Stéphane Rolland, the art of the circus in haute couture

Haute Couture Summer 2026 – Cirque d'Hiver Bouglione

On January 27, 2026, Stéphane Rolland chose the Cirque d'Hiver Bouglione to present his Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection. A place steeped in history, where fashion becomes language, ritual, emotion. More than a fashion show, an aesthetic journey, silent and profoundly imbued with meaning.

Source: @floriansavina

Inspired by the world of the circus and the towering figure of Pablo Picasso, the collection unfolds like a procession. The silhouettes advance slowly, sculptural, almost solemn. Asymmetrical coats, long, architecturally structured capes, coat dresses, and jumpsuits create a strong, restrained body, free in its movement.

Source: Tagwalk

The house's signature materials—gazar, duchess satin, crepe—become structures. Here, clothing is architecture. The volume of the shoulders, the cubic sleeves, the bubble or corolla skirts evoke suspension, fragile balance, the moment just before the fall. Nothing is literal, everything is suggested.

Picasso runs through the collection like an invisible thread. His fascination with the circus, acrobats, and marginal figures fuels Rolland's imagination. The artist extracts its essence: the tension between gravity and fragility, between rigor and poetry. Black and white converse with bursts of red, crystal, and light.

Source: Tagwalk

Source: Tagwalk

Embroidery, the house's signature, becomes a language. Diamonds, rubies, and topazes appear like constellations. The jewelry, often made of plexiglass, is conceived as fragments of scenery. Jewelry becomes architecture, clothing becomes scenography.

Set to the music of Erik Satie and the melancholy of Nino Rota, the parade unfolds at a slow, hypnotic pace. The doves, a recurring motif, lend a symbolic and contemporary dimension: peace, rebirth, confidence. A discreet yet essential symbol.

Source: Tagwalk

Source Tagwalk

With this Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection, Stéphane Rolland affirms a vision of couture as a total art form. An elegant, controlled, and subdued inner circus. Fashion that doesn't seek to seduce through excess, but through presence.