Oxford + Park

Models backstage at Zuhair Murad Haute Couture Spring 2015

High-end lingerie brand La Perla held its first couture show in Paris this season. Mixing delicate négligée with luxurious sportswear, the collection sought to deliver an "inside/out" approach that would take underwear as outerwear to a racy new level. “[The show] is symbolic of the new direction under our ownership over the past year,” said Suzy Biszantz, chief executive officer of La Perla USA. “We had our 60th anniversary collection for fall 2014. That was really the beginning of an ‘elevated La Perla.’ A lot of those pieces were handmade, very elaborate. It’s the next step, offering the couture experience." Supermodel Naomi Campbell also made an appearance to close the show, but despite her fiercesome strut, the model admitted to pre-show jitters. “I am honored," Campbell said. "I'm 44 years old. I’m not 20 years old like these girls, so I was a little bit nervous about it." Meanwhile, La Perla's creative director, former engineer Emiliano Rinaldi, said this first, "no rules" collection wouldn't be the last for the brand. La Perla will now have an annual atelier show in Paris to show off its custom wares to the public.

Finale wedding gown at Elie Saab Haute Couture Spring 2015

Love is in the air — or at least it was at Valentino's spring couture show. Creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli took inspiration from classic artists and literary greats, including William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, and Marc Chagall, a modernist painter whose Russian landscapes heavily inspired the first half of the collection. "In some ways, you are flying when you're in love," Chiuri said of the romantic collection that featured ethereal, hand-painted tulle dresses adorned with clouds and stars. Other pieces featured intricate embroidery (including one gown that took a grand total of 3,000 hours to create) and delicate script — lines from poems, sonnets and songs. The finale gown, one of the more simple dresses in the line-up with its linen corset and dusty blue skirt, featured red script scrawled across the bodice that summed up the theme of the whole collection in one simple line: "Amor Vincit Omnia" — love conquers all.

Despite the lack of physical flowers, first-time couture attendee and face of Miss Dior perfume, actress Natalie Portman, compared the mesmerizing set to "the inside of a mechanical rose." And hey, given the sets of the past, she's probably not too far off with that idea.

"Ms. Prada was talking about wanting the girls to look like virtual princesses so we've done makeup from almost a virtual world, like another world," McGrath said. "We've used black cream, purple eyeshadow, black eyeliner, white eyeliner, orange cream shadows. It's a very theatrical look. Very, kind of, out of this world; a fun look as well, I think. We bleached the brows and are recoloring them orange, which is quite different."

"We put [the fresh flowers] on just before she went out, and they started to fall off one by one as she walked. I remember people saying Lee timed it," the label's current creative director, Sarah Burton, told Vogue. "We had a laugh about that. It was an accident!"

Old Hollywood glamour at Ralph & Russo Haute Couture Fall 2014

For Valentino's spring couture show, hairstylist Guido Palau created a modernized flower crown that echoed the romantic nature of the collection. To get the Ophelia-esque look, Palau twisted hair into a loose roll that encircled models' heads and tucked dainty flowers like daisies, African violets and baby's breath into the crown as the finishing touch. “It’s like they were just lying in the grass,” Palau said of the models. “There’s an innocence to their kind of romance.”

In a clever allusion to the collection, which heavily featured sequined turtlenecks, Philips used pieces of jumbo silver glitter on the upper lash line to create a "robotic" flash effect when models blinked. The rest of the face was left very natural (light foundation, soft blush and pale lipstick) to allow the graphic eye look to steal the spotlight.

"Burberry is such an iconic brand and I feel very proud to be a part of their campaign and their team," Dunn said. "This campaign is even more special for me because I was shot with Naomi Campbell for the first time — someone who I admire and respect within the fashion industry."

“We wanted to say something about Italian craftsmanship, Italian values, Italian culture,” Piccioli said backstage before the show. “To share this renaissance ideal of execution and idea going hand-in-hand, which is the purpose of couture ... [However], the most expensive materials will never be as precious as the time people spend working on the collection. That is the real richness.”

"Natural Selection" Holly Rose Emery by Sharna Osborne for Wonderland