3 min readIt was one of the most anticipated debuts of recent years, and Jonathan Anderson came out swinging. The designer reinvented Dior with froufrou grunge demi-couture, complete with padded hips, military-inspired jackets, and his own version of an 18th-century bicorne hat. He wasn’t the only one to rewind the clock this season: Catherine Holstein of Khaite experimented with rigid bodices, while Simone Rocha continued to tease out interpretations of modern romanticism with drop waists and sumptuous fabrics. Nicolas Ghesquière chose to show his spring Louis Vuitton collection in Anne of Austria’s 17th-century summer apartments at the Louvre.
Fashion is having another retro renaissance, and it draws from an era well before low-rise jeans. In fact, this style takes these ideas to the extreme: The silhouettes are unabashedly romantic, and embellishments are handcrafted with eclectic wares. In short, the runways are going cuckoo for Rococo.
Charli XCX wears Vivienne Westwood.
The Rococo movement was a heavily decorative style associated with 18th-century France, steeped in unabashed decadence and associated with an era of excess. What’s less remembered: The aesthetic was, at first, rebellious. Its ornamental playfulness and disavowal of classical rules stood in stark contrast to the symmetry and austerity of the Baroque period. On today’s runways, panniers sing a tune of disenchantment with yesterday’s cashmere crewnecks. Clothing is again taking up space—in shape, color, and our conversations.
It also helps that period-piece television is gripping our screens. Between The Gilded Age and Bridgerton, it’s clear that viewers are lusting after a sense of historical sentimentalism experienced through scripted drama and rose-colored glasses. Plus, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and few movie visuals have nailed such a sardonic interpretation of Rococo style as the anachronistic pair of Converses seen during the film’s fashion montage.
Meruert Tolegen spring 2026.
New York designer Meruert Tolegen admires the era’s exquisite craftsmanship, something that she feels is apparent even at the first glance of a Fragonard. She often studies the Rococo works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the classics at the Frick Collection for inspiration. What strikes her most is the expertise, both in the paintings themselves and the clothing pictured, each alluding to a vast archive of lost techniques. “It’s not necessarily discernible how they made the garment, but [it sparks] this love for the intricacy of embroideries and beadings,” she explains. The designer doesn’t foresee a modern woman wearing her panniers to run errands. She is not a “cream puff” waiting to be decorated, she jokes; however, she delights in offering an updated interpretation that pays homage to a former era of skilled design.
Erdem spring 2026.
“I think the sense of structure and silhouette can lend itself beautifully to a woman’s wardrobe now,” echoes Erdem Moralıoğlu. His spring 2026 collection took inspiration from Hélène Smith, a 19th-century medium and artist who believed that in one of her past lives, she had been a member of the French court. The designer, who recently celebrated 20 years in business, sees power in the way intricate dressing “allows for a presence,” away from the tides of hyper-minimalism. Nothing is quite as luxurious as a finely crafted garment made with immense attention to detail, and so, whether it be an ’80s rock ’n’ roll redux, homage to the aughts, or a Rococo revival, it makes sense that visible ornamentation is so back.
Lead image: Dior spring 2026.
This story appears in the April 2026 issue of ELLE.