ArdAzAei Couture Fall/Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25 at Paris Couture Week. ArdAzAei presents its fourth couture collection, The Folded Sea, at the former Fondation Cartier in Paris on July 10, 2025.
An exploration of the beauty and fragility of the underwater world through undulating draping and textural pleating, The Folded Sea celebrates the sea urchin as a symbol of the need to protect these precious ecosystems. Comprising 26 looks, ArdAzAei Couture FW25 / Fall/Winter 2025 – 2026 collection expresses the elemental femininity of the oceans in a palette of soft pinks, lavender, and creamy pastels. The Folded Sea captures our sense of wonder at what lies beneath through watery, metallic jacquards and a number of silk textiles that naturally waver to create the illusion of the sun rippling across the surface of the sea in the early morning.
“It’s a kind of light that feels sublime. The beauty of these shimmers on the water’s surface can be compared to the refractions of light emanating from a gemstone,” says Bahareh Ardakani, ArdAzAei’s founder and creative director. “Like a jewel, the secret of this spectacle’s radiance lies inside, in the mysteries of the sea below. It’s an understanding of beauty that guides ArdAzAei, as it is through the attention paid to a garment’s inner world that its outer radiance is revealed.”
Details of ArdAzAei Couture FW25 / Fall/Winter 2025 – 2026, In The Folded Sea, much of this attention has been paid to pleating, using the technique to evoke the intricate interplay of life in the coral reef. Pleats run across corseted silhouettes in opposing directions to evoke the crossing of oceanic currents. Folds of pleated georgette, layered with extremely light silk, create a minidress that pulses like soft coral. Accordion pleats capture the irregular surfaces of seashells. Plissé fans and volants sway across silhouettes like fleurs de mer, and an evening gown of hundreds of draped layers of organza, chiffon and mousseline changeante see pleats radiate from its heart before falling in a sea of movement inspired by the arms of a jellyfish.
With the Maison’s particular focus on optics, The Folded Sea explores the phenomenon of bioluminescence through an evening gown adorned with 168 ‘sea flower’ petals embroidered with iridescent sequins, beads, and tubes, and embroidered bioluminescent ‘anemones’ crafted from striped velvet. Close to 1,000 hours were invested in its creation, while 500 were dedicated to the hand-embroidery of 33,000 crystals by Swarovski® upon an evening gown in a metal silk blend. Sculpturally draped by hand, the gown sparkles with movement, evoking the impression of light reflecting off water. The Folded Sea further explores the mysteries of the underwater world through the prism of the sea urchin. Living among coral reefs and kelp forests, where they feed on algae and regulate their growth in these oxygen-rich ecosystems, sea urchins are a keystone species that help our planet breathe.
The collection pays homage to these talismanic echinoderms through macramé, the technique of knotting cord created by sailors at sea, to craft sea urchins from pearl-embellished silk chiffon, which climb around the hips and corset cups of evening gowns and minidresses. Hand-embroidered sea urchins, crafted from fish scales and vintage beads in forty different materials, cover the entirety of a minidress. Smocking inverts the geometry of the ArdAzAei emblem to form the symmetry of their shells. A kinetic mini-cape, composed of five volumes of accordion-pleated plissé fans, echoes the five plates of its body. Often, the boning of the collection’s silhouette-defining corsets has been left visible, a reference to their protective exoskeleton.
The sea urchin’s pentaradial geometry permeates the collection. Months of research and development were invested in interpreting electron-magnified images of the otherworldly landscape of their exoskeleton as a bespoke jacquard, enriched with lurex effects to create an abstract iridescence, for the collection’s signature tailoring. The same applies in the collection’s finale, where sketches of these magnified sea urchins are printed upon silk organza panels, which are offset below a layer of custom-made ruffled guipure lace, lending a sense of mesmeric movement to a show-stopping evening gown.
Two shoes created for the collection have a dialogue between fluid form and movement. The pump, with its sculptural comma heel, sharp profile, and pinched silhouette, is accented by ArdAzAei’s signature metal detail, like a quiet adornment. The slingback mirrors these lines, balancing clarity and ease to bring a subtle rhythm to each step.
Taking place on the ground floor of the Jean Nouvel-designed building in Paris’ 14th arrondissement, The Folded Sea’s runway presentation is set to a soundtrack by Frédéric Sanchez, curated to imbue the gallery and its garden with the sense of harmony we feel when beside the sea. The show be followed by a taste of New Nordic Cuisine conceptualised by Claus Meyer, co-founder of noma, Copenhagen and executed by the talented André S. Andersen of Harlo and Meyer, and former noma Chef.
About ArdAzAei, ArdAzAei is an investigation of beauty beyond the seasons, innovating responsibly produced and timeless prêt-à-porter crafted with rare savoir-faire. Founded in 2018 by the Swedish-Iranian artistic director Bahareh Ardakani and her partner, the Maison debuted at Paris Haute Couture Week in 2022, and established its atelier in Paris shortly after. The Maison’s design philosophy is inspired by an encounter with the sublime during Bahareh Ardakani’s studies in gemmology: the revelation that a gem’s outer radiance is a reflection of the eternal time thatis gathered within. ArdAzAei applies this view to high fashion, so that each piece has two sides: its inner world, and its outer appearance. It is by paying attention to the inner world of a piece that its outer radiance is revealed.
All images ArdAzAei Couture FW25 / Fall/Winter 2025 – 2026 by the brand. Credit to: Artistic direction M/M (Paris), Styling Panos Yiapanis,Casting Piergiorgio Del Moro, Hair Duffy, Make up Diane Kendal, Music Frédéric Sanchez, Copy editing Xerxes Cook, Production La Mode en Images, PR Lucien Pagès Communication