Paris Haute Couture Week recently wrapped its Fall 2026 season, and one show in particular drew out attention. At Zuhair Murad, half of all looks pulled a fine, sheer mesh veil straight down over the entire face, worn under a sleek low bun, with a handful of looks sending models down the runway with a butterfly ornament suspended delicately over the lips. We couldn’t help but think back to another couture moment built on the same visual element: Schiaparelli’s Fall 2024 show, awash in black-ish and rich jewel tones, where models moved through a dim, chandelier-lit room with their faces entirely shrouded in crinoline veils. Two very different designers, two seasons apart, both circling the same idea. Here’s a closer look at both as a source of inspiration for fashion-forward brides looking for an unconventional wedding veil.
Photo: Schiaparelli, Zuhair Murad
Zuhair Murad: A Veil Drawn from a Fairy Tale
Zuhair Murad’s Fall 2026 couture collection “Love and Dominion” centers on a heroine who has, in the designer’s own words, “refused to surrender,” someone who remains “powerful, unbroken, protective, and magnificent” even as her world falls apart. The story places her in an imagined realm of ice castles that never melt and forests where old legends still whisper, a woman who gives freely yet keeps part of herself hidden away in what Murad calls a secret garden. Nightjars, birds long tied to omen and superstition, appear throughout as appliqués and sculptural reliefs on black tulle, their once-unsettling silhouette reworked into something graceful. Frosted rose brambles in crystal embroidery wind across fitted jackets and dramatic necklines, and the palette stays wintry from end to end: deep black, fir green, and wine, occasionally spilling across pale pink tulle.
Against that backdrop, the beauty styling added its own separate layer of storytelling: a fine sheer veil, worn under a sleek low bun, showed up across several looks in different forms. On some, a cluster of white butterflies sat at the temple, trailing into the mesh like they had just landed there. On others, a single butterfly was placed directly over the lips, turning the mouth into the focal point instead of the eyes. On simpler looks, the veil covered the face with no butterfly at all.
Photo: Filippo Fior, Guillaume
Schiaparelli: The Crinoline Veil
At Schiaparelli’s Fall 2024 show, titled The Phoenix, the set was a dimly lit basement lit only by chandeliers, and models walked at a deliberately slow pace with crinoline veils shrouding their faces, only stepping into pools of light to reveal the gown underneath. Creative director Daniel Roseberry said he wanted the collection to reference an earlier era, pulling from the silhouettes and salon-style presentations of the 1950s. Kylie Jenner, seated front row, showed up in an iridescent pink sequin dress with a matching rose-colored veil draped over her own face, echoing the mood before the show had even started.
A fully shrouded face could read as claustrophobic by some people, but that is not really how these veils played out. The crinoline never clung to the neck. It fell loosely from the crown, gathered neatly over an updo or bun, and ended well before it reached the shoulders, so the effect stayed closer to a soft, floating layer than a wrapped or bound one. It obscured the face without ever looking restrictive. The mesh also softened rather than erased the features underneath, blurring them just enough that each model read as a slightly abstract silhouette rather than a specific face, which pushed the eye toward the shape of the gown instead of any embellishment on it.
Photo: Schiaparelli
Between them, Murad and Schiaparelli reimagined a traditional face covering as a sculptural design element in its own right, not an afterthought stitched on at the end. Both moments land on something bridal style already understands instinctively. A blusher veil, the layer traditionally lifted at the altar, works on the same logic: delay the reveal, let anticipation do some of the emotional work. Couture just proved that the idea still has plenty of room to expand.
