Paris Haute Couture: The Romance of Resilience, Zuhair Murad’s Ode to Beauty Beyond Uncertainty

A darkly, diaphanous silk gown looked suitably dramatic beneath the soaring arches of Paris' Collège des Bernardin, during the Zuhair Murad AW26/27 couture show. Cover and photograph (above) by Rahul Rekapalli for DAM

Zuhair Murad's new Paris Haute Couture collection was presented at the historic Collège des Bernardins. Called Love and Dominion, the designer’s signature language of embroidery, dramatic silhouettes and romantic glamour introduced a darker, more contemplative mood. With Jennifer Lopez making her first front-row appearance at the designer's Autumn/Winter 2026-2027 show, the latest work reflected the continued global influence of a Lebanese couture house based between Beirut and Paris. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Rahul Rekapalli

Jennifer Lopez sits in the front row

of her first Zuhair Murad show. 

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

ANCIENT, creamy limstone, filtered light and centuries of history set the stage as guests arrived at the Collège des Bernardins for Zuhair Murad's Autumn/Winter 2026–2027 Haute Couture show. 

Passing through the courtyard and into the vast 13th-century Cistercian college hall, the noise of contemporary Paris disappeared and gave way to the solemnity and quiet grandeur of soaring Gothic architecture. 

Towering columns stretch towards vaulted ceilings, their weathered surfaces carrying the weight of almost eight centuries, while the long medieval nave created a dramatic perspective for the runway.

Founded in 1248 as a residence for Cistercian monks studying at the University of Paris, the Collège des Bernardins remains one of Paris’s most remarkable historic buildings. 

Within this evocative place, Zuhair Murad unveiled Love and Dominion, a collection that explored his themes of resilience through romance, examining the relationship between vulnerability and strength. The contrast between the building’s austere architecture and the richness of couture created a vivid juxtaposition. The collection gained further resonance from Murad’s position as a Lebanese designer working between Beirut and Paris during a period of profound regional uncertainty.

Without becoming a political statement, the themes of protection, perseverance and hope carried an authenticity beyond the runway. The darkness and illumination felt less like a fictional narrative and more like a reflection of the determination required to sustain a couture maison across two cities and cultures.

The collection gained further resonance from Murad’s position as a Lebanese designer working between Beirut and Paris during a period of profound regional uncertainty

Exquisite embroidery, crystals

as well as feathers enhanced\

sartorial romance and drama.

As white smoke drifted through the colonnades at the beginning of the Paris show, the first models emerged in luminous ivory, wrapped in crystal embroidery and dramatic featherwork. The opening images established the emotional language of the collection described in the designer's show notes: a woman moving with composure, carrying both fragility and authority. 

The designer described his muse for this season as a heroine who refuses to surrender in a fractured world, powerful and self-possessed. Rather than presenting this idea through overt theatricality, Murad translated it into couture through silhouette, texture and meticulous craftsmanship. 

Embroidery continued to be the defining language of the maison. Crystal-encrusted rose brambles climbed across fitted jackets and gowns, their sculptural forms appearing almost frozen in time. 

Birds, butterflies and floral motifs emerged through dimensional appliqué and relief embroidery, transforming embellishment into narrative. The craftsmanship was particularly effective in its layering, allowing light to move across surfaces and revealing new details with every step.

The collection’s strongest moments came through the balance between structure and movement. Velvet, duchesse satin, crepe and radzimir brought architectural presence, balanced by chiffon and tulle that introduced fluidity and softness. Featherwork appeared as collars, stoles and delicate accents, adding movement without overwhelming the garments. Murad demonstrated a careful control of proportion, ensuring that the richness of the materials remained balanced by elegance.

The contrast between the Collège des Bernardins austere architecture and the richness of Zuhair Murad's haute couture created a vivid juxtaposition.

The colour palette moved from

pearly blushe tones to dramatic 

black, forest green and bugrundy.

The colour palette reinforced the emotional landscape of the collection. Deep black, forest green, wine and burgundy dominated, occasionally interrupted by ivory, pearl and pale blush tones that appeared like winter light emerging from darkness. The effect was atmospheric rather than sombre, suggesting transformation and endurance.

