Alainpaul Spring 2027

Alainpaul imagined a classically trained dancer stepping straight from the opera house into an underground rave for Spring 2027. The show opened in darkness, with strobe lights, club kids spinning through the room and guests given key-chain torches at the door. The clothes followed the same collision of worlds, mixing ballet references with rave colours and a distinctly handmade attitude.

Reworked ballet costumes appeared alongside silver lamé, black, pink and kiwi. Sheer draped dresses were cut with parachute seams and layered over lingerie, while loose threads were deliberately left dangling from knitted shorts. Ballet wrap sweaters were tied into oversized knots, and tailored jackets were gathered at the back with small clasps, giving even the more polished pieces an improvised quality.

Silver lamé brought some of the collection’s strongest looks, appearing in fluttering parachute dresses, pussy-bow blouses and ballerina flats finished with black elastic straps. Marie Antoinette-inspired pannier skirts returned from last season, but felt less historical when paired with unravelled knits and modern layers.

For Alain Paul, the collection was about the difference between studied and instinctive movement, while bringing different kinds of people together. The deliberately imperfect knitwear, complete with loose threads and visible mistakes, reinforced that idea. The result was a playful meeting of ballet and nightlife, where fantasy costumes were made to feel like something a dancer might throw over their everyday clothes before heading home.