AW 26-27 Decodings: Fabrics & Decoration Highlights
Three forward-looking scenarios outline the directions for the Autumn-Winter 26-27 season: New Dynasties, Ego-Eco and Territories of Expression. Falling within these three dynamics, weaves, knits, embroideries, laces and prints express a desire for rupture, while responding to the quests for meaning, well-being and sensoriality that characterise our contemporary society.
New Dynasties
With New Dynasties, AW 26-27 opens onto an aesthetic of rupture. Confronted with contemporary instability, this theme gives voice to a generation in search of meaning and intensity, breaking free from established norms and drawing on gothic, punk and transgressive references.
Extra Pures
Clean felted wools, compact cottons, flawless synthetics and glacé calendered fabrics are all embracing minimalism, striving towards impeccable rigour. Smooth, tightly woven and dense, these materials are standing firm against uncertainties, rejecting easy effects to redefine a sober and radical elegance. These plains with the perfect density—whether rigid or flexible—offer a heightened sense of classicism, for sharp constructions, and contribute to silhouettes that elevate and reinterpret tailoring archetypes.
Takisada Nagoya (JP) | Fitecom (PT) / JRC Reflex (FR) |
Fitecom (PT) / Daisho (JP) | Dynamo (TR) / Sunwell (JP) |
Discover the other highlights of this theme in our article: AW 26-27 Decoration Preview: New Dynasties, Radicalism and Counterculture
Ego-Eco
The season’s second theme, Eco-Ego, is reconnecting environmental challenges to human health issues, elevating fashion into a veritable vector of care. The pursuit of well-being and the search for harmony have become prerequisites here, supported by a more sensorial relationship with the products. This direction is highlighting the links between technology and well-being, between innovation and sustainability. Eco-design is drawing on biomimetic technologies to develop healthier raw materials, reduce environmental impact and strive for chemical harmlessness.
Cosy Drapes
Within this theme, the most fundamental axis for envisioning cuts and silhouettes stems from this pursuit of well-being and softness.
Plush velvets and plump wide ribs, fluid knits and washed silks with powdery gleams, enveloping cloths and drapeable leathers — these thickened and comforting winter fabrics, welcome us into their beguiling softness, with their gently fleecy surfaces. This call to softness is heightened by their benevolent qualities, extending to nature itself through reduced-impact compositions that show genuine care for the environment.
Pontoglio 1883 (IT) | Les Tissages Perrin (FR) - Enes Leather (TR) |
Spiber (JP) / Incalpaca (PE) | Consinee Group (CN) |
Sensory Textures
In this quest for well-being and a more sensorial relationship with clothing, fabric surfaces are inviting touch, with tactile textures in knits or silks, or fancy yarns that enhance the sensory appeal of woolens and embellishments. These fabrics are alive; they speak to the senses, both among fantasy specialists and in the worlds of performance and outdoor, where soft shells also display tactile textures. Interactions with cosmetic-like surfaces are influencing silky appearances, inspiring fluid and creamy knits or woven blends of cupro or modal with a powdery suppleness.
Blue City Textile int. (CN) / Oharayaseni Co. (JP) | Minami (JP) / Les Tissages Perrins (FR) |
Bacus Atelier Val d’argent (FR) / Sophie Hallette (FR) |
Candid Kitsch
Finally, an unapologetically kitsch approach imbued with a youthful spirit is joyfully distancing itself from minimalism through acidulated or overly sweet colorations. Bold and playful, this almost kawai-like false naïveté has extended into tweeds enlivened with colorful metallic effects. This aesthetic, at once kitsch and delicate, translates into transparencies and shines with frosted or crystalline accents. Integrated into this wardrobe that is less everyday and more formal, lamé silks and metallic lace are showcasing couture expertise while paving the way for a renewed graphic identity.
Hengzhou Embsense Embroidery (CN) / Malhia Kent (FR) | Shengzhou Textile Keer (CN) |
Territories of Expressions
Territories of Expression, the third scenario of the Autumn-Winter 26-27 season, is making fashion into a collective and open space, connecting cultural heritage with collaborative creativity. By highlighting the diversity of identities, this theme is celebrating artisanal know-how, elevated as a marker of uniqueness. Collaborative intelligence is supporting a circular approach, between traceable recycling and creative upcycling, enriching production dynamics. In this dialogue between authenticity and modernity, patchworks and assemblies are giving creations a strong expressiveness and paving the way for new tactile and visual hybridisations.
Heritage Textures
Rebelling against flatness, fabrics are bursting free into three dimensions. Enhanced weaves, heavy twills, deep piqués and structured basket weaves roll their grainy, muscular textures beneath the fingers. Meanwhile, shredded wools, needled felts and clipped jacquards are proliferating in unruly bristles, silky shreds, long barbs or quivering floats, untamed fringes — extravagant and wayward. They form a host of tactile landscapes featuring fantastical and expressive topologies.
Venture (IN) / Malhia Kent (FR) | Faisa (IT) / Ventures (IN) |
Laurent Garigue (GB) / Hangzhou Embsense Embroidery (CN) |
Craft Dynamic
Textile creativity is being expressed through an artisanal dynamic, driven by Gen Z’s reappropriation of traditional know-how as an alternative to digital conformism. Knits and wovens now resonate with contemporary art’s growing enthusiasm for textile art, affirming the material itself as a territory of expression. Ornaments are drawing on local traditions and hand embroideries, while folklore infuses industrial techniques. Decoration has become a signal of shared values, rooted in craftsmanship and in cultural references that need preserving. Authenticity is now going beyond unique pieces or limited editions: inclusive approaches that inspire both casualwear and streetwear.
