Roger Vivier at Haute Couture Week: When Accessories Become Couture in Atelier Animalier
In recent seasons, the language of Haute Couture has expanded beyond the expected codes of silhouette and construction. Accessories—once supporting characters have stepped decisively into the spotlight, becoming vessels of couture expression in their own right. Nowhere is this shift more evident than in the growing presence of couture bags: sculptural, emotionally charged objects that carry not only craftsmanship, but narrative. They are no longer mere accents; they are couture statements, repositories of savoir‑faire, and increasingly, the most intimate expression of a Maison’s creative identity.
Few houses embody this evolution as naturally as Roger Vivier. Long before accessories became central to couture storytelling, Monsieur Vivier was already shaping the conversation. His work for Christian Dior in the 1950s and 60s forged an unbreakable bond between the Maison and the world of Haute Couture a relationship defined by audacity, refinement, and a deep understanding of how adornment can transform a woman’s presence. Vivier’s creations were never accessories; they were couture objects, sculpted with the same precision and imagination as the gowns they accompanied.
It is within this lineage that Roger Vivier presents Atelier Animalier, unveiled during Paris Haute Couture Week Spring–Summer 2026 at Maison Vivier. Conceived under the creative direction of Gherardo Felloni, the collection is more than a presentation it is a cultural moment, a dialogue between archive and modernity, instinct and artistry, memory and reinvention. It coincides with the release of the new monograph Roger Vivier: Heritage and Imagination, published by Rizzoli, further anchoring the Maison’s legacy within the canon of couture history.
Atelier Animalier explores animalier not as a decorative motif, but as a language one deeply rooted in instinct, movement, sensuality, and transformation. For Monsieur Vivier, animalier was a code of power and elegance, a way to express the untamed energy of femininity. From the 1960s onward, he used leopard, zebra, and giraffe patterns to articulate a woman’s duality: her softness and her strength, her mystery and her presence.
Felloni returns to these archival motifs with a contemporary eye, removing them from their original context and reinterpreting them for a new era. In doing so, he reveals their enduring relevance. What once felt radical becomes radical again. The shift from archive to pièce unique is not merely aesthetic it is conceptual. It asks us to reconsider how heritage can be activated, not preserved; how codes can evolve without losing their soul.
The Atelier Animalier Pièce Unique collection comprises 11 one‑of‑a‑kind Efflorescence Jewel bags, each conceived as a singular work of art. The Efflorescence silhouette already a signature of the Maison becomes a sculptural canvas for experimentation. In the hands of the Roger Vivier artisans, it transforms into a living object, elevated through exceptional embroidery, feather work, metal applications, crystals, semi‑precious stones, and hand‑painted surfaces. Every bag is handmade in the Maison’s ateliers, embodying the intimacy and precision of true couture craftsmanship.
Alongside the bags, a series of gilets extends the same vocabulary into the realm of silhouette. These precious garments translate the Maison’s codes into couture‑inflected pieces that blur the boundaries between accessory and attire. They echo the same instinctive energy, the same animalier language, the same devotion to savoir‑faire.
With Atelier Animalier, Roger Vivier reaffirms its place within the couture landscape—not as an accessory house adjacent to couture, but as a Maison whose history, imagination, and craftsmanship are inseparable from it. In a moment when couture is redefining itself, Vivier reminds us that the most powerful expressions often come in the smallest, most intimate forms: a bag held close to the body, carrying within it a world of artistry, heritage, and transformation.