Day 7 of Fashion Week delivered four moments that crystallized the season's most compelling tensions: sport meeting elegance at Lacoste, a mother-daughter podium debut at Paloma Wool, a smoking dress that stopped the room at Jean Paul Gaultier, and a leather accessory trend quietly becoming one of the most wearable ideas of the week.
Sunday proved to be one of the richest days on the Paris Fashion Week calendar. From midday at Roland-Garros to the afternoon shows, the runway offered a mix of technical innovation, raw emotion, and the kind of styling instinct that translates directly into real wardrobes. Here are the four moments that stood out.
Lacoste at Roland-Garros turns sportswear into a weather-proof wardrobe
The crocodile brand chose its spiritual home, Stade Roland-Garros, for a Sunday noon show that reframed what athletic dressing can look like in 2025. The front row gathered a sharp crowd including Pierre Niney, Natasha Andrews, Caleb McLaughlin, Vassili Schneider, and Eddy de Pretto, but the real conversation happened on the runway itself.
The transparent waterproof sweatshirt, the piece of the show
The standout piece was a transparent waterproof sweatshirt inspired by the poncho silhouette. The concept is deceptively simple: protection from the rain without concealing the layers underneath. You keep your knitwear visible, your outfit intact, and you stay dry. It sounds obvious once you see it, and that's exactly what makes it work.
Around it, the collection built a coherent wardrobe logic. Low-waisted trench dresses, elongated pleated skirts, retro tournament sweatshirts, oversized polos, midi skirts, parkas, and bags designed to carry balls or rackets — everything circled back to a tennis-club aesthetic filtered through contemporary proportions. Lacoste didn't reinvent its DNA. It sharpened it.
Paloma Wool's mother-daughter podium moment
Paloma Lanna, the designer and collection director behind Paloma Wool, closed her show the way few designers do: by walking out to greet guests with her daughter Salomé at her side. The two appeared on the podium together, a gesture that felt spontaneous and deeply personal rather than staged.
Paloma Lanna is both the creative director and the face of Paloma Wool’s universe — a brand built around a very specific visual identity that blends Mediterranean influences with a relaxed, almost artisanal approach to fashion.
In a Fashion Week environment that often prioritizes spectacle over sincerity, this mother-daughter runway appearance registered as something genuinely moving. It also reinforced what makes Paloma Wool distinct from its contemporaries: a sense that the clothes come from a real life, worn by real people, made with real intention.
Jean Paul Gaultier's smoking dress makes the whole room reach for their phones
Duran Lantink is now two collections deep into his tenure at Jean Paul Gaultier, and his second outing confirmed that he understands the assignment. The codes are all there: razor-sharp tailoring crossed with sportswear, lingerie pieces elevated into outerwear, and the trompe-l'œil second-skin effects the house made iconic.
The dress that stopped the show
But nothing generated a reaction quite like the long tubular mesh dress worn by model Alex Consani. Printed across the fabric: a portrait of Marlène Dietrich, cigarette in hand, rendered in that hyper-realistic Gaultier graphic tradition. And from the back of the dress, printed smoke appeared to drift upward, as if Dietrich's cigarette were still burning through the fabric itself.
The effect was theatrical without being gratuitous. Phones went up across the audience the moment Consani walked. The dress is the kind of piece that exists at the intersection of fashion and image-making — it's designed to be photographed, yes, but it also works as a garment, which is the harder trick to pull off. W Magazine was among the accounts that shared the moment on Instagram, which tells you something about its cultural reach.
For anyone interested in how a bold visual statement can complement a complete look, this kind of graphic approach to the body mirrors what smoky eye techniques do for mature skin — drama deployed with precision, never for its own sake.
Leather knotted at the neck is the quiet trend of the week
Niccolò Pasqualetti's Sunday afternoon show crystallized something that had been building for several days. The designer sent looks down the runway with leather scarves knotted at the neck, and the effect was immediate: character, structure, edge, without a single additional accessory needed.
- Instantly adds structure to any neckline
- Works across multiple silhouettes and seasons
- A credible alternative to the silk square scarf
- Seen across three major shows: Givenchy, Loewe, Niccolò Pasqualetti
- Leather can feel heavy in warmer months
- The studded version requires a confident, pared-back outfit to balance it
Two distinct versions, one consistent idea
Pasqualetti offered two clear interpretations. The first: a leather scarf decorated with studs, knotted at the front, worn as a focal point against cleaner pieces. The second: a smooth leather scarf tied behind the nape of the neck, more discreet but equally structured. Both versions share the same underlying logic — the neck becomes the focal point of the silhouette, and the leather panel does the work that a statement necklace or collar might otherwise do.
major houses spotted with leather neck accessories this Fashion Week: Givenchy, Loewe, and Niccolò Pasqualetti
What makes this trend particularly interesting is its context. Givenchy sent out invitations shaped like black leather knots before the show. Loewe had already played with the idea on Friday. By the time Pasqualetti's models walked, the leather scarf had moved from a styling detail to a genuine seasonal signal. And unlike the silk square scarf, which carries very specific codes, the leather neck accessory reads as something newer, less codified, and easier to make your own. Just as nail polish colors shift with the seasons to reflect a new mood, accessories like these mark a clear turning point in what the fashion world considers relevant for the months ahead.
Givenchy and Loewe still have their shows to come, which means the leather scarf story isn't finished. But Pasqualetti's version, precise and wearable, already feels like the one most people will actually reach for. And the fact that it arrived as a natural evolution rather than a provocation is exactly what gives it staying power.
