Excellence In It-Girl Casting & 11 More FW26 Fashion-Month Superlatives

No offense to any one in particular, but if we see another black bias-cut slip dress as an evening-wear option, we might gouge our eyes out. Our favorite late-night looks had weird ribbons and squiggly lines throughout, like Area’s cassette-tape minidress and Tom Ford’s goth jellyfish.

It was mossy at Hermès, mossy at Miu Miu, and at Louis Vuitton, a Jeremy Hindle-designed futuristic landscape was moss-coded. Everything pointed towards designers wanting to “touch grass.”

Many editors and influencer skipped over London’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it four-day stint, but dropping in for Simone is always worth it. This prize-winning dress was both feminine and deeply unserious, which makes it all the more enchanting.

Under the creative direction of Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez, Loewe is continuing its streak of being for the art baddies and cool kids. True Whitaker, Sarah Pidgeon, Sissy Spacek, and Hari Nef all sat among Cosima von Bonin-designed sculptures (read: stuffed animals). It’s art, but it’s also, at the end of the day, really fun, as McCullough and Hernandez said via press release: “Humour can be revolutionary, at times the most piercing way to deliver a serious message.”

For all of Prada’s subtle glamour, the raccoon eyes they sent down the runway shocked us with its grit. Gucci followed suit, as did Saint Laurent; and when Hermès paired healthy skin with smudged eyes, we knew it was back for good.

Not since Karl Lagerfeld have Chanel shows been this fun; Matthieu Blazy knows how to lighten the mood. Not only was this technicolor chainmail section pure mermaid fantasy, but the holographic hair was a breath of fresh air on runways that are dead-set on making models look “natural.” Sometimes, a punch in the gut in the form of glittery hair is just what the doctor ordered.

Shearling, fur, faux fur, whatever it is: It’s everywhere. This season, the ante was upped to figure out how to make it show up in unusual ways. Trim was the way to go, and Stella made great use of faux fur as peplum belts, coat trims, and even on her Falabella bag.

I mean this with all the love in my heart, and designers Patric Dicaprcio and Bryn Taubensee would probably accept the term happily. Their Paris show always lands on the first day of the week, and what fun they’re having. Their collection was chock-full of references to Rudi Gernreich, Cristobal Balenciaga, Nicolas Ghesquière… we could go on, but they took these cues and brought them to new heights. It was weird, it was funny, and it was capital-F Fashion. We want more risk-takers on our schedules next season.

We called this out last season when Matthieu Blazy brought the Chanel skirt suit into the 21st century by pulling the waistband down a few inches, and this season, virtually everyone followed suit. Whether in mini denim form at 7 For All Mankind or in the pencil-adjacent way at Marni (pictured here), it’s a sure way to update your wardrobe.

Demna’s Gucci is hot. His first runway show was an epic undertaking and received both raves and pans — the dream for a provocateur like Demna. The clothes, bags, and shoes were desirable, as was the front-row, but the stars on the runway took the spotlight and ran with it. Gabbriette! EmRata! Sydney Carlson! Vivian Wilson! Kate F*cking Moss! Demna is the premier sociologist of our times.

There was a lot to love at Jonathan Anderson’s Monet-inspired runway, where guests sat and basked (read: baked) in the greenhouse built specifically for the show. This velvet frog, with gold feet and button-shaped eyes, is not only fodder for social media, but a collector’s item.