The collection reflected Murad’s established couture vocabulary: sweeping capes, corseted evening gowns and heavily embellished silhouettes that have long defined his work. They were executed with extraordinary precision, but the collection refined his existing language. For the clients and collectors who have made Murad a leading name in couture eveningwear, this consistency remains part of the appeal. 

That enduring connection between his designs and the women who wear them was reflected in the front row, where Jennifer Lopez attended a Zuhair Murad couture show for the first time after years of wearing his creations. From red carpets to global performances, Lopez has become one of the most recognisable ambassadors of the designer’s work. Her appearance in Paris, wearing an ivory crystal-embroidered jacket with an oversized black bow, paired with a fully beaded fringe skirt from Murad’s Spring 2025 Couture collection.

At the Collège des Bernardins, surrounded by centuries of history, Zuhair Murad launched a collection that reaffirmed the enduring strengths of his Maison. He did not attempt to reinvent his couture vocabulary but instead refined it through his ateliers' discipline and craftsmanship. Murad remains committed to the foundations that have defined his career: exceptional embroidery, dramatic silhouettes and an understanding of couture as a powerful expression of identity. 

See more highlights from the Zuhair Murad Haute Couture AW26/27 collection in Paris

Paris Haute Couture: Ronald van der Kemp's Art of Reinvention in an Age of Excess

A highlight of RVDK's Paris AW26/27 haute couture show was this sleek jacket beautifully tailored and created from woven silk and metallic lurex, worn with a bejewelled belt. Cover picture and photograph (above) by Brittany Scott for DAM

At a time when fashion is being forced to confront its own excesses, Ronald van der Kemp continues to chart a singular course through the world of haute couture. Unbound by convention yet respectful of fine craftsmanship, the Dutch designer transforms forgotten luxury materials into creations that blur the boundaries between fashion, art and innovation. Presented during Paris Haute Couture Week, his new Autumn/Winter 2026-2027 collection was a reminder that some of fashion's most exciting frontiers lie not in endless newness, but in the creative reinvention of what already exists. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Brittany Scott 

The look that opened the 

RVDK show in Paris.

RONALD Van der Kemp has built a couture house around a radically different definition of luxury since founding RVDK in 2014. For his new collection, Vive L'Art, those ideas are once more the foundation of work celebrating creativity, intuition and transformation. 

As the designer says in his show notes: "Make. Break. Transform." It is an approach that embraces experimentation, allowing materials to evolve through craftsmanship, imagination and discovery rather than convention.

Rather than embracing fashion's relentless cycle of production, he creates limited-edition pieces from existing resources, working with luxury surplus, rescued textiles, forgotten treasures and innovative techniques to give discarded materials an extraordinary second life.

The philosophy was brought vividly to life with his new designs that are created like wearable works of art. The opening coat immediately established the collection's direction with a dramatic, sinuous silhouette of curving panels in brilliant hues of red, blue and green made from fragments of exotic skins, antique jacquards and metallic brocades. Finished with handcrafted three-dimensional decorative elements, the richly textured design demonstrated how reclaimed luxury materials could be transformed into something entirely original.

In a fashion industry increasingly driven by speed and consumption, RVDK remains refreshingly committed to a slower, more thoughtful form of luxury

A vibrant blue wrap jacket 

 designed cleverly like a stole, 

shows the designer's skill. 

Tailoring is one of Van der Kemp's great strengths. An electric-blue wool bouclé wrap jacket had a striking avant-garde form, like a stole, and was combined with jeans and a crêpe de chine top (see at right). Another sharply tailored black satin jacket featured velvet lapels and an asymmetric peplum combined with a silk organza pencil skirt overlaid with lace, balancing sculptural precision with delicacy.

An engaging mini dress was created from tweed and left with deliberately raw edges that flowed into a dramatic silk taffeta-lined train. A floral lace gown concealed colourful lining fragments beneath its surface, while sculptural details and a floriate corsage added unexpected depth and dimension. 

Softer moments arrived, where blush plissé drapery cascaded from sculptural shoulders in a blouse before meeting a fluid silver pleated skirt, offering an elegant counterpoint to the collection's more architectural looks.

