Any designer’s first show is marked by a mixture of excitement and fear. Add to that pressure the city of Paris, home to some of fashion’s most storied houses, and the timing of the S/S 2026 season, which saw an unprecedented wave of high-profile creative director debuts (from Jonathan Anderson at Dior to Matthieu Blazy at Chanel). None of this seemed to faze Julie Kegels, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp alumna who designed under Pieter Mulier at Alaïa before going out on her own last year. Favouring the hard realism of an underpass near Passy metro station, her answer to the ceremonial fanfare of the ‘debut show’ was a display that sought to reveal the magic in what she knows best: women and everyday life.
Observing the many changes women make throughout a given day, the show saw garments come alive and change form, as if granted their own will (she had been reading magicians’ trick books at the time). Working with a folding technique that allowed clothes to reveal new identities, silky pastel skirts slipped from the body to reveal midcentury-inspired underwear; the humble white shirt morphed in shape through voluminous calf-skimming pleats; while domestic objects were reimagined, like tablecloths draped around the body. The result was a love letter to transformation and the mess that change often brings.
The rising style stars of 2026: Julie Kegels’ shape-shifting magic tricks
Kegels had been dreaming of this moment since primary school. ‘I can’t remember a moment when I wasn’t interested in fashion,’ she says. ‘As a child, I used to read everything I could about Gabrielle Chanel, Madame Grès and Paul Poiret. I’d drape satin on my dolls and make skirts from old curtains.’ A nod to that early girlhood play came in the light-catching glitter she trapped between layers of organza, made grown up in sensual shapes of shirting and ghostly pencil skirts.
‘Each collection begins from a feeling, a conversation or a moment that feels relevant,’ she says. ‘This season, the starting point was simply three words in my notes app: change, change, change. It became the energy that drove the whole collection.’
Just a year into her brand and Kegels’ perspective already feels strikingly assured, though she’s wisely resisting any prescriptive rules. ‘I want to show that women can hold many roles throughout the day and that this multiplicity is a strength,’ she says. ‘You can be a sharp businesswoman, a party girl, a nurturing mother, and still be yourself. The modern woman is flexible, honest, emotional and fragile, but also strong. It’s that beautiful contrast I want to capture.’
A version of this article appears in the January 2026 Next Generation Issue, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 6 November. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today