Pierpaolo Piccioli’s third ready-to-wear show for Balenciaga started with a sculpture. “Les Coraux de la Liberté,” staged Thursday (Oct. 1) at Paris Fashion Week, is named for a curling coral installation by textile artist Aude Franjou that rose almost to the ceiling in the middle of a white-walled room. Dazed says Franjou was last year invited to scale the inside of the July Column at the Place de la Bastille, and Piccioli has now built a collection around that work.
The coral is the metaphor, and couture is the method. The title translates to “The Corals of Liberty,” after a Mediterranean coral that grows only a few millimeters a year and never forms two identical branches, Complex reported. On the runway that became alternating sheer and firm fabrics, including Neo Gazar, the stiff silk Piccioli revived in July, used as both outer layer and internal structure. The show notes put the idea plainly.
Techniques originating in the 55th Balenciaga Couture Collection are applied to a spectrum of ready-to-wear clothing for both women and men.
Balenciaga, in the Summer 27 show notes, Dazed
An all-white opening, with a dramatic cape and detailed florals, came first. After that, Dazed wrote, “the colour wheel exploded,” with royal blue, shocking pink and glowing vermilion on blouson jackets, high-collared shirts and tunics. Tudor-style shoulders, cocoon-collar coats and frogspawn-like collars nodded to Franjou’s work, while denim, T-shirts and bombers were rebuilt with atelier draping. The Zoe Report spotted a nostalgic twist: soft leather belt bags threaded through trouser loops.
The front row was a mix of music and film. Lauryn Hill, Law Roach, Isabelle Huppert and Nia Archives were among Dazed’s sightings, and The Zoe Report adds Lola Tung, Shailene Woodley and Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham. The show opened to the vocal track of the Fugees’ “Ready or Not” over an orchestral arrangement, a fitting choice with Hill in the audience. She sang the song with Wyclef Jean at KidSuper’s People’s Runway in September.
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Piccioli’s note on each seat explained the coral symbolism. “No one shines alone. Much like corals...we, and the ideas we carry, require two fundamental elements to flourish: protection and reciprocal exchange,” he wrote.
The week is also a test of third acts: Complex notes the trade press is framing the season around designers reaching their third outing, including Piccioli, Jonathan Anderson at Dior and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel. Paris’s women’s calendar runs through Oct. 6 with 68 shows, and Chanel and Louis Vuitton are still to come. Saint Laurent’s gold-soaked finale has already turned into Anthony Vaccarello’s exit.
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
