In trend, 2025 was undoubtedly the yr of the debut: over the course of the yr, greater than 15 designers confirmed their first collections for the trade’s main homes – together with Jonathan Anderson at Dior and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel – marking the beginning of a definitive new period in model.
For his personal debut present at Balenciaga in October in Paris, former Valentino inventive director Pierpaolo Piccioli delivered the yr’s most intriguing invitation: a transportable tape participant and a pair of wired headphones, which, when performed, reverberated with the sound of a beating coronary heart.
Wallpaper* Design Awards: Balenciaga’s cassette-player invite is our ‘Greatest Heartwarmer’
A glance from Pierpaolo Piccioli’s S/S 2026 present for Balenciaga, which marked his debut assortment for the home
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Balenciaga)
The impact was two-fold. On the one hand, it captured the anticipation and stress such high-profile debuts contain, on the opposite, it was an emblem of Piccioli’s at all times heartfelt method to design – one outlined by a generosity of material, a daring use of color and a veneration of handcraft.
‘The heartbeat is the rhythm we share, the heart beat that reminds us we’re human,’ he wrote in a letter launched simply earlier than the S/S 2026 present. ‘For each heartbeat there’s a identify, a second, a gesture. This assortment comes from that place of affection and connection. It’s as a lot mine as it’s of those that lived it with me – in each manner. Maybe with a special pulse, however at all times with the identical soul.’
READ: Pierpaolo Piccioli makes Balenciaga debut ‘from a spot of affection and connection’
Uncover all of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026 winners in the February challenge of Wallpaper*, obtainable in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple Information + from 8 January 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* right this moment
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