What Paris Fashion Week is saying about jewelry

The pieces, styling choices and shifting attitudes shaping the season ahead

A week of gold, petals and animals

As Paris Fashion Week closes on the Spring/Summer 2027 season, jewelry has been one of its clearest storylines. It was not the same story at every house. Some designers went for maximum impact, others for nature and craft, and a few placed jewelry where you would not expect to find it. Together, the shows offer a useful picture of where jewelry is heading next.

The earring takes center stage

If one piece of jewelry dominated the week, it was the earring.

At Dior on September 29, Jonathan Anderson built his collection around the wénwán walnut, a nut traditionally hand-rolled in Chinese culture whose surface changes over time. Guests received two of them in a box with their invitations. On the runway, his interest in nature showed up in the jewelry. Earrings were made from organza cut into petal-like shapes, and long, cascading earrings combining gemstones and fabric brought asymmetry to the looks.

At Saint Laurent the same night, against the Eiffel Tower, Anthony Vaccarello built his entire collection around gold. The accessories followed suit. Monumental, jeweled filigree earrings framed the face, while some models wore jeweled head wraps. It was one of the most opulent jewelry statements of the week.

The two shows could hardly have been more different in mood: one soft and airy, the other gilded and grand. But both treated the earring as the piece that defines the look.

Jewelry moves to the feet

One of the more unexpected ideas this season was jewelry that left the body's usual places altogether.

Dior showed sandals draped with jewelry. At Loewe on October 2, creative directors Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough sent out strappy sandals decorated with adornments that resembled keychains or charm bracelets, worn with colored tights. At Saint Laurent, shoes were built from gilded chains and set on twisting snake-shaped heels.

When jewelry starts appearing on shoes, the line between accessory and ornament becomes harder to draw.

Nature, animals and the sea

Nature ran through many of the week's collections, and jewelry was one of the main ways designers expressed it.

At Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli showed jewelry inspired by the seashells of Getaria, the Basque fishing town where Cristóbal Balenciaga was born.

At Schiaparelli, Daniel Roseberry's collection, titled Going Clear, turned jewelry into a menagerie. Earrings, cuffs and brooches took the shapes of horses, dolphins, pigs, dogs, cats and spiders, alongside the house's familiar keyhole and lip motifs.

Paired with Dior's petals and walnuts, the message was consistent: this season, jewelry looked to the natural world rather than to geometry or minimalism.

Even the minimalists layered up

Perhaps the most telling jewelry moment came from The Row, a label long associated with quiet, pared-back dressing. Its Spring/Summer 2027 collection included crochet, fringe and beading, and many looks were finished with strings of colored beaded necklaces. Some were layered beneath sheer tops or peeked out from partly unbuttoned shirts, half-hidden by the clothes themselves.

When one of fashion's most restrained houses starts layering beads, it suggests a wider shift in how designers think about ornament.

Craft with a purpose

Not all of the week's jewelry stories were about style. Gabriela Hearst dedicated her collection to the women of Afghanistan and worked with textile, embroidery and jewelry artisans there. She has said the country has been on her mind since the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021. Her team was able to film only the women's hands, for fear of reprisals.

It was a reminder that jewelry carries more than style. For many of the people who make it, it is also knowledge, income and cultural memory.

What the week adds up to

Read together, the shows point in a few clear directions. The earring is the season's most important piece. Nature, from petals to seashells to animals, is the dominant source of inspiration. Jewelry is turning up in new places, from the feet to beneath the clothes. And even the most minimal houses are adding ornaments back in.

There was no single look. But the week suggested a season that values character, craft and a sense of play over restraint.

Paris has long been where jewelry's next chapter gets written. This season, it was written in gold filigree, organza petals, seashells and enamel animals. The direction is clear enough: jewelry is no longer the quiet finishing touch. It is part of the story from the start.

Related reading: What jewelry looks like off the runway and When jewelry becomes the headline.