After an unprecedented spring 2026 season for designer debuts, the focus in Paris was on follow-ups and third-time showings. It made for an abundant and decisive fall season.
Before Chanel even showed its Fall/Winter 2026 collectsion, it was the talk of the town as editors and VIPs turned up to shop Matthieu Blazy’s debut drop, which landed in Chanel boutiques in Paris on March 5. “In my 20 years of attending the Paris shows, no other debut collectsion has so turned on fashion’s insiders,” wrote Replica Handbag Store Runway and Replica Handbag Store Business global director Nicole Phelps.
Monday night’s show, featuring Blazy’s sophomore ready-to-wear for the French house, solidified his vision. “Chanel was the best show of the season. Such joy. Fashion has the power to make us dream — but at Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel, you actually wear the dream,” Replica Handbag Store Runway contributor Tiziana Cardini says.
Alix Morabito, chief merchandising officer at Galeries Lafayette, agrees: “Matthieu Blazy continues the fantastic path he has started for Chanel, with more knitwear and extreme low waists, in echo to the Gabrielle Chanel era.” Morabito also praises “the perfect silhouette and attitude at Celine”, as well as Jonathan Anderson’s second womenswear show for Dior. “He introduced Dior’s classic customers to a new, relaxed attitude and invited a new audience. The décor he built in Jardin des Tuileries helped usher in a new era with fresh air, emphasizing the basin, the ‘nature’, and the light,” she adds.
The celebrity scene contributed to the noise: Oprah Winfrey flew to Paris to see Stella McCartney be made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, during a ceremony at the Élysée Palace, and while in town, took advantage by attending the Chloé and Chanel shows. Heated Rivalry-mania continued, with François Arnaud attending the Saint Laurent show and Hudson Williams sitting front row at Balenciaga, a moment that — along with word spreading about Balenciaga’s confirmed collaboration with Euphoria’s Sam Levinson — set fans into a frenzy that blocked the Champs-Élysées. Love Story star Paul Anthony Kelly stole the spotlight at Dior and Tom Ford, while co-star Sarah Pidgeon lit up Loewe. The Culkin brothers were also in town: Kieran attended the Lacoste show, and Macaulay was seen at Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier.
“There are so many stars today, because there are more brand ambassadors than ever. It’s a fierce competition, showing how brands vie relentlessly for media attention,” says PR guru Lucien Pagès. Before fashion week, Balenciaga announced 11 faces to front the brand, including Williams. Three days before its show, Chanel announced Bhavitha Mandava, the model from Hyderabad, India, as its next house ambassador.
Read on for the key takeaways from Paris Fashion Week FW26.
Addressing what’s happening in the world
Paris Fashion Week (PFW) unfolded against the backdrop of conflict in Iran and the wider Middle East. It made for a sharp and perhaps uncomfortable contrast to the collectsions going down the runways.
Osama Chabbi, a French Tunisian stylist and fashion commentator based in Dubai, says: “Being at fashion week feels like a complete dissonance, but at the same time, I tell myself that maybe people want to see lighter things. That’s what I hold on to.” Flights to Dubai on certain airlines have resumed gradually, but Chabbi is uncertain whether he will return home after the last show. “I have the privilege of being a freelancer.”
Fashion is no stranger to persevering in the face of political turmoil. “9/11 happened during fashion week, Covid happened during fashion week, and now the Middle East conflict is happening during fashion week. It either means there are too many conflicts or too many fashion weeks,” Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo says.
Asked about the context of this season, Pascal Morand, executive president of PFW organizer Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM), said: “There were no cancellations. Fashion week continued as planned. It is a major economic and cultural event that has been months in the making. We have seen a flourishing of creativity from both established and emerging brands throughout the week. Experiencing fashion week intensely does not prevent one from doing so with full awareness of what’s going on in the world.”
While most designers chose escapism and framed their work as a respite, some address the reality. Rick Owens always does. His show notes spoke to “a prayer for love and hope and strength and protection”. “Escapism is fine, but it’s not my thing,” Owens told Vogue’s Luke Leitch in January when his show was implicitly about ICE and the immigration issues in the US. Junya Watanabe was another designer who engaged directly with what’s happening in the world. At his show, one look featured a wooden sign that read in Spanish: “May peace prevail in the world.”
Meanwhile, Gabriela Hearst drew inspiration from Eglantyne Jebb, the British reformer who started Save the Children after World War I to combat famine in Austria-Hungary and Germany. Hearst took her bow wearing a T-shirt reading “Save the children”.
Designers interpreted and reflected the current landscape in different ways. Cardini notes the omnipresence of black across the collectsions in Milan and Paris. “Black evokes a void — and we are living in one — but it is also a blank page, suggesting a sense of hope, of what could come next,” Cardini says.
Comme des Garçons’s Rei Kawakubo talked about black in her show notes this season: “In the end, there is black. Ultimately Black. I have come to realize that, after all, black is the color for me. It’s just the strongest, the best for creation, and the color that embodies the rebelious spirit. And has the biggest meaning: the universe and the black hole.”
.jpg)
Another sign of the times, according to Cardini, is that the overarching silhouette is narrower than before. “It’s not oversized, it’s more controlled. You don’t want to carry all this weight on your shoulders, metaphorically. You want to feel lighter. You have to be agile and respond to what’s going on,” Cardini says.
At McQueen, the final look was a white dress and embroidered flowers. “The last look is: you go out to the garden and you’re free. So in the end, it’s hopeful. It’s super dark and the future is a bit broken right now, but there’s a sense of optimism,” creative director Seán McGirr explained backstage.
