Autumn-Winter 26-27 Season Preview: EGO-ECO, Soft Shells
Guided by the theme of connection, the Autumn-Winter 26-27 season unfolds through three major forward-looking narratives: New Dynasties, Ego-Eco, and Territories of Expression.
The second theme, Ego-Eco, explores the relationship between environmental challenges and human health, reflecting a shift toward a more personal approach to ecological issues that responds to the growing need for individual comfort. Long treated in isolation, ecological and social issues are increasingly seen as interdependent. The regeneration of ecosystems is now understood as inseparable from the regeneration of human well-being—a central concern.
Read our article: Season Preview AW 26-27: New Dynasties
Cindy Zaohan Li, ITS Contest 2025 |
This season, the quest for well-being and care takes on renewed importance, adopting an intimate and introspective dimension that speaks to a profound need for softness, harmony, and comfort. In textiles, the therapeutic benefits of gentle, textured sensations are explored, while self-care rituals become part of daily life—encouraging reconnection and regeneration. Innovation and technology are playing an increasingly prominent role in the wellness space, with sensory devices designed to soothe or stimulate the nervous system, and emerging technologies gradually being integrated into garment design.
The bio-industry is redefining material production, drawing on biomimicry to break free from industrial farming and fossil fuel dependency. By embracing eco-design and co-creation with living organisms, this shift promotes an evolving, regenerative, and protective mindset—steering fashion toward a more responsible, adaptive, and sustainable future.
For Autumn-Winter 26-27, protection lies at the core of the season’s developments—whether preserving human health and skin, providing a buffer against environmental pollution and sensory overload, or ensuring that production processes safeguard natural ecosystems.
Sensory Shells
In textiles, the desire for gentler forms of protection is driving significant innovation in technical outerwear. Beyond softshell fabrics, a range of sensory-driven proposals are being explored, from refined, stretchable puffers and anatomically designed fancy quilting to 3D knits, spacer fabrics, and bi-stretch double-face materials that mimic knits.
Cozy Drapes
Fluidity takes on a new form—one rooted in comfort and gentle protection. Sensual fabrics sculpt silhouettes, flowing through every layer, even outerwear—from liquid silks with smooth, luxurious handles to warm, flexible knits, brushed flannels, and ultra-supple wools or cotton velvets that softly envelop the body. The pursuit of comfort brings faux furs and fleece-like knits into focus, reimagined this season in lighter, more malleable constructions. Garments take on a cocoon-like quality, evolving into intentionally loose, subtly deconstructed cuts. This new interpretation of coziness merges comfort and elegance through the use of warm, soft materials.
Creamy Handles
Leathers melt to the touch, with luxurious skins that offer a sensual, enveloping fluidity. Calfskin and deerskin are exceptionally supple and buttery, their surfaces finished with silky textures and a subtle, glossy sheen.
Second Skin
Exploring a protective and introspective universe, accessories and components convey a sense of care and comfort. Blending soothing tactile experiences with sustainable innovation, they feature mattified satin finishes, frosted transparencies, and are crafted from natural rubbers sourced from rubber tree cultivation or biopolymer foams derived from plant-based waste such as sugarcane.
Beauty as a Biological Armor
Meanwhile, beauty transforms into an invisible biological shield—a protective barrier against external stressors, offering an antidote to solastalgia, the emotional distress brought on by environmental change. Products are designed to protect and repair the skin, from gel-serums and translucent balms to hydrating liquid formulas that let the skin breathe.
Healthy Materials
In line with the focus on protection and care, textile materials are also evolving toward healthier and more virtuous formulations. The industry is shifting its priorities toward health and well-being by using non-toxic fibers and blends with beneficial properties, such as plant-based fibers grown without chemical inputs, spun pure or blended with new-generation lyocell fibers. Wool is valued for its naturally hypoallergenic, self-cleaning, thermo- and hydro-regulating properties. Biomimetic approaches enable the development of functional materials without chemical additives—favoring natural finishes derived from fermentation processes, plant-based substances, or mineral pigments. Water-repellency is achieved without PFAS, using tightly woven structures or plant-based wax coatings.
Bio-morphosis
Technological advances are shaping a new generation of smart, sustainable accessories. Monobloc design—via plastic injection or 3D printing— is redefining how buckles, soles, and components are made, using bio-based polymers.
Botanical Refinement
In leather, the inherently sustainable nature of basanes is rekindling interest in vegetable-tanned skins, highlighting a return to refined craftsmanship. These hides feature crisp textures, elevated by oiled, paper-like finishes, subtle waxed sheens, and bio-based surface treatments. Bold embossing and pronounced reliefs further evoke the artisanal spirit of molded or hand-tooled vegetable-tanned leather.
Adaptive Beauty
Beauty draws inspiration from the adaptive mechanisms of living organisms, replicating processes of regeneration, erosion, and transformation through biotechnological formulas. Combining ancestral knowledge with biodegradable materials, it envisions self-repairing, adaptive treatments that feature reactive textures and active ingredients derived from natural waste or living laboratories—such as cultivated algae and other ingredients grown or enhanced through biotechnology.
