2026 could be the yr when the mud begins to settle in trend – after a yr of reset and refresh in 2025, the place over 15 artistic administrators started their tenures on the business’s main homes, the following 12 months will see them settle in and hone their artistic visions. This may start in January, when Jonathan Anderson and Matthieu Blazy, at Dior and Chanel respectively, will present their first high fashion collections after critically lauded debuts in 2025 (and, maybe extra importantly, their preliminary choices will land in shops).
However that’s to not say that we’re in a second of stasis: the debuts will proceed into 2026, with Maria Grazia Chiuri exhibiting her first assortment for Fendi; Demna holding his first runway present for Gucci; and the presumed debut of the (as but unnamed) new artistic director of Versace. And elsewhere, there will likely be loads extra notable type moments, from a slew of blockbuster exhibitions (together with the most important ever Costume Institute exhibition at The Met in New York) to some trendy on-screen moments.
Right here, as the brand new yr begins, every part to sit up for in trend in 2026.
The style exhibition renaissance will proceed
Younger Pink Kate Moss, London 1998, a part of exhibition The 90s at Tate Britain
(Picture credit score: © Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved)
Following what felt like an unprecedented variety of trend exhibitions in 2025 – even within the normally sleepy summer season months, we highlighted 11 to select from – the renaissance of the medium appears to be like set to proceed into 2026. Highlighted by Belle Hutton in her information to the unmissable trend exhibitions so as to add to your calendar in 2026, these will span the blockbuster – an Edward Enninful-curated exhibition on the Nineties at Tate Britain; an enormous Schiaparelli retrospective on the V&A – and extra introspective shows, like a poetic exhibition of works by photographer Rafael Pavarotti at Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris or the primary main exhibition on the ‘Antwerp Six’, an iconoclastic group of designers, who, within the late Eighties, would alter trend’s trajectory ceaselessly. Fittingly, it is going to happen at MoMu, Antwerp’s sensible trend museum.
Valentino will head again to its roots in Rome
Valentino’s S/S 2026 runway present. The subsequent will likely be held off-schedule in Rome
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Valentino)
In a notable schedule shift, Alessandro Michele has chosen to indicate his subsequent assortment for Valentino in Rome, town the place the home was based by Valentino Garavani in 1960 (the home has stated it is a one-off, returning to its common spot on the Paris trend schedule the season after). Different travelling exhibits in 2026 will embrace the same old Cruise circuit in late spring – notable this season for the primary Cruise exhibits from Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Demna at Gucci – which this yr, whether or not via serendipity or good planning, are largely set to happen in america. Gucci and Louis Vuitton will each present in New York, whereas Dior will present in Los Angeles; elsewhere, Chanel has chosen Biarritz, France and Max Mara Shanghai, China.
Véronique Nichanian will say goodbye to Hermès after a landmark have a tendency
Véronique Nichanian’s S/S 2023 assortment for Hermès, as featured within the March 2023 Fashion Difficulty of Wallpaper*
(Picture credit score: Images by Man Bolongaro, trend by Jason Hughes)
In October, it was introduced that Véronique Nichanian was to step down from her function as inventive director of Hermès’ males’s universe, a tenure which has lasted 37 years – the longest-running of a serving artistic director. Recognized for a temper of quiet magnificence – whereby archetypal menswear clothes are endlessly developed and perfected – she has achieved each business and demanding success. ‘I nonetheless love this job. Nonetheless, I consider that to follow it the way in which I wish to, it now requires an increasing number of time – and right this moment, I wish to commit that point to different issues,’ she stated. ‘Hermès has, above all, proven nice magnificence by permitting me to decide on the second that felt proper to step down. I’ve been fascinated with it and discussing it with Axel and Pierre-Alexis Dumas for a yr or two now. It’s time to go the baton.’ That baton will go to Grace Wales Bonner – an appointment which garnered unanimous reward from critics and on-line commentators – although the British designer is not going to present till January 2027. In the meantime, this January, Nichanian will maintain her swansong at Paris Style Week Males’s – a little doubt emotional ending to a unprecedented profession.
