The looks from the Haute Couture runway collections

Presented at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, First Misfits is Maison Julien Fournié's most defiant haute couture collection to date — a couturier's manifesto for individuality in an age of uniformity. Drawing on the "living together" spirit of his youth, commuting daily between the northern suburbs and the heart of the capital, Julien Fournié populates the runway with unforgettable characters: subversive dandies, bewitching princesses, pop-culture "new romantics" and free-spirited bohemians, each caught in a glittering battle of charm. Here, Parisian haute couture abandons the codes of the Second Empire for the raw poetry of street art, manga and genre cinema. "Banlieue Couture" graffiti, electrocardiogram lines and firework motifs are rendered in jet, black crystal and coloured stones by new-generation embroiderer Amman Shaikh, who reinvents ancestral Indian techniques with audacious brilliance. Silks and textile innovations meet without hierarchy — Prince of Wales check threaded with gold lurex, mystery organza, grain de poudre wool weighted with crystal, nude illusion tulle inked with the House's signature tattoos. Sculptor André Tognotti carves Carrara marble into crowns and a bridal bustier, closing the show with an alabaster bride cascading in crystal. Sensual, rebellious and impeccably constructed, every couture silhouette celebrates the wearer's right to stand apart. This is haute couture as self-authorship: made to measure, worked entirely by hand, conceived to become legend. As the Maison affirms, norms reassure — distinctiveness creates legends. One of the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Julien Fournié invites his clientele to find their own. Discover the First Misfits haute couture collection and the singular universe of Julien Fournié in Paris.

In June 2025, Maison Julien Fournié carried the exuberance of Parisian haute couture to Southeast Asia, opening Vietnam International Fashion Week in Ho Chi Minh City with its acclaimed First Circus collection. A decade after the House unveiled First Initiation at the very same event in 2015, this return affirmed Julien Fournié's enduring dialogue with Asia's most discerning couture clientele — and his conviction that haute couture is a living spectacle to be shared across borders. On the Vietnamese runway, the couturier's fantastical cast came gloriously to life: superheroes and celestial travellers, witches and enchanters, burlesque spectres and whimsical creatures drawn from the designer's own childhood imagination. Each appearance fused theatrical performance with the rarefied craftsmanship for which the Paris atelier is renowned — hand-set crystal embroideries, sculptural volumes, featherwork and impeccably tailored silhouettes, every piece the fruit of hundreds of hours of petites mains savoir-faire. Colour and joy reigned, from figure-tracing gowns to playful, larger-than-life volumes, in a show equal parts spellbinding and daring. More than a runway, the Ho Chi Minh City presentation was an immersive celebration of imagination, freedom and cross-cultural elegance, extending Julien Fournié's international presence after previous showcases in Singapore, Stockholm, Warsaw and beyond. For collectors and connoisseurs across Vietnam and Asia, it offered a rare, intimate encounter with a French Haute Couture house — one of only a handful worldwide to hold the protected Haute Couture label. Explore the First Circus collection and discover how Julien Fournié brings the artistry of Paris haute couture to a global stage, from the Théâtre Mogador to the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.

Unveiled at the storied Théâtre Mogador in Paris, First Circus is Julien Fournié's most exuberant haute couture collection — a dazzling fusion of couture and performance staged to mark both the sixteenth anniversary of the Maison and the couturier's fiftieth birthday. "This collection is a celebration of the imagination," the designer confides, "a nod to the shy child I once was, who invented fantastical characters far from prying eyes." Those figures step gloriously into the light across thirty-one couture silhouettes: superheroes and aliens, witches and enchanters, Alice and her fabulous animals, burlesque spectres with jet-black hair and painted faces. Six months of research, development and atelier craftsmanship transformed the runway into a surrealist dreamscape where haute couture collided with fantasy, nostalgia and fearless self-expression. A Gothic edge lends devilish sophistication — a figure-hugging checked gown segmented in black panels, sculptural tailoring, opulent crystal embroidery — while moments of pure, chaotic joy (a rabbit-masked figure firing a glitter gun, a tulle-clad reveller in helmet and knee pads) redefine what a couture show can be. Every piece is realised with the exceptional artisanship of the House: hand-beaded embellishment, luxurious silks, avant-garde volumes and impeccable finish. First Circus reclaims fashion as a space of emotion, imagination and delight, treating each garment as a character in its own right — a signature Julien Fournié philosophy. Independent, visionary and technically flawless, the Maison stands among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry. Discover the First Circus Spring/Summer 2025 haute couture collection and step into the theatrical, joy-filled world of Julien Fournié in Paris.

