The biggest surprise at Paris couture? It got wearable

PARIS (AP) — Paris couture this season did something unexpected: It got lighter and down to earth.

Not just in fabric, but in attitude.

Even with major couture debuts at Chanel, Dior and Armani Privé — and a week shadowed by Valentino Garavani’s death in Rome — the strongest message on the runways was restraint with impact.

Clothes that looked miraculous up close, but less like museum pieces and more like something a woman could actually move in.

Transparency was the season’s easiest headline, but the point wasn’t nakedness: It was craft made to float.

Chanel opened Matthieu Blazy’s first couture collection with the powerhouse’s classic skirt suit rendered in blush organza: familiar, but ghosted.

In the front row, the message landed on celebrities too: Nicole Kidman arrived in black feathered Chanel with pearl accessories, proof that “lightness” doesn’t have to read fragile, while Gracie Abrams popped in a light, wispy fringed Chanel tweed in electric yellow.

The tailoring was strict; the fabric was airy.

At rival Dior, Jonathan Anderson pushed the same idea through contrast, pairing nearly sheer ribbed tanks with painstakingly embroidered evening skirts: a couture bottom with a real-life top.

Armani Privé, under Silvana Armani — who put on her first couture show since her uncle Giorgio Armani died in September — made lightness look expensive. Organza shirts and ties appeared alongside “mille-feuille” gowns that shimmered through layers of micro-crystals without turning heavy.

Elie Saab, the patron saint of red-carpet spectacle, chased breeziness too, making embroidery melt into tulle and fringe fall like liquid metal.

At Schiaparelli, Teyana Taylor amplified the season ’s see-through mood in a sheer lace dress layered with jewelry — lingerie-level exposure, couture-level intention.

A second shift ran through the week: couture moving toward the daily wardrobe.

Blazy framed Chanel as “real-life couture” — clothes for work, for a play, for whatever — and the collection followed through with pieces that felt more relatable without losing the house’s polish.

Anderson argued that couture doesn’t require a corset to count. He used knit as couture structure, not comfort: spun, shaped and built into dresses and sweaters with tailoring rigor.

The best street-style evidence came from Dior’s own ambassador: Jennifer Lawrence showed up in a men’s Dior coat with oversized fuzzy cuffs, jeans and black shoes — a front-row look that mirrored the runway’s dressed-down direction.

Armani Privé led with relaxed suiting, softened tailoring and a more edited lineup. Fewer looks, more suits, calmer glamour — couture as something to live in, not merely survive.

Even Saab nodded to wearability with his tank-top-and-skirt silhouette, a red-carpet idea stripped down to a modern uniform.

Motifs leaned hard into nature, though designers treated it less as decoration and more as code: freedom, escape, transformation.

Chanel’s birds fluttered across seams and turned up in feather effects, buttons, and embroideries, giving the collection a dreamlike lift.

Dior’s starting point was cyclamen — oversized floral earrings that set a tone of reverence and reinvention at once.

But Schiaparelli refused the gentle version of nature. Designer Daniel Roseberry went full animal: wings, spikes, claws and scorpion tails that made the body look altered, almost dangerous.

Attending Schiaparelli, Lauren Sánchez Bezos leaned into pure signal color in a blood-red skirt suit, the kind of look that reads from the natural world like a warning sign.

Dakota Johnson rocked the Valentino show in a maximalist animal-print top with black lace micro shorts.

Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf pushed the same instinct into metaphor, building their collection around flight and staging transformation through removable, colorful, kite-inspired elements that turned grounded black into something freer, stranger, brighter.

For all the softness, couture also snapped back into structure.

Anderson opened Dior with hourglass volume built by hand — ruched, stitched, and shaped in tulle — creating silhouette without the usual armor.

French couturier Stéphane Rolland, in a circus venue, took geometry as gospel: balloon pants, jumpsuits and coats built from circular ideas and Cubist shapes, cut in gazar and satin, then finished with stones and sharp accessories.

Schiaparelli treated couture like sculpture, with protrusions and rigid forms that turned fashion into performance art.

Lebanese favorite Zuhair Murad doubled down on control: ribbed, architectural gowns, unapologetic mermaid lines and surface work so dense it never went quiet.

On color, many houses sat in quiet tones — blush, pale pink, sand, celadon — and let texture carry the drama.

Armani Privé’s palette was all nuance: jade and soft pastels, controlled and clean. Even the guests played along: Kate Hudson arrived for Armani Privé in a collared baby-pink sequined top with black velvet pants, turning the pastel story into a paparazzi-ready uniform.

Chanel’s blush transparency made romance feel modern.

Saab leaned into metallic gradients — gold and silver sliding across dresses like moving light — a new kind of shimmer.

Then came the punctures: Rolland’s cooked tones — burgundy, caramel, strong reds — against stark black and white.

