On the second day of the spring 2027 shows in Paris, an unseasonable return of summer heat turned the Espace Commines sweltering. Still, Burç Akyol turned up the heat with a collection that clung to models’ curves like cling film.
Before the show, he said the past six months had been a lot, with trips to Cairo, Luxor, Tokyo and Pantelleria and the loss of a family member — long days, lonely nights that had him thinking about the human experience.
Although he reeled off ideas thick and fast, including an homage to Helmut Lang, who famously showed in the same venue, what the spring collection boiled down to was “this kind of melange of 15 pieces of tailoring and 15 pieces of flou,” along with the sense that the Akyol woman is always on the go.
Cue jersey as the spring’s key material, owing to “this idea of elasticity, because you have to be so stretchy — maybe as a parent, a creative director, a boss, a boyfriend, all of that together,” he said.
Out came a trompe-l’oeil one-piece tuxedo jumpsuit, a velvet halterneck unitard, lilac draped harem pants paired with a leather bodysuit shaped like a jacket. All had legs for days thanks to his stirrup-pant construction.
For all the slinky sensuality on display, there were touches of wit, like a dusky pink dress with cream-colored draping that, from the back, looked like the outline of a thong on a sunburned body. It felt like a reminder that under all those sharp silhouettes, Akyol knows when to be cheeky.
