Paris has long stood as fashion month’s grand crescendo, but Spring/Summer 2026 arrives with a rare, almost operatic intensity. Across nine days from September 29 to October 7, the city becomes a stage for creative handovers, historic debuts and a palpable sense that the industry is in the midst of profound transition.
The season is punctuated by generational shifts: Matthieu Blazy unveiling his inaugural Chanel collection, Jonathan Anderson imprinting Dior Women’s with his sculptural intelligence, and Pierpaolo Piccioli reimagining Balenciaga with his romantic precision. Glenn Martens at Maison Margiela, Duran Lantink for Jean Paul Gaultier’s ready-to-wear, Miguel Castro Freitas at Mugler and Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe complete a constellation of exciting debuts.
Even the calendar itself signals change. Saint Laurent opens at the Trocadéro in a display of monumental theatre, Louis Vuitton abandons its nocturnal tradition for a daylight Louvre presentation, and Jean Paul Gaultier returns to prêt-à-porter after more than a decade away. Alongside these icons, the schedule welcomes Ganni’s Paris debut and the fresh perspectives of Julie Kegels and Façon Jacmin, emerging voices whose inclusion underscores a city willing to expand its vocabulary.
Seventy-six runway shows, thirty-six presentations, seven landmark debuts: this is not merely the conclusion of fashion month but a moment in which Paris asserts its power to both honour heritage and script what comes next.
Below we have rounded up our favourite shows from Paris SS ’26.
Paris SS ’26 Fashion Week Highlights
Chanel
Under the new direction of Matthieu Blazy, Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2026 show marked a theatrical rebirth for the house. Blazy took the maison’s treasured codes — tweed jackets, camellias, knitwear — and reworked them with a fresh irreverence: satin tees paired with feathered ball skirts, knit v-necks layered over undershirts, and wrap skirts embroidered with historic motifs.
Zimmermann
Dubbed Kindred Spirit, Zimmermann’s latest collection was a love letter to the artistic kinships of the 1970s — a celebration of creativity, community, and the bold women who defied convention. Inspired by the Lavender Bay art collective in Sydney, Creative Director Nicky Zimmermann channelled the decade’s liberated energy into exuberant silhouettes awash with psychedelic florals, warped prints, and offbeat colour combinations.
Loewe
A study in sculptural minimalism and sensual clarity, Loewe’s SS’26 runways reinterpreted the house’s 180-year Spanish heritage through a contemporary, sun-drenched lens. Designers Jack and Lazaro distilled the essence of craftsmanship into clean silhouettes – think: parkas, minidresses, and macs rendered in vivid, printer-cartridge hues and tactile leathers.
Balenciaga
The Heartbeat, marked Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut as Creative Director, redefining the Maison’s legacy not through homage, but through recalibration. Central to the collection was the dynamic interplay between body and cloth, where garments like leather jackets, knits, chinos, and t-shirts explored space, air, and form as vital components of their construction.
Valentino
Drawing inspiration from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s reflections on the luminous insects as symbols of hope amid darkness, creative director Alessandro Michele reimagined fashion as a vessel for human connection and quiet rebellion. Each piece shimmered like a flicker of defiance — delicate yet powerful — celebrating individuality in an age of conformity.
Celine
Celine’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, envisioned by Michael Rider, unfolded like an unbroken narrative—a seamless continuation of the house’s July show. It explored the tension between restraint and sensuality, pairing the brand’s signature discretion with the ease and heat of summer. There was a quiet romance in its simplicity: garments conceived not just as fashion, but as companions to moments and memories. Lightness, longevity, and an effortless sense of cool defined this chapter of Celine’s evolving story.
Dior
At the Dior Spring/Summer 2026 show, Jonathan Anderson boldly stepped into the House’s storied couture legacy with a debut that felt reverent yet radically personal. The collection reframed archive codes like frock coats, Bar jackets and waistcoats, re-assembling them alongside youth-inflected elements: inflated cargos, distressed denim and unexpected deconstruction that tugged tradition into fresh territory.
Tom Ford
At the Spring 2026 Tom Ford show, Haider Ackermann took the house’s cinematic signature into seductive new territory, orchestrating models who “slithered and slinked” across a lacquered midnight-blue set as if caught in a lovers’ tête-à-tête. His silhouettes played daring games with exposure—triangle bra tops stood in for shirts, sheer shorts revealed jockstraps, and asymmetric gowns draped in gravity-defying wire construction clung to the body in evocative arcs
Saint Laurent
For Saint Laurent’s Spring 2026 runway – staged beneath banks of white hydrangeas spelling “YSL” with the Eiffel Tower as a nocturnal witness – Anthony Vaccarello leaned into the House’s codes. Think: exaggerated shoulders, crisp pussy-bow blouses, and leather corsetry. But, in this latest collection these signatures of the maison felt looser courtesy of with sheer nylons and flowing dresses that whispered of intimacy and risk. The collection shifted from sharp, structured tailoring into romantic neo-baroque gowns, each silhouette gradually softening but never losing its edge in a stunning unravelling.
Louis Vuitton
Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest collection for Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer served as a celebration of the boundless freedom of the private sphere and a championing of the art of living. There was a sense of rebellion against the rules of what “indoor” clothing should be, yet it never lost Vuitton’s sharp tailoring and refined finish.
Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney’s Spring/Summer 2026 show channeled a spirited duality—masculine energy meeting feline sensuality—within an ethos of uncompromising sustainability. Denim played a starring role: stitched with PURETECH fibers that cleanse the air, they appeared in wide-leg interpretations and asymmetrically knotted back panels. For the finale, McCartney debuted Fevvers, a plant-based alternative to feathers used to adorn a strapless purple column dress that fluttered like couture plumage without harm.
GANNI
GANNI’s Spring/Summer 2026 show at the Bastille Design Center in Paris was a nostalgic love letter to seaside summers and the freedom of self-expression. Inspired by Creative Director Ditte Reffstrup’s childhood in the Danish fishing town of Hirtshals, the collection captured the innocence of long, endless days by the water while reimagining them for the self-assured GANNI Woman. Patchwork styling, hand-crochet textures, and draped silhouettes brought a sense of play and adaptability, while tulip-shaped coats, smocked dresses, and blurred floral prints evoked memories softened by time.
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