Staged within the gilded halls of the Musée Grévin in Paris, Last Queen is Julien Fournié's sumptuous haute couture homage to Marie-Antoinette — the last queen of France and, in the couturier's words, history's first genuine influencer. Invited by the museum to dress its new statue of the sovereign "in her full majesty," Julien Fournié set out to restore the splendour of her life at Versailles while celebrating her enduring status as a fashion icon two centuries on. Around this centrepiece, the Maison unveiled six exquisite couture looks that reinterpret the codes of the queen's legend through a resolutely contemporary lens, each showcasing the work of France's finest artisans. Voluminous ball gowns and sculpted corsets meet silhouettes that flirt with masculine tailoring on feminine forms: a plum washed-silk trench embroidered with antique-silver botanicals over saddle-leather in Marie-Antoinette's beloved pastels; a swirling gown layering peony, soft pink and sweetbriar across gossamer tulles; a canary-yellow floral bustier crowning a giant petticoat. The finale reveals the queen's majestic court costume — corset dressed in embroidered bows, ruffled sleeves, overskirt and train — while a closing "gothic rockabilly" look reimagines her roles as shepherdess, devoted mother and pastry-lover, sketched like Asian anime in tattoo style and cinched by a black-crystal-embroidered jacket. Presented as Paris welcomed the world for the Olympic Games, the six silhouettes remained on public view at Grévin through summer 2024, making rarefied haute couture savoir-faire accessible to a wider audience. Regal, romantic and impeccably crafted, Last Queen affirms Julien Fournié's place among the very few houses worldwide to hold the protected Haute Couture label. Discover the Last Queen haute couture collection and the timeless artistry of Julien Fournié in Paris.

Presented at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Maison, First Vamps is Julien Fournié's seductive haute couture tribute to the power of women. Across forty-three couture looks, the designer reconnects with the codes of fantasy — glossy lips and sharp fangs, shadow and allure — to summon a cast of conscious temptresses and modern femmes fatales. Far from any spirit of submission or facile romance, these women raise their heads and boldly assert their sharply cut silhouettes, wielding couture itself as an instrument of confidence and charm. The collection opens on a note of pure Parisian elegance: a mid-calf sheath in a unique black feather tweed, born of a collaboration with celebrated feather artist Julien Vermeulen — four months to craft the fabric, two more to build the dress, a sumptuous, delicate shell for the body. From there, First Vamps unfolds as a series of textile sculptures that play with asymmetry, oversized sleeves and architectural volumes, reinterpreting the feminine wardrobe with futuristic flair. Floral embellishments are placed and embroidered with meticulous precision, lending each piece a note of dangerous, bewitching attraction, while luxurious fabrics and impeccable finishes elevate every silhouette. Sensuality and mystery meet flawless craftsmanship in a collection that portrays not merely a woman, but an era — a triumphant, audacious and eternally alluring femininity. Drawing on the couturier's lifelong love of fantasy and horror cinema, First Vamps transforms fear into fascination and desire into strength. Maison Julien Fournié — founded in Paris in 2009 and one of the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation — invites you to discover the First Vamps haute couture collection and its unforgettable femmes fatales.

Unveiled at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, First Shield is Julien Fournié's stirring haute couture counterattack on convention — a call to resist fake trends with elegance and creativity, and a hymn to powerful femininity. A committed defender of feminine values — diplomacy over conquest, humour over aggression, seduction over submission — the couturier proposes that women are the truest shield protecting humanity from the excesses of aggression that threaten it with war and violence. He makes his case in the language he masters best: haute couture. Throughout the collection, the ornaments of military pageantry are joyfully subverted — officers' braid, epaulettes and fourragères reimagined in new colours, medals reborn as tassels, the stars of a general's kepi scattered across delicate evening gowns. Oversized, masculine dinner jackets are embroidered onto the most feminine silhouettes, their tails ready to be rolled up as their wearers stride on, clutch or pouch tucked under the arm. A 1930s-inspired dress with hidden pockets and a matching "boyish" jacket — pewter-toned, embroidered entirely in crystal pearls and gunmetal thread — captures a new, freer attitude: "the look of today's girls," in the designer's words. The seasonal palette moves through khaki, lagoon blue, pink gold, purple and red alongside signature black, treated in luminous gradients or the near-disco shimmer of lurex and echoed by gleaming parasols. Casting mixed-race, Asian and European models, Julien Fournié makes diversity and universality integral to the collection's message. Resilient, radiant and impeccably crafted, First Shield stands as armour of light — the work of one of the very few houses in the world to hold the protected Haute Couture label. Discover the First Shield haute couture collection and the visionary artistry of Julien Fournié in Paris.

