Fashion, as we well know, is in a state of flux. According to the Business Of Fashion-McKinsey State of Fashion Executive Survey, “challenging” was the word executives used most frequently to describe the fashion industry in 2025, with businesses facing several challenges: from tariff hikes and artificial intelligence to inflation. The pandemic-induced slow down of the industry seems like a distant memory. Across the spring/summer 2026 season, we saw no fewer than 15 debuts take to the international fashion stage in an ongoing game of creative director musical chairs.
Shop the key Spring/Summer fashion trends:
It’s not all doom and gloom: while constant change might not be conducive to market stability, it has created an opportunity for a new wave of design talent to rewrite the fashion narrative and put their own stamp on some of the world’s most famous houses. Of course, 13 out of 15 of the newly-appointed creative directors were men (that’s a discussion for another time), but it was the two leading ladies that led the charge in shaping 2026’s new vision of luxury.
Louise Trotter’s debut for Bottega Veneta was all anyone could talk about at Milan Fashion Week in September. The designer’s dynamic, tactile fabrics paid homage to the handwoven, “algorithm-proof” design lexicon, which was cemented by Matthieu Blazy during his tenure at the brand. The elevated everyday luxury mood was captured in the collection’s swirling, flame-coloured sweater, which was made out of art installation-worthy recycled fibreglass and styled with white trousers and sporty pumps. “[The fabric] has the feeling of fur and it moves like glass,” Trotter said of the piece. Fashion with feeling, you could call it.
Jamaican-born Rachel Scott, meanwhile, redefined the “lady of leisure” archetype through her first collection for Proenza Schouler via soft draping, uncomplicated separates and a sophisticated colour palette of cream, sea glass-green and burnt orange. Like Trotter, Scott put materials front and centre, combining the brand’s body-skimming silhouettes with the modern bohemia that underpinned the aesthetic of her own brand, Diotima. “This is really a collaboration with the team: getting to know the language of the brand and silhouette and colour, but then starting to inject a little bit of my point of view,” Scott told Vogue Runway. “There are a lot more textures than you would normally see.”
Reinventions weren’t just the reserve of individual design houses, however, as spring/summer 2026 saw the Tumblr-coded “dark academia” trend given a new lease of life – or should we say light – through the literary mood that ran through the collections of Chanel, Celine, Prada and Tory Burch. Blazy’s Chanel has already won over the hard-to-please fashion crowd with its palette-cleansing approach to the house’s historic design codes: think cropped tweed tailoring, woven twinsets and endorphin-fuelled fabrics that were less “brooding student”, more “elegant librarian”. Meanwhile, Michael Rider put an equestrian spin on intellectual dressing at Celine, via his printed silk scarves, nipped-in jackets and jodhpur-inspired trousers.
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said: “The only constant in life is change.” Now, let’s go shopping. – Joy Montgomery, shopping editor
Utility dressing
Call it the lockdown ripple effect, call it a recession indicator, but functional clothing has never been so central to the fashion conversation. But beyond orthopaedic shoes and stretchy waistbands, this season saw fashion designers lean into utility dressing in a new, and altogether more elevated, way. Lemaire, Balmain and Akris interpreted classic utilitarian silhouettes – think cargo jackets and pocket-laden shorts – in buttery-soft leathers and suedes. Elsewhere, Rick Owens and Ralph Lauren entered the chat with tough, military-inspired outerwear rendered in diaphanous sheer fabrics. Burberry, meanwhile, made a good case for styling your favourite vintage utility jacket over party-ready metallics – an offbeat, high-low mood that couldn’t feel more British. – JM
It’s been 34 years since Donna Tartt’s Secret History climbed to the top of bestseller lists and launched the “dark academia” sub-genre. And while this aesthetic found itself thrust back into the zeitgeist in the early 2020s, when it comes to fashion, the spring/summer 2026 catwalks leant into a softer interpretation of literary styling. From Celine to Tory Burch, designers presented an intellectual take on everyday dressing that was utilitarian yet by no means lacking in individuality. At Chanel, Matthieu Blazy reworked the house codes with proper, but not prim, tweed twinsets styled with layered necklaces and lightweight knits, meanwhile Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons created a more uniform-coded vibe with simple A-line skirts and knitted polos in rich shades of burgundy, navy and green, paired with knotted silk neck scarves. – JM
Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel debut was pure joy. Set against an enchanting solar system backdrop in the Grand Palais, the collection featured fresh takes on the maison’s bouclé and fabulous explosions of texture, such as the now-famous “piña colada” skirt, worn by Awar Odhiang with a silk T-shirt during the finale. Blazy wasn’t the only one to focus on tactility this season, with Bottega Veneta, Dries Van Noten, Loewe and Alaïa among the other brands that grounded their looks with plays on texture and vibrant colours. – Alice Cary, senior shopping writer
What does quiet luxury look like in 2026? It’s loose silhouettes and luxurious fabric combinations. Rachel Scott’s Proenza Schouler offering focused on elevated ease via layered separates that were forgiving in their fit while retaining their structure; Irish designer Maria McManus found soft power through champagne silks and louche denim, made in collaboration with Agolde; and Jonathan Anderson reinvigorated grey marl in his draped cardigans and enveloping scarves, paired with wide-leg trousers (and pointed hats, for a dose of drama). The mood is laid-back, but by no means lazy. – AC