Elsewhere, Van der Kemp continued to dissolve the boundaries between couture, art and innovation. A beautifully tailored jacket woven in silk and metallic lurex with an elegant peplum shape, complete by a jewelled belt and silver lambskin trousers (see main image). Futuristic glamour was encapsulated with a broad-shouldered jacket with appliqués over a black mini skirt while other designs had oversized silhouettes, mohair, exaggerated hardware and unexpected decoration, elevating the designs into conceptual fashion statements. 

Ronald van der Kemp shows how couture's greatest power lies not only in creating beautiful clothes, but in transforming forgotten materials, preserving cultural memory and challenging our perceptions

The hand-embroidered textile

originally created for a 

Josephine Baker costume.

One of the collection's most poignant moments came with a look created with a hand-embroidered textile originally created for a costume intended for Josephine Baker's cancelled 1968 revue at the Olympia in Paris, designed by André Levasseur, Christian Dior's former assistant and Baker's longtime costume designer (see at left).

Conserved for decades before finding its way to RVDK, the historic embroidery was finally realised as couture, a tribute to Baker's enduring legacy as an artist, humanitarian and resistance hero. It embodies Van der Kemp's belief that fashion can conserve history while simultaneously creating something entirely new.

Art has always been central to Ronald Van der Kemp's work, and this collection expanded that vision beyond clothing. Jewellery, brooches, hair pieces, moving sculptures and wearable artworks, all fashioned from recycled materials, overstock components and found objects, became integral parts of the narrative. Rather than accessories, they reinforced the idea that couture can exist as a complete artistic expression, where every object contributes to the story.

This collection demonstrated that sustainability need not come at the expense of glamour or imagination. Instead, Van der Kemp proposes a future where responsibility enhances creativity, proving that innovation often begins with rediscovering what already exists.

In a fashion landscape increasingly driven by speed and consumption, RVDK remains refreshingly committed to a slower, more thoughtful form of luxury.  Ronald van der Kemp once again shows that haute couture's greatest power lies not simply in creating beautiful clothes, but in transforming forgotten materials, preserving cultural memory and challenging our perceptions.

    See the rest of the RVDK Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2026-2027 Collection in Paris

Review: Cartier, ‘the Jeweller of Kings’, has Come to the National Gallery of Victoria in a Dazzling New Exhibition

Cartier's legendary 'Tutti Frutti' necklace, a riot of carved emeralds, rubies and sapphires, that captured the French house's bold interwar imagination in 1936  and a new modern elegance. Cartier Collection. Photograph: Vincet Wulveryck. Cover picture of Hermes AW26 by Max Farago,

By Sasha Grishin

Harper's Bazaar editor and Parisian

socialite, Daisy Fellowes, wearing

the 'Tutti Frutti' Hindou necklace

in its original form, in 1937.

Photograph: Cecil Beaton

Founded in Paris 179 years ago, Cartier has fostered a legendary reputation as the creator of luxury goods for royalty, the aristocracy, film stars, and the generally wealthy. The English king Edward VII famously referred to Cartier as “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”.

The glittering magnificence of the Cartier style through the ages has been brought together in a major exhibition by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, now being presented at the National Gallery of Victoria.

An Instant Hit 

Curated over almost a decade by the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Helen Molesworth, the Cartier show opened in London last year for a seven-month season and promptly sold out.

With almost 350 items on display, it was celebrated by many as one of the best shows of 2025. However, one criticism was the exhibition was too cramped, and the inevitable small scale of most of the objects resulted in a crowd crush within darkened spaces.

King Edward VII famously referred to Cartier as “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”

Director of the Cartier Collection, 

Pascale Lepeu, at the new exhibition

Melbourne, at the NGV International.

The NGV iteration of the exhibition, with almost 400 items, presents a number of alterations to the checklist of exhibits, such as the inclusion of necklaces and bodice ornaments owned by Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba. Melba was an early client of the brand, with Pierre Cartier among her fans.

More significantly, the NGV has collaborated with internationally renowned designers to reimagine the exhibition, following in a tradition it has established for itself over several years.

The gallery has collaborated with Studio Sabine Marcelis and CLOUD, two multidisciplinary design practices based in Rotterdam, in The Netherlands.

