Pierpaolo Piccioli Paints a New Chapter for Balenciaga Couture

For creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s couture debut at Balenciaga, models paced the palatial steps at the International University City of Paris wearing all shades of electric pink, neon orange and brilliant mint green. Hooded feather cocoons—like the one worn by Gigi Hadid, who made her couture week debut at the show—and skirts densely sculpted from tulle added high-fashion drama that recalled the archives of Cristóbal Balenciaga. The collection earned an overwhelming and emotional standing ovation from superfans, clients, celebs, and students in the audience, who cheered beneath the blazing sun during the final walk.

“I started to know the atelier and the people because I felt that was the beginning point in order to create couture,” Piccioli said backstage after the show. “I wanted to know better about the archives of Cristóbal. I’ve been studying. Cristóbal is the one who invented fashion, for how we intend fashion today. It never was staying in one silhouette only, always moving and innovating every time.”

Known as one of fashion’s greatest colorists with a penchant for fluid shapes and glamorous gowns, Piccioli made Balenciaga couture his own by mixing a naturally dramatic aesthetic with the ultramodernist shapes derived from the house archives. There were floor-length hooded cloaks, expertly sculpted hourglasses dresses that were styled with leather opera gloves, and feathers upon feathers. Fall 2026 was a collection that felt celebratory, decadent, and full of passion. Even the extra-large beige pants seen in the opening look had an attitude about them.

“Cristóbal was obsessive with the body, and the conversation with the body,” Piccilio added. “You always have to keep the body present, even in the silhouette. Otherwise it becomes abstract—far from human and the movement of the person.” The designer changed tacks, and began “taking out all the structure—not kilometers of fabric, but engineering the cut.”

Piccioli described a technique by which he was most fascinated: 3-D scanning the body to invent a new mannequin for stretching some of the leathers in the collection. Balenciaga also introduced Amsilk, a bioengineered silk alternative created via DNA editing and protein engineering to yield a fossil fuel-free, renewable textile that is reportedly 2.5 times the strength of steel. “Couture is a place where there are no maps,” he added.

As the show came to a close, Piccioli marched down the stairs with the entire atelier in celebration of the new collection. The moment was foreshadowed in the show notes: “This collection is the result of the work of the people in the atelier: human beings who are couture, because couture is made by the people who live it,” they read. In case the otherworldly, fluorescent-pink, curled organza, feather-embroidered balloon dress wasn’t convincing enough, Balenciaga is firmly in a new era when it comes to couture.