On the first day of Paris Haute Couture SS26, Georges Hobeika unveiled his evocative new collection.
Georges Hobeika's Spring/Summer 2026 couture collection was presented in Paris, continuing a period of consolidation for the fashion house following its 30-year milestone last year. Called L’Amour, the collection reinforced long-standing priorities: embroidery excellence, fluid construction, and glamour, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento
Georges Hobeika's shimmering gowns
amid the glory of the 19th century
American Cathedral in Paris.
BENEATH the soaring vaults and stained-glass windows of the Gothic Revival American Cathedral in Paris, Georges Hobeika launched
his Spring/Summer 2026 collection.
The show reflected the evolution of a couture house that has spent three decades refining its technical language. Founded in Beirut in 1995, Georges Hobeika built a reputation for intricate hand embroidery and sculptural draping before entering the Paris couture calendar in 2001. That dual foundation, Lebanese craftsmanship and Parisian couture discipline, remains central to the fashion house’s identity and was visible in this collection.
This season the silhouettes were elongated and precise, favouring column gowns, sculpted bodices, and draping. Structure was achieved through cut and construction with others using clever internal architecture, allowing garments to move on the body. Strapless gowns, asymmetrical necklines, and subtly contoured shapes recurred throughout the collection, establishing a cohesive visual rhythm rather than a series of statement looks.
Founded in Beirut in 1995, Georges Hobeika built a reputation for intricate hand embroidery and sculptural draping before entering the Paris couture calendar in 2001
Delicate, translucent embroidery
was a highlight of the collection.
Embroidery, Georges Hobeika's defining signature, was handled with restraint and delicacy. The designer has long insisted on developing embroidery motifs in-house, and this season emphasized a gossamer finesse.
Hand-worked patterns, crystal applications, and metallic thread embroidery were used to articulate seams and frame the body, ensuring that craftsmanship enhanced the shape rather than obscuring it. In an era when many couture collections rely on outsourced embellishment, this insistence on internal expertise remains a distinguishing feature of the label.
The colour palette was deliberately narrow. Whites, nude tones, pale blush, and soft metallics dominated, with darker shades introduced selectively to anchor the collection. This controlled use of colour placed emphasis on texture, surface work, and construction, elements that have consistently defined Georges Hobeika's Paris presentations since the label became a Guest Member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 2017.
Georges’ focus on embroidery and classic couture proportion is balanced by Jad’s preference for cleaner lines and a more contemporary approach to ornamentation
Father and son design duo, Jad and Georges Hobeika
are now co-creative directors officially since 2022.
The creative partnership between Georges Hobeika and his son and co-creative director Jad Hobeika, began when he first joined the company in 2019, and continues to shape its direction.
Georges’ focus on embroidery and classic couture proportion is balanced by Jad’s preference for cleaner lines and a more contemporary approach to ornamentation. The result is a collection that felt measured and assured, rather than transitional.
L’Amour, did not attempt to redefine the Hobeika aesthetic. Instead, it reinforced a couture vocabulary built over three decades, one grounded in technical discipline, embroidery mastery, and continuity. This collection of exquisite gowns showed the designers' commitment to refinement rather than reinvention, demonstrating that authority in couture is sustained through consistently high-quality work which will now be continued with the next generation.
Scroll down to see more highlights from the Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection in Paris
Valentino Garavani belonged to the generation of virtuoso Italian designers, along with Giorgio Armani, who changed fashion on the global stage. Pictured here at his New York penthouse, he owned luxurious homes including a French chateau near Paris, a mansion in London's Holland Park, a villa in Rome and a chalet in Gstaad, Photograph: Talaya Centeno/Penske
By Naomi Braithwaite
On the advent of the seasonal haute couture catwalk shows in Paris next week, the fashion industry mourns the loss of another iconic designer. Valentino Garavani was the creator of the House of Valentino and renowned as one of Italy’s greatest couturiers.
Valentino after his Autumn/Winter 1995-96
Ready-to-Wear show in Paris with models
Claudia Schiffer, Helena Christensen,
Kristen McMenamy, Carla Bruni,
Karen Mulder, Nadja Auermann,
March 20, 1995.
For Valentino, fashion was about creating beautiful dresses. He was famously quoted as saying: “I know what women want. They want to be beautiful.”