And Valentino, in a show by designer Alessandro Michele staged like a curated act of voyeurism, delivered the clearest exclamation point of the week. The final line landed in the simplest statement possible: Valentino red.

Models wear creations as part of the Elie Saab Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Rei, left, and Liz from the group IVE pose for photographers upon arrival at the Valentino Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Giorgio Armani Prive Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Giorgio Armani Prive Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Models wear creations as part of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Donald Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government's immigration crackdown.

Klobuchar's decision gives Democrats a high-profile candidate and proven statewide winner as their party tries to hold onto the office occupied by Gov. Tim Walz. The 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Walz abandoned his campaign for a third term earlier this month amid criticism over mismanagement of taxpayer funding for child care programs.

“Minnesota, we've been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video announcement Thursday. “These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration — but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state.”

Klobuchar cited Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, federal officers killing two Minnesotans who protested, the assassination of a state legislative leader and a school shooting that killed multiple children — all within the last year. She avoided direct mention of ongoing fraud investigations into the child care programs that Trump has made a political cudgel.

“I believe we must stand up for what’s right and fix what’s wrong,” Klobuchar said.

The senator has been among the loudest Trump critics, most recently over the immigration enforcement effort that has prompted massive protests.

Multiple Republicans already are campaigning in what could become a marquee contest among 36 governorships on the ballot in November. Among those running for the GOP nomination are MyPillow founder and chief executive Mike Lindell, a 2020 election denier who is close to Trump; Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth; Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator who was the party’s 2022 gubernatorial candidate; and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.

The Minnesota contest is likely to test Trump and his fellow Republicans’ uncompromising law-and-order approach and mass deportation program against Democrats’ criticisms of his administration’s tactics.

Federal agents have detained children and adults who are U.S. citizens, entered homes without warrants and engaged protesters in violent exchanges. Minnesota resident and U.S. citizen Renee Good was shot three times and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in early January. On Saturday, federal officers fatally shot ICU nurse Alex Pretti during an encounter.

Many Democrats on Capitol Hill, in turn, have voted against spending bills that fund Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. A standoff over the funding could lead to a partial government shutdown.

Trump and other Republicans also will try to saddle Klobuchar — or any other Democrat — with questions about the ongoing federal investigation into Minnesota’s child care programs and its Somali community. Trump also has made repeated assertions of widespread fraud in state government, and his administration is conducting multiple investigations of state officials, including Walz. The Democrat has maintained that his administration has investigated, reduced and prosecuted fraud.

Serving her fourth term in Washington, Klobuchar is a former local prosecutor and onetime presidential candidate who positions herself as a moderate and has demonstrated the ability to win across Minnesota.

The senator won her 2024 reelection bid by nearly 16 percentage points and received 135,000 more votes than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who had chosen Walz as her running mate. Harris outpaced Trump by fewer than 5 percentage points.

Klobuchar gained attention during Trump’s first term for her questioning of his judicial nominees including now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At Kavanaugh’s acrimonious confirmation hearings, she asked the future justice, who had been accused of sexual assault as a teenager, if he ever had so much to drink that he didn’t remember what happened. Kavanaugh retorted, “Have you?”

The senator, who had talked publicly of her father’s alcoholism, continued her questioning. Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a single vote, later apologized to Klobuchar.

After Trump’s first presidency, Klobuchar was among the most outspoken lawmakers during bipartisan congressional inquiries of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the Capitol during certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election. As Senate Rules Committee chair, she pressed Capitol Police, administration officials and others for details of what authorities knew beforehand and how rioters breached the Capitol.

“It’s our duty to have immediate responses to what happened,” she said after helping write a report focused not on Trump’s role but on better security protocols for the seat of Congress.

Klobuchar sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, running as a moderate in the same political lane as Biden. She launched her campaign standing outside in a Minnesota snowstorm to tout her “grit” and Midwestern sensibilities that have anchored her political identity.

As a candidate, Klobuchar faced stories of disgruntled Senate staffers who described her as a difficult boss but also distinguished herself on crowded debate stages as a determined pragmatist. She outlasted several better-funded candidates and ran ahead of Biden in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But Biden, then a former vice president, trounced her and others in the South Carolina primaries, prompting her to drop out and join others in closing ranks behind him.

After Biden’s victory, Klobuchar would have been well-positioned for a Cabinet post, perhaps even attorney general. But the Senate’s 50-50 split made it untenable for Biden to create any opening for Republicans to regain control of the chamber.

Klobuchar announced in 2021 that she had been treated for breast cancer and in 2024 announced that she was cancer-free but undergoing another round of radiation.

There are now four senators seeking to lead their home states. Klobuchar joins Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn and Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville. Bennet, Blackburn and Klobuchar are not up for reelection in 2026 so could remain in the Senate should they not win their gubernatorial races. Tuberville is in the final year of his six-year term and will leave the Senate in January 2027 regardless.

Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, speaks during a field hearing on immigration Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)