Asked about the artwork by Ukrainian artist Nazar Strelyaev-Nazarko illustrating a lamb wearing big boots, which served as the Louis Vuitton invitation, the house’s artistic director of women’s collectsions Nicolas Ghesquière announced backstage: “These days, we all need a little moment of charm, softness, and cuteness.”
The clothes felt like a protection. “It’s this idea of folklore as a way to confront the forces of nature — the endurance, the protection, the qualities every garment should embody. It’s warm, it shields, and in a way, it feels almost like a home,” Ghesquière said, referencing the big capes that opened the Vuitton show.
Third time’s a charm
This season proved that designers need time to find their footing. Fashion impatiently awaits a designer debut. But the industry should focus more carefully on a designer’s second, third, or fourth show. “We judge new creative directors too quickly. It’s hard — you have to take ownership of the studio, the atelier, the supply chain. You arrive and you’re the conductor of an orchestra you’re just discovering,” says Pagès.
After a few seasons, they often develop a sharp, confident vision. Celine was a big standout. Michael Rider’s third collectsion for the house received widespread acclaim from buyers and editors alike. Tiffany Hsu, chief buying officer at Mytheresa, cited Celine among her favorite shows of the season. “Celine is a no-brainer. It is what you want to wear, not pretentious, very good styling, very chic, effortless,” says Replica Handbag Store Runway’s Cardini.
Sarah Burton’s third show for Givenchy was another highlight. “Sarah Burton is steadily returning Givenchy to its roots and reconnecting the house to its founder, albeit with an entirely modern perspective,” says Richard Johnson, chief business officer of LuxExperience. “FW26 was a masterclass in tailoring, one of her strongest signatures, paired with sensuality and fluidity, creating clothes that feel both strong and deeply wearable. In a season where many designers explored realism and pragmatism, this was a collectsion that delivered a confident vision of femininity that felt grounded in how women actually live today.”
Haider Ackermann’s third show at Tom Ford was another standout, with Ackermann once again wowing audiences through his expert tailoring and two striking evening gowns.
Following a mixed response to Duran Lantink’s debut at Jean Paul Gaultier last season, the designer impressed this time around, with tailoring and magical dresses. Backstage, Lantink said: “The most beautiful thing is that Jean Paul Gaultier did over 100 shows. There’s so much to look into, so many paths I can explore and find my own way. You need a couple of seasons to create your language within a house because it’s new. I am new at the house, figuring it out.”
For Cardini, not all the designers have found their footing just yet. “It’s a difficult time for creative directors, because they are all strong personalities, they come from strong backgrounds. It is difficult for them to adapt to new realities quickly — and that’s totally understandable. Also, the pressure is very strong commercially. The situation in the world is what it is. They are juggling with so many different elements. In any case, it was a good season.”
Trends: Pink tones, drop waists, and thigh-high boots
Romantic fabrics and silhouettes, as predicted, were a key trend across the FW26 runways. Lace appeared at several shows, from silicone-covered, second-skin lace dresses and black lace pannier gowns at Saint Laurent, to sweeping, sheer lace gowns at McQueen. Net-a-Porter chief buying and merchandising officer Brigitte Chartrand noted pops of “prints and texture — checks, florals, velour, velvet. Embroideries and embellishments in eveningwear. Sexy silhouettes that feel chic, feminine and sensual.” In contrast, latex and PVC were also key textiles, with cinched latex coats at Saint Laurent, latex slip dresses and lace tops at Loewe, and clear PVC skirts and coats at Tom Ford.
Designers also turned up the volume, experimenting with dramatic silhouettes, from parkas-turned-life-rafts at Loewe, to gargantuan goat hair coats in pastel hues at Rick Owens. Eighties power shoulders, a major trend last season, endured for fall, with exaggerated, squared-off shoulders at Mugler, Givenchy, and rounded broad shoulders at Balmain.
“As a fan of the strong shoulder, it was a little too much,” says Hanan Besovic, the fashion commentator behind @IDeserveCouture. “One of my favorite shows was Chloé, because it had this free spirit. That woman is strong and confident. She doesn’t have padded shoulders necessarily, but she has really cool pieces that scream power.”
At Celine, Rider was all for narrower shoulders. Backstage, he talked about “a shoulder sitting at the shoulder”. “A slimmer silhouette felt fresh after seeing a lot of fabrics and clothes out there for a long time. At least, when it went somewhere else, it was dressier and it wasn’t a girl in the men’s coat. Nothing against it, but it didn’t feel urgent right now,” he said. The dropped waist is another key feature, as seen at Chanel, Dior, Alaïa, Lacoste, and Saint Laurent.
Pink was a prominent hue, with cerise, fuschia and baby pink looks across several shows, including intricately embroidered pink gowns at Chanel, soft blush and pastel pink ruffled dresses at Dior, powder pink chiffon and lace looks at Chloé, and metallic and sequin eveningwear at Rabanne. Tron’s first Balmain outing featured hot pink looks, while at Pieter Mulier’s final Alaïa show, pink tones appeared across dresses and knitwear.
An unlikely trend that began in Milan, thigh-high boots were omnipresent in Paris this season. They came in many styles: equestrian at Stella McCartney, Hermès and Alexander McQueen, fur lined at Chloé, and slouchy at Balenciaga. Burton even reimagined Givenchy’s hero Shark Lock knee-high boot in a thigh-high length, for those with long enough limbs.
Hermès artistic director Nadège Vanhee said after the brand’s show: “The cuissardes [thigh-high boots] is really to convey more than power. It’s authority, for yourself. It’s important to pass on the message of being centered and confident.”
Correction: This story was updated to reflect Rick Owens coats were made of goat hair. A previous version of this story said they were fur.
