At Couture, Designers Pump Up the Volume for Fall 2025

Ari Stark

Thu, July 17, 2025 at 3:29 PM UTC

2 min read

Designers showcased voluminous couture collections for fall 2025, drawing inspiration from the natural world with elements like colorful bird feathers and marine life geometry.
Viktor & Rolf presented a collection featuring contrasting proportions, with half of the looks stuffed with fabric feathers and the other half left deflated, creating a unique visual impact on the runway.
Various designers like Iris van Herpen, Yuima Nakazato, and Kevin Germanier incorporated elements of air and water into their designs, with creations ranging from amorphous volumes resembling jellyfish to gowns made from inflatable circus balloons.

For fall 2025, designers pumped up the volumes in their couture collections, some of which playfully nodded to the natural world.

For Viktor & Rolf , that meant colorful bird feathers (another one of this season's trends), which the duo used to put a new spin on an old experiment from 1998. Half their looks came stuffed to the brim with "feathers," which were made out of fabric, while the other half were left deflated, further contrasting the various proportions.

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"Side by side on the runway, they couldn't have looked more different," observed WWD's Lily Templeton. Her preference seemed to lie with the oversize versions that had "a cool punk vibe" well-suited for Effie Trinket in the "Hunger Games," she wrote.

Ardazaei Fall 2025 Couture at Couture Fashion Week

From the skies to the sea, Iranian Swedish designer Bahareh Ardakani dove into the geometry of marine life at ArdAzAei for her rigid structures, which comprised accordion pleats mimicking the ribbed surfaces of shells.

Also leaning into aquatica, Iris van Herpen created amorphous volumes by suspending Japanese "air" fabric from wires that drifted "like a jellyfish in invisible currents," noted Miles Socha. Meanwhile, Alexa Wynne pegged the oceanic blue fabrics undulating from the sides of Yuima Nakazato 's models as "gill-like," a descriptor that could also apply to the up-flipped lapels on Demna's lady-like jackets at Balenciaga with hulking body-builder shoulders.

Backstage at the Yuima Nakazato Fall 2025 Couture at Couture Fashion Week

Elsewhere, Kevin Germanier combined elements of both air and water, working inflatable circus balloons into gowns bigger than a big top, like the spiked one shown here made from the tail-ends of dolphins.

Germanier Fall 2025 Couture at Couture Fashion Week

Taking things out on dry land — or perhaps the red carpet — some equally large dresses swept up the runways of Ashi Studio , Elie Saab and Lever Couture .

Launch Gallery: Couture Fall 2025 Trend: Volume

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