Paris Fashion Week SS27 was a three-act spectacle from Dior, Maison Margiela and Saint Laurent. It started on a misty afternoon in the Tuileries and ended on a golden night at the Trocadéro. Of all the Paris Fashion Week SS27 shows so far, this was the biggest day.

The stakes were high for three of the most closely watched Paris Fashion Week designers. Jonathan Anderson, Dior’s creative director, continued to shape his vision for the house, Glenn Martens brought Margiela back to Paris, and speculation mounted over whether Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent show could mark his farewell, as the three houses looked to nature and nostalgia, preservation, and unapologetic gold respectively.

Dior Blooms in Tuileries

Anderson’s Dior show was his third ready-to-wear collection for the house, and it took place at the Bassin Octogonal in the Jardin des Tuileries. Guests crossed small bridges over ponds as fog drifted through camphor trees, a fitting Paris Fashion Week runway for a collection full of garden metaphors.

Anderson drew on the Romantic art movement and the Chinese ritual of rolling wénwán walnuts, and turned nature into more than 65 airy looks.

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Pinstripes, tartans and Prince of Wales checks became light and sheer. Cropped jackets and mini skirts were covered in hand-cut fabric petals in peony pink and buttercup yellow. The 1952 ‘La Cigale’ dress came back in candy-floss pink pleated tulle, and the houndstooth pieces nodded to the 1938 ‘English Petticoat’. The accessories had plenty of pull too: swan-shaped vanity cases, four-leaf clover charms and the return of the Saddle bag.

Margiela Returns, Saint Laurent Shines

Maison Margiela’s SS27 show marked the house’s return to the Paris Fashion Week calendar after a season in Shanghai. Martens built his set like a wholesale flower market, with rooms filled floor to ceiling with fresh, dried and decaying blooms.

Trench coats, pencil skirts and button-down shirts sat beside psychedelic 1970s florals, trompe l’oeil necklines and crushed silverware worn as armour. The collection balanced Margiela’s experimental codes with clothes customers can actually wear.

Then came Saint Laurent’s SS27 show where its founder Anthony Vaccarello took over the Trocadéro fountain. Models walked a raised runway beneath a giant gold chandelier while the Eiffel Tower sparkled behind them.

The palette was head-to-toe gold: gold trench coats, embroidered gold dresses, brocade skirts and sharp-collared jackets. Black gowns with billowing sleeves and sweeping trains closed the show. Charlotte Gainsbourg performed in a classic black Saint Laurent suit as Rosé, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Eddie Redmayne and Rami Malek looked on.

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The show marked ten years since Vaccarello’s debut at the house, and reports suggest it may be his last. If it was, he left smiling and waving.

A garden, a flower market and a golden farewell: taken together, the second day of Paris Fashion Week sent one clear message. Paris is setting the pace for Spring Summer 2027 fashion.