The 35 Best Looks From Haute Couture Week

Haute Couture Week is wild. The very select set of designers who show during this week in Paris have a strong, precise vision, with every single element painstakingly hand-picked to convey that. Those taking in the looks from afar are not scrolling through for the mere utility of shopping for the next season; they're looking for inspiration, to dream bigger and to think about fashion without a commercial, functional lens. The week serves as a brief reminder that fashion can be just for fun.

This season, the week’s designers stayed true to their brand identities: Chanel with its signature tweed, Iris Van Herpen with their mystical butterfly shapes, and Givenchy with Waight Keller’s sleek architectural pieces. That’s another appeal of Couture Week: designers have the lightness of just designing for themselves relative to the pressures of their ready-to-wear collections. We found our new daily affirmations à la Viktor and Rolf, and shed a tear (virtually, we mean, with Celine Dion) while looking through Valentino’s romantic collection celebrating femininity.

Click through for the 35 looks that we’re mentally bookmarking forever.