PARIS – Demna’s final haute couture collection for Balenciaga and Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela will be among the highlights of a thinned-out Paris Couture Week, the provisional calendar released Monday by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode confirmed.

As reported, Dior is sitting out the season following the arrival of Jonathan Anderson at the creative helm of womenswear. He succeeds Maria Grazia Chiuri, who showed 31 haute couture looks as part of her swansong cruise collection in Rome last week.

Jean Paul Gaultier is also taking a break after appointing Duran Lantink as creative director, switching from its strategy of seasonal guest designers. The Woolmark Prize winner is set to show his first ready-to-wear collection for the house in September and will make his couture debut next January.

Also dropping off the calendar this season are Alexis Mabille, Julien Fournié, Gaurav Gupta, Maison Sara Chraibi and Miss Sohee.

There will be 27 shows on the four-day fall couture schedule slated to run between July 7 and 10, with Schiaparelli kicking off proceedings on the Monday at 10 a.m. and Germanier closing the week at 5.30 p.m. on the Thursday.

Balenciaga will stage its annual couture show on July 9 at midday, after which Demna will move to Gucci and hand the baton to Pierpaolo Piccioli, who was confirmed as the brand’s new creative director last month.

Meanwhile, Martens will inaugurate his tenure at Margiela with an Artisanal collection due to be unveiled on July 9 at 7.30 p.m.

After presenting his first couture collection for Valentino in January, Alessandro Michele is sitting out this season. The Italian house announced in September that it planned to show couture once a year in Paris.

Among those returning to the official calendar are Iris Van Herpen, who has also moved to an annual calendar for her couture collections; Robert Wun; ArdAzAei and Adeline André. Syrian-born, Dubai-based designer Rami Al Ali will be making his debut on the official calendar on July 10 at 2.30 p.m.

Chanel, Giambattista Valli, Zuhair Murad and Stéphane Rolland will stick to their usual time slots. Chanel is showing its last collection designed by a studio team ahead of Matthieu Blazy’s debut show as artistic director in October.

Giorgio Armani Privé’s two shows will take place at July 8 at 6.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m., instead of 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. previously, while on July 9, Elie Saab has moved to 2.30 p.m. from 12.30 p.m., and Viktor & Rolf to 4 p.m. from 4.30 p.m.

Juana Martin and Ashi Studio have moved up by two days and will now be showing on the Tuesday at 3.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m., respectively.

In another eagerly awaited debut, Michael Rider will present his debut collection for Celine on the eve of Paris Couture Week with a fashion show on July 6 at 2.30 p.m., as previously reported. It is not yet clear if the display will feature womenswear, menswear or both.

Patou will show its spring 2026 women’s ready-to-wear collection on the same day at 5 p.m.