Some Great Moments At Paris Fashion Week

For Spring 2026, Chloé creative director Chemena Kamali asked a bold question: What would couture look like through its own lens of freedom and ease? It’s a paradox for a house built on democratic values, but one Kamali leaned into with curiosity rather than contradiction. The collection traced Chloé’s origins back to founder Gaby Aghion, who loved the idea of couture but rejected its elitism, believing beauty and quality belonged in everyday life. That spirit returned here in soft, considered silhouettes that were structured yet fluid, and precise yet light. Draping became the central language, shaping movement through pleats, knots and wraps. Simple cotton poplins replaced precious fabrics, while archival floral prints from the '50s and '60s were redrawn with a modern touch. Even outerwear felt unbound, reworked in airy cottons that moved easily with the body. Shown at UNESCO, the setting reinforced the message: Chloé’s vision of couture isn’t about hierarchy. It’s about openness.

Photos courtesy of Chloé

Hermès’ Spring 2026 collection was like a poem to freedom, set against a landscape of wind, salt and sun. The muse was a modern horsewoman, moving with ease and authority, her clothes shaped by motion and the elements. Drawing from an antique Camargue saddle in the Hermès archives, creative director Nadège Vanhée wove equestrian heritage into refined, effortless dressing. Quilted linen, hand-waxed leathers, straps and buckles all nodded to the brand’s saddle-making roots, reimagined through a contemporary lens. Sculpted bras anchored flowing silhouettes; silk scarves became tops, chokers and layered harnesses. Utility met sensuality in trench-inspired coats, corseted dresses and modular pieces designed to reveal rather than conceal. Colors and prints echoed the Mediterranean — Hermès at its most elemental.

Photos courtesy of Hermès

Mugler’s Spring 2026 show, "Stardust Aphrodite" (the first part of a series called "The Obscure Object of Desire: A Trilogy of Glorified Clichés"), opened in near darkness before exploring the tension between fantasy and flesh, reviving the mythic showgirl as a symbol of both power and vulnerability. Think old Hollywood glamour meets cabaret surrealism: corseted silhouettes melting into fluid jersey, feathers and satin offset by bare skin treated as the ultimate fabric. New creative director Miguel Castro Freitas balanced the brand's signature sharpness with sensuality, blurring lines between strength and seduction, masculine and feminine, fantasy and reality. Sculpted tailoring, liquid pastels and cascades of shredded fringe played with that duality. Under pulsing stage lights, the collection turned glamour itself into a statement.

Photos courtesy of Mugler

Stella McCartney’s show at the Centre Pompidou opened with Helen Mirren reciting the lyrics to “Come Together,” The Beatles’ song all about unity. It set the tone for a collection rooted in Stella’s lifelong message of compassion for people, animals and the planet. The Stella woman this season was a study in balance: masculine and feminine, structured and fluid, grounded and otherworldly. The wardrobe, made from 98% conscious and 100% cruelty-free materials, played with sharp tailoring and airy movement with double-breasted jackets, wide-leg trousers and crisp cotton cargo minis softened by sheer crinoline hems. Upcycled denim appeared across jeans, shoes and bags; sequins caught the light on shirting and evening gowns; and a hand-painted Spiral Cornflower print added a touch of craft from Stella’s London atelier. The big reveals were two new material breakthroughs: FEVVERS, a plant-based feather alternative used in corseted gowns, and PURE.TECH, a programmable fabric that literally cleans the air by absorbing CO₂ and pollutants. It was fashion with purpose.

Thom Browne’s Spring 2026 show was a cosmic collision between old-world formality and outer-space fantasy. Set in a historic hotel “built many moons ago,” the collection imagined a meeting between earthlings and elegant extraterrestrials, with Browne’s signature tailoring beamed into the year 3000. Sport coats were reengineered with forward-tilted raglan-style shoulders, cinched waists and flared hems to create a sharp new silhouette. Drop-waist skirts and cropped cricket sweaters nodded to classic prep, while tweeds, seersucker and repp stripes were decorated with grommets, sequins and metallic shimmer. The result was equal parts Ivy League and intergalactic. Beneath the spectacle, Browne stayed true to his craft, connecting tradition and imagination, human and alien alike.

Photos courtesy of Thom Browne

This season, creative director Alessandro Michele was thinking about fireflies. In 1941, a young student in Bologna named Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote about them as symbols of desire and resistance and how their tiny lights keep shining even in the darkness of war. More than 30 years later, he lamented their “disappearance,” using it as a metaphor for the conformity and cultural emptiness he saw taking over society. Art historian Georges Didi-Huberman later countered that the fireflies hadn’t vanished. We simply stopped noticing them. Their light, though faint, still exists for those willing to look. The idea feels especially relevant now. Fashion, too, has the power to reveal those quiet sparks — to find light and individuality amid uniformity, to make us see again. It reminds us that imagination and beauty, however fragile, continue to survive.

Photos courtesy of Valentino