Radiant and free-spirited, First Sunshine is Julien Fournié's luminous ode to summer — a resolutely festive haute couture collection and an opulent manifesto for optimism, sensuality and craftsmanship. Conceived as a modern fairy tale, it gathers twenty-five silhouettes that pay tribute to women liberated from constraint, designed to magnify their nature and celebrate the simple joy of dancing in the open air. New cuts enter the couturier's repertoire: petticoats kept short at the front revisit the eighteenth-century spirit in a lighter, freer construction, paired with long asymmetrical tops in fluid silk jersey and supple jackets in the same soft fibre. Drapes and pleats follow the curves of the body and never oppress it, while a sparkling white tuxedo lit with golden highlights lends equal strength to women and men alike. Delicate, breathable fabrics and a precisely chosen palette answer a longing for freshness, and each look is engineered as a wearable sculpture — corsetry dissolving into translucent structure, skirts floating on micro-engineered volume, jackets shimmering with celestial symmetry. Luxury craftsmanship is everywhere: hand-beaded constellations, laser-cut leather and couture-grade featherwork, every piece the fruit of hundreds of atelier hours. The collection also introduced the Mercure baguette bag, inspired by the 1940s messenger, alongside couture accessories destined to become House classics. The bride closes the tale in triple silk organza, embroidered and veil-less, preserving her feminine magic through the finest needlework. In an era of algorithmic trends, First Sunshine reasserts couture's divine right to dream. Founded in Paris in 2009 and counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Sunshine haute couture collection — and to find your legend.

With First Creatures, Maison Julien Fournié makes a triumphant return to the Paris runway after two seasons of digital presentations — a haute couture collection drawn entirely from the open sea. The couturier makes the manta ray, once known as the "sea devil," the emblem of the season: its futuristic yet organic silhouette is inlaid in silk organza and tulle, traces the small of the back on a sheath, and hems the edge of a jacket. Around it gathers a whole people of half-woman, half-alien creatures — mesmerising jellyfish, abyssal mermaids — who dissolve virtual legend into a resolutely real, graphic line. The palette first sings in blacks and midnight blue, woven through with metallic threads; relief silk jersey moulds the body like a second skin, calendered organza exalts the iridescence of underwater light, and transparent scales adorn a nude tulle. The atelier's exceptional savoir-faire unfolds in a collaboration with glass artist Adrian Colin, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France, whose blown glass gives life to the spectacular tiara and harness of the "Dark Mermaid." Beneath these anatomical silhouettes, Julien Fournié reminds us that cut, refinement and beauty can transfigure our vulnerabilities into strength: in a world starved of hope, his creatures never yield to pessimism, standing tall with a redemptive authority. Sensual, graphic and impeccably constructed, First Creatures marks the reunion of haute couture with the runway and with shared emotion. Counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Creatures haute couture collection in Paris.

First Storm is Julien Fournié's enchanted escape — a haute couture collection conceived as a contemporary fairy tale, staged in the eye of the world's storm. "In the post-MeToo, post-Black Lives Matter era, in the midst of a global health crisis, I consider it my duty as a couturier to conjure an enchanted vision, full of magic and imagination," the designer declares. Directing his own presentation, he crafts a dreamlike, glamorous film that follows three young women — the Ingenue, the Gem and the Chaser — from one magical realm to another alternate reality. The palette takes on the colours of the tempest: silvery greys, deep blues and saturated purples, shot through with flashes of light. Each silhouette plays with colour, embellishment and layering to move with fluid grace — like the reflective floor-length trench that catches the lights of the opening world. True to his signature, the couturier elongates the body's proportions through an essentialised cut: architectural sleeves, a keenly sculpted bust, movement in chiffon dresses and tulle petticoats, bodies stretched by expert needlework — inlays of semi-sheer materials, feathers, embroidery everywhere. Glamour and sensuality run through a collection that turns uncertainty into wonder and offers, for the length of a film, a suspended escape from reality. Counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Storm Haute Couture collection and its contemporary enchantment, in Paris.

First Manifesto is not a haute couture collection like any other: it is a manifesto. In a season without a runway show, Julien Fournié chooses to open the doors of his House to reveal what haute couture truly means — the ultimate level of luxury, in both design and craftsmanship, at a time when the designation is too often misused. The couturier stages the very process of haute couture: the one-on-one encounter with each client, the singular dialogue from which a unique piece is born, worked by hand for a single body and a single story. Far from spectacle, the film becomes a demonstration of values — the primacy of the made-to-measure, the transmission of atelier gestures, the uncompromising standard that sets couture apart from any other garment. Every stage, from first sketch to fitting, reminds us that behind the apparent ease of a gown lies a rare savoir-faire, patiently accumulated over years. By showing the intimacy of his craft rather than a procession of silhouettes, Julien Fournié reaffirms his conviction: "You don't come to buy a dress, you come to find your own style." Pared back, sincere and deeply faithful to the spirit of the Parisian house, First Manifesto is a profession of faith addressed to lovers of the exceptional. Founded in 2009 and counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Manifesto haute couture collection and the very essence of its art, in Paris.