However, his notions of “ideal beauty” were met with some controversy through his career, in particular his defence of skinny models on the runway in 2007.
After a childhood in Italy surrounded by and inspired by fashion, a young Valentino moved to Paris in 1950 to study at the prestigious École des Beaux Arts
and Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
It was during this time that he apprenticed with couturiers, including Balenciaga and Guy Laroche. Haute couture, defined as “high dressmaking”, is distinct from ready-to-wear fashion. The couturier is a designer who uses bespoke techniques and makes one-off garments for individual customers. Couture garments are made by hand with specialised techniques and luxurious materials.
In 1959, following the founding of his design studio in Rome, Valentino designed his first ready-to-wear collection. This collection included strapless mid-length dresses in block colours and showcased what was to become known as the eponymous Valentino style. This was fashion that embodied elegance and sophistication with meticulous attention paid to accentuating the female silhouette through the use of sumptuous materials.
Valentino Garavani (left) with Giancarlo Giammetti,
his life and business partner, pictured in 1968.
Photograph: Slim Aarons/Getty Images.
In 1960, Valentino opened the luxury fashion house, Valentino, with the support of his business and life partner Giancarlo Giammetti. It was his first couture show in 1962 at The Pitti Palace in Florence that was to launch Valentino onto the global fashion stage.
Critics were astounded by his exquisite tailored dresses in sumptuous materials, including a parade of red dresses that were to become his signature look. The looks on show exuded elegance and showcased Valentino’s ability to inject a modern stance on classic styling.
The success of Valentino’s 1962 show was reinforced soon after when, French Vogue dedicated their front cover to an Italian designer for the first time. From then on Valentino became the designer to the stars, creating iconic looks for celebrities from Jackie Kennedy, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn to Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett. Kennedy chose a Valentino gown to marry her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, in 1968.
Valentino with his muse and friend Sophia Loren,
at the gala opening of the exhibition in New York,
"Valentino: Thirty Years of Magic," held at the
Park Avenue Armory on September 22nd, 1992.
In 1973, Valentino became the first Italian designer to be welcomed into the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (the Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion). This was unusual for an organisation which privileged couture as part of France’s heritage.
Membership is restricted to those who demonstrate outstanding craftsmanship and creativity. The federation’s recognition of Valentino’s contribution to haute couture was a testament to the techniques that he gained in Paris as a student and apprentice of couture fashion.
Valentino became the first Italian to present haute couture on Paris runways. Undoubtedly, his success in Paris paved the way for Italy’s other legendary designers, Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace, to show at haute couture week.
Over the years the Valentino brand has expanded to include menswear and accessories. In 1998, the label was sold to an Italian holding company for an estimated US$300 million (£223 million), with Valentino continuing as designer until his retirement in 2008.
Valentino will probably be most renowned for his iconic red dresses. Red was first featured in Valentino’s 1959 collection with the La Fiesta dress. The colour became a signature style throughout his career.
“Rosso Valentino” received a registered trademark in 1985 and has its own pantone made from a formula that blends 100% magenta, with 100% yellow and 10% black. When Valentino retired in 2008, his last catwalk show was held at the Musee Rodin in Paris, and for the finale the models all wore dresses in his signature red.
Today Valentino is under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele who, following news of the death of Valentino, reflected on him as “an almost mythical figure”.
Valentino Red on display at the designer's
last couture show for Spring 2008 in Paris.
Photograph: Karl Prouse/Catwalking
The death of Valentino follows a few months after the loss of Giorgio Armani. Valentino and Armani were both creative visionaries who placed Italian fashion on the global stage.
Their fashion houses were built through their hard graft and creative genius and they will be remembered simultaneously as a leading generation of designers from a time before fashion was significantly commercialised and run by conglomerates.
The Italian fashion industry has certainly taken a huge hit with the loss of two of its most legendary designers. However, both Valentino and Armani have left an undeniable mark on fashion, that will continue to define Italy’s dominance in the global fashion industry.
Reflecting on a life in fashion, Valentino’s approach to silhouette, fabric and his distinctive signature red colour, reveals a designer who leaves a huge mark on fashion globally too. To look back at his work is to see that he undoubtedly fulfilled his wish to make women beautiful.
Naomi Braithwaite, Associate Professor in Fashion and Material Culture, Nottingham Trent University
