Echoes of Elegance: Fashion Week Rewinds Time
Fashion Week is in full swing and the runway has become a stage where centuries collide. This season, designers are looking backward as much as forward, reviving silhouettes, details and drama from eras past. From Rococo grandeur to Victorian modesty and Regency elegance, history is stepping out of the stately home and into couture.
Saint Laurent: Rococo Magnified
At Saint Laurent, history was turned into spectacle. The eveningwear collection leaned heavily into 18th-century Rococo extravagance: billowing skirts, immense ruffled collars, and lustrous fabrics were reminiscent of aristocratic portraits. The gowns shimmered with theatrical grandeur, recalling the lavish embellishments and sumptuous fabrics of Europe’s royal courts
Where the Rococo flirted with whimsy, these gowns reveled in drama. Ruffles, ruching, cinched waists and deep necklines framed by statement jewelry transformed the runway into a stage of aristocratic fantasy.
The effect was less about historical fidelity and more about capturing the spirit of rococo grandeur: an amplification of past excesses for today’s audience.
Louis Vuitton: Corsetry Meets Fluidity
Louis Vuitton’s runway offered a softer but equally historical meditation. The designs fused late Renaissance and Baroque corsetry with the airy grace of Regency gowns. Structured, paneled bodices with visible seaming nodded to the rigid stays of the 16th–18th centuries, while sheer layering and voluminous sleeves evoked the opulence of 17th-century court dress. The skirts, meanwhile, swirled with Regency-inspired lightness, floating compared to their heavier historical predecessors.
This collection was history rewritten: corsetry without constraint, formality softened by movement, and silhouettes distilled into something fluid and wearable.
Erdem: A Courtly Vision
Erdem’s collection paid homage to Hélène Smith, the 19th-century French psychic and artist who famously believed she was connected to Marie Antoinette’s court. The influence of Rococo fashion is unmistakable: stiff, angular skirts recalling the panier structure and delicate slippers adorned with bows and ribbons take us right back to 18th century Versailles.
Balanced against these French touches, Erdem layered in echoes of Britain’s own sartorial past. High collars blended Elizabethan ruffs with Victorian lace, bridging centuries of fashion history in a single look. The result was a collection that felt both otherworldly and deeply rooted in tradition.
Simone Rocha: Regency Reveries Reimagined
For her part, Simone Rocha staged a collection that balanced romance with unease. Crinolines, hooped skirts, panniers, and bustles formed the backbone of the silhouettes, their sweeping arches rendered in stately organza, sateen georgette, scalloped taffeta, silver sequins, and delicate floral appliqués.
Threaded through the collection were clear Regency influences. Straight, fluid silhouettes and a pastel colour palette evoked the quiet elegance of early 19th-century dress. Short, puffed sleeves, one of the era’s most characteristic fashion trends, reappeared here, paired with luminous pearls, staple accessories of the Regency in both wealthy and middle-class circles.
By weaving these historical references into her own poetic language, Rocha created a collection that feels both dreamlike and slightly dissonant: a dialogue between fragility and strength, past and present.
