They are rebellious aristocrats, writers, poets, performers, photographers and adventurers, women as comfortable aboard the Orient Express as they are crossing the Silk Road by camel. Their wardrobes retain traces of luxurious ocean liners, Asian monasteries, Indian ashrams, Central Asian caravans and the artistic objects collected along the way. Travel is not treated as escapism, but as a source of knowledge, independence and continual transformation.
For Fall-Winter 2026-27, the omnipresence of trousers becomes especially significant. For Sorbier, they represent the conquest of freedom and the emergence of a new female status. Cigarette trousers, jodhpurs, wide pyjama shapes and flowing skirt-trouser constructions appear beneath coats, capes and elaborate evening pieces, giving the collection a sense of practical movement despite its richness.
The silhouettes are generous and enveloping. Batwing coats, kimono collars, dramatic hoods and dressing-gown shapes recall garments acquired or observed on long journeys. A Himalayan-red wool and lurex coat is belted low across the hips, while another sweeping coat in red, burgundy, black and gold jacquard resembles marbled paper. Their volumes suggest both protection and freedom, the wardrobe of women who never remain in one place for long.
Textiles become Sorbier’s imaginary travel diary. Antique Japanese Tomesode embroidery is hand-painted and reworked onto a sculpted dress. An Uzbek ikat border accents a crushed red velvet coat, while giant and miniature palmettes recall Qajar Persia and the refined ornament of Mughal miniatures. Teal, black and gold mineral jacquards evoke stones and shifting landscapes; metallic fabrics resemble marbled bookbindings or richly decorated papers discovered in forgotten archives.
Sorbier’s eye for assemblage gives these references a personal rather than literal character. Frayed silk tie jacquards are pieced together into a Japonisme-inspired dressing gown worn over gold satin pyjamas. A black kaftan combines an irregular patchwork of fabrics, while a punk-inflected tailcoat covered in safety pins disrupts the collection’s historical elegance with humour and rebellion.
The natural world enters through the imagined photographic safaris of these globe-trotters. Tiger-striped jacquards, ivory velvet with an astrakhan effect and black-and-white silk-organza feathers transform animal references into tactile surfaces. Birds and botanical forms spread across black velvet capes, while raffia flowers build sculptural volume around the body and across dramatic hats.
Colour carries the collection from one destination to another. Red appears in Himalayan, brick, burgundy and spice-toned variations, energising the silhouettes with warmth. Gold and silver flash across select pieces like souvenirs of grand interiors, while black provides depth through clashes of velvet, crêpe, jacquard and organza. Natural white meets black in graphic contrasts, suggesting a constantly shifting balance between shadow and light.
The title’s reference to perfume adds another dimension to this voyage. Fragrance becomes an invisible archive: a way of recalling places, encounters and emotions long after departure. Fabrics, like scents, preserve memory. A jacquard may summon a palace carriage; an embroidered flower can evoke a distant garden; a particular red might recall a market, a sunset or the interior of a train moving toward an unknown city.