AW 26-27 Season Preview: Territories of Expression
In a world where the visual and the virtual dominate, where polarities and uncertainty about the future take hold, the impact of distinctive, tangible, and truly human experiences is felt as a necessity, a vital anchor to recreate connection, emotion, and meaning. Discover how the season’s third prospective scenario, 'Territories of Expression', is shaping the developments for Autumn-Winter 26-27.
Read also: New Dynasties and Égo-Éco, the 2 other AW 26-27 prospective scenarios.
©Huynju Park, www.lacambremodes.be |
Emotions and sensations at the heart of creative processes act as catalysts. Sensoriality, a universal language, reactivates emotional memory and strengthens our grounding in reality. Faced with increasing dematerialization, it becomes a source of reassurance, re-engaging the senses in a more immersive and embodied experience.
This powerful need to feel through tangible, intense, or playful experiences leads to a rediscovery of materials, techniques, and a more synesthetic approach to product interaction.
Upcycling inspires an aesthetic based on reuse and creative repair. Patchworks and combinations give creations a strong expressiveness, opening the way to new hybrids and rich, multi-sensory unifying experiences. Winter 26-27 refocuses on the local, enhancing emotion and commitment.
New collective libraries are emerging, bringing together knowledge and shared narratives, fostering collaborative intelligence.
Synesthetic Beauty
Beauty is moving towards ultra-sensoriality, meant to be touched, experienced, and transformed. Glossy, syrupy, melting or foamy textures evoke an edible, hedonistic aesthetic, enhanced by vibrant, hyper-saturated colors. Unexpected materials, textures or juxtapositions, pop colors, and sculptural embellishments alter perception, redefining the face as a playful, organic space for experimentation, with tactile contrasts between ultra-wet liquid textures and matte or velvety surfaces, also textured skin and hair, surreal elements merging with the body, and a fresh take on zoning with unexpected textured color-blocking effects.
AI generated / Premiere Vision | AI generated / Premiere Vision |
Tactile Heritage
In textiles, the richness of cultural heritage from each region serves as a source of aesthetic inspiration, inviting to a visual journey moving from ancient ruins to the experimental resources of contemporary design. The AW 26-27 surfaces are stony, with granulated effects, signs of use, subtly creased aspects, or delicate irregularities that honor the material’s origins.
©Fantin Delattre, www.lacambremodes.be | Première Vision |
Accessory and component materials echo the texture of kraft paper, with the oiled finish and fibrous feel of recycled paper. An analogy that recalls waxed surfaces and crisp textures in casual textiles.
Première Vision |
In leather, the casual wearing of vintage leathers blends with the refined patinas of men’s footwear to create rich shades and vibrant contrasts: waxed finishings, removable brush-off and pull-up effects on glazed leathers, contrasting pigmentation on the ridges of grains or placed accents on finished products. Echoing these surfaces, bark-like patterns and wood grain veins adorn components for Bags and Shoes.
Première Vision | Premiere Vision |
Contemporary Craft
A reimagining of heritage techniques through a contemporary lens, challenges digital standardization, with knits and weaves directly inspired by the contemporary art world's fascination with textile art, or free-spirited reinterpretations of ancestral jacquard and embroidery techniques. A vibrant, youthful take on graphics and color meets textile materiality through 3D embroidery, exposed cut yarns, tactile weaves, and woolly textures.
©Mert Serbest, ITS Contest 2024 | Premiere Vision |
Decorations are highlighting the very substance of yarn, with freehand embroidery, as if it was sketched directly onto the textile, or fringed finishes conveying an artisanal streetwear spirit.
AI generated / Premiere Vision | AI generated / Premiere Vision |
In accessories, textile embellishment techniques and traditional passementerie trims are reinterpreted to create a mood of expressive, graphic fantasy with high added value.
AI generated / Premiere Vision |
Team Spirit
A fresh take on casualwear draws inspiration from the codes and values of team sports. Streetwear infused with creativity and an open-minded attitude. Streetwear that boldly embraces fantasy. Flexible, comfortable materials defy uniformity: fleece and sport knits enriched with yarn-dyed patterns, jacquards, prints, and embroideries. Shirting and tailoring fabrics are revitalized by sporty stripes and checks, opening up to unexpected uses.
Hyunju Park, www.lacambremodes.be | Première Vision |
A graphic aesthetic blending utilitarian and Pop influences energizes sportswear accessories. Precision components—cogs, chains, gears—inspire designs that evoke high-tech mechanical elements: graphic fastenings inspired by ball bearings and nuts, notched monoblock soles, or chains and rings modeled after cog wheels.
Explore the full range of seasonal trends and new developments in fabrics, leather, accessories, and components for Autumn-Winter 26-27 at Première Vision Paris, on September 16, 17 and 18, 2025.