First Conquests is Julien Fournié's ode to women explorers — those conquerors of freedom who traced their own path against the current. The couturier imagines a wardrobe made for travel, from crossing the wilds to the gilded splendour of a ballroom. "Haute couture and women explorers share a taste for challenging experiences, pragmatism and encounters," he confides; "the search for freedom is our common ground for imagining the world off the beaten track." Whether discovering the pre-Columbian civilisations of South America, the tribes of Africa or the Berber and Tuareg arts of the Sahara, these women gave up nothing: they neither rejected the society they came from nor turned away from the new worlds they explored. Far from the masculine values of predation — colonising, evangelising — their conquests championed discovery, the acceptance of difference and mutual aid, sometimes at the cost of their lives. That philosophy is translated into noble materials and exceptional embroidery — such as Aztec-inspired silk motifs worked in glass tubes upon silk — and into silhouettes conceived as much for movement as for grandeur. Adventurous, open to the world and impeccably constructed, First Conquests celebrates a nomadic elegance and an emancipated femininity. Counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Conquests haute couture collection in Paris.

With First Spell, Julien Fournié celebrates witches as pioneers of feminine emancipation, transforming a sacred Parisian setting into the stage for a spellbinding haute couture show. "I have always found witches stimulating," the couturier confides: "they knew how to control their own destiny." At a time when certain freedoms were once again under threat, he casts these figures as trailblazers who made the patriarchy tremble, insisting that a woman can be beautiful at any age. True to his belief that every woman should love and celebrate her curves, he sends out models of all ages and body shapes in sculpted corsets, hip-hugging skirts and vertiginous heels — a sovereign allure, at once sensual and free. "Haute couture and magic share a taste for accumulated experience and tricks of the trade," he notes, drawing the analogy between the spell and the work of the atelier: embroidery, masterful draping and precious materials stand in for incantations, each piece the fruit of a jealously guarded secret. As much manifesto as spectacle, First Spell turns haute couture into a language of emancipation, where shadow converses with light and mystery nourishes elegance. Counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Spell haute couture collection and its bewitching silhouettes, in Paris.

First Bliss is Julien Fournié's most elemental haute couture collection, born of the lunar landscapes of Lanzarote — a volcanic island set in the mid-Atlantic, at the junction of three tectonic plates and three continents. Between desert and tropics, sirocco and trade winds, prodigious algae and lichens of lava, the couturier embraces the radical choices of a nature now protected as a biosphere reserve. The mineral world forms the contrasting foundation of the palette — dark castings of basalt, bright fine sands carried from the Sahara by the wind — heightened by a cactus green, a bougainvillea pink and the saturated blue of a sky mirrored in the natural pool of an open cave. Following in the footsteps of artist-architect César Manrique, who celebrated harmony between creation and ecosystem, Julien Fournié delivers a collection composed exclusively of natural fibres. By weaving together telluric energy, summer atmosphere and casual elegance, First Bliss traces a wardrobe conducive to well-being, toning and invigorating the summer of 2019 with self-respect and genuine care for the living world. Fluid drapes, sincere materials and free cuts follow the body without ever constraining it, carried by solar light and a serene sensuality. Elemental, luminous and quietly committed, this collection affirms that exceptional luxury can converse with the rawest of nature. Founded in Paris in 2009 and counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Bliss Haute Couture collection in Paris.

First Crime is Julien Fournié's haute couture thriller: thirty-three silhouettes of strictly refined elegance, staged beneath the vaults of the seventeenth-century Temple de l'Oratoire du Louvre in Paris. In search of a style that lets women best express their emotions, the couturier draws on the muses of the masters of suspense — Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Verhoeven — and summons the femmes fatales of film noir, heirs to Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak. To a haunting remix of Heart of Glass, a silhouette emerges against a blood-red backdrop in a gown of black feathers: the first of a long line of temptresses. How would a profiler read this "serial killer" whose aesthetic never misses? He would note the sculpting drapes, the masterful cut-outs, the busts fitted as if with a scalpel, the sleeves that shape the arms, the cinched waists and the vertiginous asymmetries born of inlays and bias draping. The palette moves through ruby, teal and sumptuous tawny tones, in a pure vocabulary of mohair, silk cloth and chiffon that tolerates no complacency. Every piece pays tribute to the discreet work of the hand: thread embroidery devouring sequins, veiled shimmer, jacquards born of collaborations with the finest weavers. Suspense, glamour and atelier virtuosity: First Crime turns haute couture into an art of mystery. Counted among the very few houses in the world to hold the official Haute Couture designation, protected by the French Ministry of Industry, Maison Julien Fournié invites you to discover the First Crime Haute Couture collection in Paris.