The official calendar of Paris Women's Fashion Week FW25-26, held from March 4 to 11, 2025, showcased over one hundred events, of which 72 are fashion shows, among excellent debuts, emerging designers, new creative directions, confirmations, and returns. Modem highlights a selection of designers who presented their collection for the first time in Paris, including Loulou de Saison, Christopher Esber, Hodakova, Icicle, and Burc Akyol.
LOULOU DE SAISON
Founded in 2019 in Paris by artistic director Chloé Harrouche, Loulou de Saison offers a wardrobe of desirable essentials, infused with authentic French simplicity. With a background in fashion consulting for nearly 10 years, Chloé Harrouche finds inspiration in art, architecture and Paris, her muse. Her intuitive yet exacting design process drove her to establish Loulou de Saison to offer a timeless wardrobe of everyday essentials. With its classic modernity, the collections find balance in contrasts and precision: soft yet powerful, minimalist yet sophisticated, feminine with a touch of masculinity. With the house’s transition into Loulou de Saison, the FW25 collection emerges as an evolution of its sartorial language and a deeper expression of Chloé Harrouche’s distinctive vision. A distillation of her creative perspective, this season feels more personal, with every twist and drape thoughtfully considered. FW25 embodies the customary dance of contrasts: softness and structure, serenity and intrigue, timelessness and reinvention. The result is an elegance that is understated, legible and yet potent, its power drawn from balance, a wardrobe that feels personal, resolute, and deeply assured.
CHRISTOPHER ESBER
Having graduated from Sydney’s Fashion Design Studio in 2008 with a collection that piqued industry interest, Australian designer Christopher Esber founded his eponymous brand in 2010. Harmoniously blending structured silhouettes with fluid drape, Esber subverts the notions of convention with design concepts informed by his background in tailoring, use of negative space and sculptural hardware, creating new silhouettes that inspire ideas of escapism and sensuality. In a pursuit of innovation and advancement of traditional techniques, the designer works with skilled craftspeople and operates an in-house atelier, regularly collaborating with artisans throughout France, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. Esber won the regional Woolmark Prize in 2014, and in the same year was selected by Sara Maino as the recipient of Vogue Italia’s Most Talented Designer Award for Australia-Pacific. In June 2024, he was named recipient of the Grand Prix Prize at the Andam Awards, the first ever Australian to be nominated and to win the prestigious prize.
HODAKOVA
A visionary in her field, Ellen Hodakova Larsson is dedicated to building the first fully sustainable fashion house in the world and changing people’s mindset. Ellen champions craftsmanship by choosing existing products and transforming them into luxury pieces. To change the industry, she pursues a flexible business model, with limitations and rules to explore the creativity within. Working with discarded pieces compels her to focus on quality, potential and craftsmanship. “I believe that we connect to a piece on a deeper level if it has a history and possesses beauty and sentimental value.” Ellen Hodakova Larsson established her namesake brand in 2021 in Stockholm where it is based. Tailoring is central for the FW25 collection, it is reinterpreted with an unconventional approach, focusing on deconstructed fabrics, structured silhouettes, and details in contrasts.
ICICLE
Icicle was founded in Shanghai in 1997 by husband and wife, Ye Shouzeng and Shawna Tao, with a mission to connect man and nature by proposing clothing to live and work in, with reverence for the environment and always paying tribute to the essential. Drawing on their respect for Chinese culture, traditions and philosophy, they sought to offer a more natural and intentional way of dressing for contemporary life. The most advanced Chinese manufacturing know-how was employed to transform pure fabrics with ethical care into a daily wardrobe, marrying function and elegance. Symbolised in Chinese by the characters 之禾 Zhi Hé, meaning "the sprouting seed," Icicle has always been inspired by the humility and wisdom of Chinese philosophy which informs its pursuit of harmony between man and nature and thus its considered approach to environmental responsibility.
BURC AKYOL
Akyol is a French couturier of Turkish descent. As a child, he was introduced to the craft by his father, a tailor. After graduating from l’Institut Français de la Mode in Paris in 2007 and working for several French Maisons, including Christian Dior and Balenciaga, Akyol launched his eponymous label in 2019. Inspired by people he meets, places he travels to, his own mixed heritage and traditional Haute Couture, Akyol focuses on elevated essentials of the wardrobe, with revealing details and black satin framing. His signature tuxedo jeans and metal hands-bustier show the span of Akyol’s know-how and belief in creative expression. Akyol won the prestigious Fashion Trust Arabia Prize 2022.
Photo Cover: Loulou de Saison FW25
