St. Gallen, October – Numerous textile creations by Forster Willi were once again on display on the catwalks of the Autumn 2026 Haute Couture shows and the Spring 2027 prêt-à-porter shows in Paris and Milan, which have just come to a close. International fashion houses such as CHANEL, Dior and Akris relied on textile innovations from St. Gallen. A particular highlight off the catwalk: Anna Wintour wore a creation by Forster Willi at the CHANEL Spring 2027 ready-to-wear show.

Selected Looks – Prêt-à-Porter Spring 2027 Paris

Forster Willi for Akris

The Akris Spring 2027 collection was created in collaboration with the Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth, whose expressive visual language is characterised by colour, movement and intuitive lines. Forster Willi is represented in the collection with two textile designs. A graphic all-over stripe print on fine silk organza links looks 15, 40, 44, 45 and 50, offering a modern interpretation of the classic striped motif. Look 17 adds a playful touch. The bag features multicoloured scribble embroidery, deliberately placed on canvas, whose free, sketch-like lines echo the collection’s expressive visual language.

Look 15: Akris Paris / Look 17: Akris Paris / Look 40: Akris Paris / Look 44: Akris Paris / Look 45: Akris Paris / Look 50: Akris Paris

Selected Looks – Prêt-à-Porter Spring 2027 Mailand

Forster Willi for Bottega Veneta

Willi Forster is represented in this collection with two designs. Look 36 combines a red all-over soutache floral pattern with various guipure meshes, bringing together floral forms and graphic structures. Look 37 places the guipure itself centre stage. Different mesh structures are combined to create a varied, multi-layered surface.

Look 36: Bottega Veneta Mailand / Look 37: Bottega Veneta Mailand

Forster Willi for Giorgio Armani

With the Spring 2027 collection, entitled ‘Evoluzione’, Giorgio Armani presents its first womenswear collection under the creative direction of Silvana Armani, thereby ushering the house’s unmistakable aesthetic into a new chapter. For Look 56, Forster Willi developed a graphic all-over pattern featuring pearls and sequins. The precise arrangement of the various elements creates a subtle interplay of texture, light and shimmer, lending the fabric a distinctive depth.

Look 56: Armani Mailand

Selected Looks – Haute Couture Fall 2026

Forster Willi for CHANEL

Forster Willi is featured in the current CHANEL Couture collection with five looks. For looks 1 and 2, an openwork guipure was created in which the bobbin side was deliberately used as the visible surface. Look 8 is characterised by a chint-style soutache guipure, whose shiny surface lends the design a special depth. For Look 15, intricate embroidery was executed on hand-woven tweed, complemented by a sophisticated appliqué. Another highlight is Look 17: here, a superposé embroidery comprising around 400,000 stitches was built up over a base embroidery, creating a multi-layered textile structure. Look 1 was also worn by Anna Wintour at the CHANEL Spring 2027 Prêt-à-Porter show.

Look 1: CHANEL Paris / Look 2: CHANEL Paris  / Look 8: CHANEL Paris / Look 15: CHANEL Paris / Look 17: CHANEL Paris 

Forster Willi for Dior

For the Dior Couture collection, Forster Willi brought to life one of the collection’s defining botanical motifs. Inspired by the organic forms of the American artist Lynda Benglis, a fern motif was created as a classic Forster Willi cotton guipure in Ivoire, which features in looks 60 and 66. The all-over embroidery was initially produced as a complete piece of fabric. For the wedding dress in Look 66, the individual ferns were then cut out by hand at the Dior Couture atelier, rearranged and applied one by one. In this way, the traditional guipure was transformed into an organic, almost sculptural composition that defines the entire dress.

Look 60: Dior Paris / Look 66: Dior Paris