For Autumn/Winter 2026, Alice Vaillant channels the vibrant pulse of 1980s Paris —a time when lovers waited under the glow of public telephone booths, coins in hand, rehearsing what they might say. Messages lived on answering machines. Nights stretched without notifications, guided only by instinct, music, and chance encounters.
The atmosphere echoes the electric, slightly anarchic Paris captured in the early films of Leos Carax. Through his work with Boy Meets Girl and Mauvais Sang, the city becomes a stage for restless youth—lovers wandering empty boulevards, running through the night, caught up between poetry and rebellion. Paris under Carax is both wild and intimate, a place of juxtaposing desires and uncertainty. That interplay of strength and delicacy nurtures Vaillant’s collection.
Movement remains central to the creative director’s language. Before founding her label, she trained as a dancer at the Paris Opera, an experience that continues to shape her approach to clothing. The show begins to the hypnotic rhythm of Jérôme Échenoz’s Le Chrome et le Coton, unveiling silhouettes covered in second-skin knitted bodysuits as rehearsal attire. Satin coats are embroidered with delicate floral motifs drifting fluidly over the figure. As the collection evolves, contrasts emerge. Utility surfaces through technical cotton pieces, lace-up details, and oversized aviator jackets, while silk and Calais lace introduce a sense of intimacy. Vaillant’s signature bias-cut slip dresses return in multiple variations, slipping easily between day and night. Stripes inspired by sailor uniforms, leather pieces punctuated with subtle openings, and draped jersey silhouettes evoke fragments of everyday Parisian style. The show concludes with a white silk georgette dress embroidered with flowers and edged with feathers, recalling the lightness of a tutu. A mad crush. A final gesture of movement – romance still arrives exactly on time.
