Paris Haute Couture Week: How Asian couturiers have made their mark

Paris Haute Couture Week took place from January 27 to January 30, 2025, signalling yet another celebration of the highest form of fashion artistry and craftsmanship. Vetted by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode according to strict criteria, a total of 28 couturiers took over the City of Lights with their spring-summer 2025 collections.

Couture week may still be dominated by historic fashion houses and emerging talents of European origins, however, a wave of Asian couturiers are leaving their mark on the scene. While London-based Miss Sohee weaves in odes to traditional South Korean know-how, Japan’s budding Yuima Nakazato is at the forefront of digital design applications in the couture world. India’s fashion veterans Gaurav Gupta and Rahul Mishra did not miss with their emotive storytelling and calls for collective action, respectively.

Learn more about how these four Asian couturiers made Paris Haute Couture Week their own.

Also read: Grammy Awards 2025: 10 best-dressed Asian stars and celebs of Asian heritage

Miss Sohee’s nouveau tradition

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It’s hard to believe that this is the first time Sohee Park’s eponymous label has landed a spot on the official Paris Haute Couture Week schedule. For the past few seasons, the rising London-based couturier has garnered a cult following for her opulent gowns marked by cascades of taffeta, organza and tulle sprinkled with calls to her South Korean heritage.

This spring-summer 2025 season, Park adds to her repertoire of hanbok-inspired draped skirts and traditional silk embroidery with najeonchilgi—a technique with roots in Korean folk art that sees gowns masterfully in-laid with mother-of-pearl. The couturier ensured this ode to home did not fall on deaf ears, infusing the rest of the collection with loud-and-proud pearl and shell motifs from pearlescent breastplates to scalloped hemlines. Park’s pearl of wisdom is clear: Don’t forget your roots.

Gaurav Gupta’s story of resilience

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Last season, loyalists were saddened to hear that Gaurav Gupta had suddenly pulled out of his scheduled show after an acclaimed haute couture debut in spring-summer 2024. Turns out, his Delhi atelier had been burnt to ashes by a devastating fire. In the midst, the couturier's life partner and poet Navkirat Sodhi was left to heal from serious injuries. Titled Across the Flame, Gupta’s spring 2025 collection was the duo’s empowering re-write of what was once a tragedy.

Opened by Sodhi who commanded the room with a self-authored spoken word piece, she bravely bared her discoloured skin under a corseted bodysuit enveloped with sheer tulle. Gowns followed with sculptural wire-hemmed and draped silhouettes that emulated the flickers of flames. Interspersed were looks defined by the heavy contrasts between black velvet with glittering embellishments and metallics to signal light interrupting darkness. Beyond otherworldly couture designs, Gupta is proof that authentic and emotional storytelling triumphs gimmicky theatrics any day.

Rahul Mishra’s warning call

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It’s no secret that Rahul Mishra is the existential type. In the past, his avant-garde creations have taken metaphysical inspirations from the human aura as well as championed biodiversity through embellished depictions of what many would consider everyday nuisances such as fireflies, geckos and moths. For his spring-summer 2025 couture collection, Mishra dove deep into a thought that many are scared of: our dystopian future.

At the start, all-black gowns, bodysuits and two-piece sets with monochrome sequins set a simultaneously ominous and reflective tone. Plays with circular mirror pendants later functioned as more blatant warning calls about our uncertain future. One look styled these decorative elements with an embroidered headpiece that reads “Objects in the mirror appear closer than they appear”. Mishra, however, did not raise an alarm without offering a potential solution. Towards the end of the show, a burst of sculptural golden looks featured the Tree of Life—a symbol of balance and harmony with all living things in Indian culture. Once again, Mishra showcases the power of couture to not only embody artistry and craftsmanship but also convey more harrowing messages about the world at large.

Yuima Nakazato’s technological prowess

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Backdropped by a mound of sand, Yuima Nakazato’s spring-summer 2025 show took inspiration from a trip he made to the Sahara el Beyda in Egypt. According to the rising Japanese couturier, this vast desert landscape caused him to drift into faraway memories. On the runway, this personal experience was reflected in a series of Dune-ready ensembles defined by fluid tailoring sparingly dyed with a cobalt and sandstone orange acid wash. However, don’t let this intentionally weathered aesthetic fool you.

A closer look at the collection’s series of crocheted tunics and robes reveals innovative constructions. Turns out, many of these pieces took Nakazato’s team around 500 hours to complete. It’s not made using run-of-the-mill yarns either. Pairing Spiber Incs.’ proprietary Brewed Protein fibres with glazed ceramic elements, the materials were crocheted according to patterns informed by digital printing and AI photo processing technologies. It’s no wonder that Nazakato reflected on this as his so-called “gift to the future”.

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