Maria Grazia Chiuri will present her first assortment for Fendi
Maria Grazia Chirui, who’s the brand new artistic director of Fendi
(Picture credit score: Paola Mattioli)
Simply if you thought the mud had settled, the artistic director reshuffle is about to proceed into 2026. Most notably, the arrival of Maria Grazia Chiuri at Fendi – a long-rumoured appointment since her exit from Dior in Could, confirmed by the Roman home in October. Hailing herself from Rome – and having began her profession at Fendi within the late Eighties – will probably be one thing of a homecoming. She is going to present as a part of Milan Style Week in February. Elsewhere, after launching his first assortment with a starry Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn-shot movie in September, Demna will maintain his first runway present for Gucci – additionally in Milan in February – whereas in New York, Rachel Scott will make her catwalk debut for Proenza Schouler, having hosted an intimate presentation final September.
Whereas Matthieu Blazy and Jonathan Anderson will make their high fashion debuts
Chanel’s S/S 2026 runway present, which marked Matthieu Blazy’s debut. He’ll present his first high fashion assortment in January
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Chanel)
High fashion stays the heady pinnacle of Parisian type: a medium which is meticulously outlined Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM) to retain the normal craft of bespoke dressmaking (one stipulation is that each robe have to be made-to-order to the precise contours of the consumer’s physique). Couture week in January appears to be like set to be the most-watched in years, down to 2 notable debuts: Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, and Jonathan Anderson at Dior (their ready-to-wear debuts got here in 2025). With each designers’ careers outlined by imaginative flights of craft and creativeness, their first couture exhibits in January will little doubt inject new power to Haute Couture Week – a interval of the style calendar which has felt in flux in current seasons.
Fashion can have its second on display screen in 2026
Anne Hathaway in A24’s Mom Mary, certainly one of a number of style-focussed movies to premiere in 2026
(Picture credit score: Frederic Batier)
‘2026 is shaping as much as be a yr to recollect for type on display screen,’ writes Orla Brennan in her rundown of the trendy movies to look out for in 2026. This after all consists of the return of Satan Wears Prada, with the much-anticipated sequel little doubt turning into a cultural lightning rod when it reaches screens in Could (as Brennan writes, ‘[it] guarantees to be essentially the most trendy movie of 2026 – or a minimum of, its wardrobe is sure to be essentially the most intently scrutinised by business platforms and devoted type followers’). However there’s loads extra apart: from Emerald Fennell’s daring retelling of Wuthering Heights to A24’s Mom Mary, by which Anne Hathaway performs a fictional pop star reverse Michaela Coel as a clothier, there will likely be loads of type moments to look out for. Plus, there’s the return of former clothier Tom Ford as director after A Single Man and Nocturnal Animals – he’s set to begin filming his adaption of Anne Rice’s Cry to Heaven early this yr, which at present has a tentative 2026 launch.
The Met Gala will likely be greater than ever
A collage depicting Mariano Fortuny’s Delphos robe atop a fifth Century BC terracotta statuette of Nike
(Picture credit score: Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork; Art work by Julie Wolfe)
The Met Gala – which celebrates the opening of the New York establishment’s blockbuster spring Costume Institute exhibition – stays one of many trend calendar’s notable moments (not least for its starry crimson carpet, which is unfurled annually on the primary Monday of Could). For 2026, that exhibition is titled ‘Costume Artwork’, weaving a thread between the Costume Institute’s archive of trend clothes and the depictions of clothes throughout The Met’s wider assortment, from work to historical artefacts. And this yr, it appears to be like set to be greater than ever: ‘Costume Artwork’ inaugurates the Costume Institute’s new 12,000 sq ft gallery, adjoining to the Met’s Nice Corridor (designed by Brooklyn-based structure agency Paterson Wealthy Workplace, will probably be named after Condé Montrose Nast, founding father of the eponymous publishing empire). Add to this a high-wattage line-up of co-chairs for the opening – Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams – and the occasion is bound to dominate the information cycle come Could.
Supply: Wallpaper