Marcelis evokes the Cartier colour palette in her design, while CLOUD has built on the Cartier geometric forms to create light-filled architectural structures that are involved in a creative dialogue with the jewellery.

It was Alfred’s three sons who made Cartier into a powerhouse of fashion design, with offices in Paris, London, New York and St Petersburg

Alfred Cartier (second from right) with his three sons

Pierre, Louis and Jacques, 1922. Cartier Collection

Photograph: Vincent Wulveryck.

A Thumbnail Sketch of the Cartier Style

The thumbnail sketch of the development of the Cartier style is mandatory for understanding the exhibition. 

Louis-François Cartier founded the firm in Paris in 1847, and in 1874 passed it to his son Alfred. 

It was Alfred’s three sons – Louis, Pierre and Jacques – who internationalised the brand and made it into a powerhouse of fashion design, with offices in Paris, London, New York and St Petersburg.

Louis embraced orientalist Art Deco designs and colourful “Tutti Frutti” jewel combinations. 

He also pioneered wristwatch designs and exploited platinum as a structural base for elaborate diamond and gemstone settings in the jewellery.

Cartier continues to resonate with its audiences by tapping into ancient cultures and traditions, making them modern and relevant

Splendid Cartier Paris necklace from 1947.

Cartier Collection. Photograph: Nils Hermann.

Pierre extended operations to New York, while Jacques developed operations in New Bond Street in London.

It is difficult to define the Cartier design, yet relatively simple to recognise it when you encounter it.

Writing in the NGV Cartier catalogue, Vivienne Becker, a prolific London-based jewellery historian, arrives at a convincing characterisation. She writes that the style:

is underpinned by culture, by an ever-evolving quest to infuse jewellery design with originality, artistic integrity and cultural richness.

As one makes their way around the exhibition, there is constant encounter with styles from the past – including Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Iranian and Islamic elements – informing the use of diamonds and other precious materials. 

The tiaras have been worn by celebrities, from Clementine Churchill at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to the singer Rihanna

A scintillating tiara, made by Cartier 

Londonin 1937. Cartier Collection.

Photograph: Vincent Wulveryck

A Who's-Who List of Clients

Cartier also has its repertoire of signature motifs, such as the iconic Panthère, which may appear as a panther clip brooch, or snakes and crocodiles that can take the forms of necklaces and bracelets.

As jewellers and watchmakers, Cartier was known as the “watchmaker of shapes” – exploiting squares, rectangles and octagons, rather than the traditional circle.

While celebrating a supreme elegance, most of the items on display have the power to surprise, such as a spectacular scarab brooch, or a 1933 brooch with a giant floating amethyst set against sapphires, diamonds and platinum.

A highlight of the exhibition is the display of more than 20 stunning tiaras. These are symbols of royalty and glamour, with connotations of celestial halos, laurel wreaths and garlands.

These tiaras have been worn by a who’s who of celebrities. For instance, one scroll tiara (1902) was worn by Clementine Churchill at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and again in 2016 by the singer Rihanna, on the cover of W magazine.

Household names who have worn the Cartier jewellery in this exhibition include Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Dame Nellie Melba

Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor,

in Cartier jewels, 1939. Conde Nast

Photograph: Cecil Beaton Archive

There is also the Sun tiara of 1907, with a 32-carat cognac-yellow diamond at its core, and the Art Deco diamond and platinum Halo tiara of 1934, which was inspired by ancient Egypt and owned by Begum Aga Khan III.

Household names who have worn the Cartier jewellery present in this exhibition include Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Rihanna, Princess Margaret, The Duchess of Windsor, Dame Nellie Melba, the Maharaja of Patiala, Begum Aga Khan III and American heiress Barbara Hutton. These will prove a selfie magnet for many visitors.

While this is not the first major Cartier exhibition in Australia (there was a big show in Canberra in 2018), it is the largest, containing almost 300 items never previously seen in Australia. It is also the most innovative in its display.

Cartier continues to resonate with its audiences by going beyond mere displays of ostentatious wealth; it taps into ancient cultures and traditions, making them modern and relevant to contemporary audiences.

Cartier is showing at the National Gallery of Victoria until October 4th 2026.