Paris Men’s Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2026 got underway with style, vigor, and a strong message: menswear is ever-changing.
In order to effortlessly balance structure, designers adopted directional shapes, tactile textiles, and flowing tailoring. The collections demonstrated a newfound sense of self-assurance and cultural understanding, whether they were based on understated elegance or ventured into more daring, innovative realms.
We examine the shows that set the tone in this first of two parts, where creativity and clarity collided and the runway served as a platform for both young and established visionaries:
ÉTUDES STUDIO
ÉTUDES’ SS26 show transformed Palais de Tokyo into a meditation on nature and spatial awareness, inspired by 1970s American Land Art, particularly the work of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson.
This influence was clear in the spiral-shaped runway and earthy tones. The collection merged citywear with an outdoors spirit: boxy silhouettes, breathable textiles, and a modular approach to dressing.
A key collaboration with artist Maia Ruth Lee added hand-drawn, elemental motifs on silk shirts, scarves, and outerwear. Utility belts, draped trenches, and technical layers created a feeling of structured freedom, blurring the lines between urban uniform and desert explorer.
SAINT LAURENT
For SS26, Anthony Vaccarello leaned into a more cinematic and poetic interpretation of masculinity.
Gone were the leather harnesses and thigh-high boots; instead, we saw long fluid trenches, draped jersey, and soft tailoring that evoked the languid sensuality of Fire Island in the 1970s.
The show referenced queer artists like Larry Stanton and Billy Sullivan, using muted tones and light fabrics to create an atmosphere of intimate liberation.
It felt like a love letter to New York’s bohemian past, filtered through Saint Laurent’s signature elegance.
AURALEE
Auralee’s SS26 collection exuded serenity and coastal lightness, reflecting creative director Ryota Iwai’s fascination with light, texture, and calmness.
Presented in the early morning glow, the pieces played with transparency and gentle motion. Lightweight silks, translucent organza, and soft overdyed cottons in warm beachy hues captured the moment just before sunrise.
Aloha shirts, hand-woven sandals, and deconstructed bucket hats made for a wardrobe rooted in ease and Japanese minimalism. It felt deeply personal, intimate, meditative, and luxuriously understated.
LOUIS VUITTON
Pharrell Williams continued to evolve the Louis Vuitton man by blending quiet luxury with global cultural depth. The SS26 show, staged outside the Centre Pompidou on a snakes-and-ladders inspired runway, was infused with Indian aesthetics and spiritual symbolism.
Monogrammed kurta shirts, ombré Damier denim, hand-embroidered motifs, and even paisley prints nodded to India’s sartorial richness. Yet the palette stayed grounded in neutrals and earth tones, echoing a mature, thoughtful direction.
Pharrell also underscored sustainability and heritage, incorporating artisanal Indian techniques alongside LV’s archival signatures. It was streetwear reimagined with spiritual poise.
3.PARADIS
Creative director Emeric Tchatchoua turned introspective with Steps to Nowhere, a dreamy desert tale inspired by The Little Prince.
The runway, scattered with sand and celestial references, channeled themes of growth, solitude, and rebirth. Earthy tones, ochre, sand, pale blue, mixed with vibrant prints and flowing fabrics.
Collaborations with Le Petit Prince, J.M. Weston, and Vilebrequin gave the collection a tactile, storybook dimension. The clothes felt both grounded and surreal: linen suits, patchwork knits, embroidered shirting, pieces that echoed the wanderer’s path through time and memory.
HED MAYNER
Hed Mayner’s SS26 collection pushed the idea of volume to abstraction. Inspired by the concept of absence and structure as suggestion, Mayner created garments that floated around the body, jackets without linings, wide armholes that gave the illusion of slippage, and tunics resembling hollowed-out forms.
The collection felt archaeological, as though these were remnants of something more rigid now softened by time.
Yet the emotion was present: quiet, cerebral, and uncompromising. He reinvented proportion as expression, giving us new vocabulary for presence through shape.
DRIES VAN NOTEN
Julian Klausner made his much-anticipated menswear debut for Dries Van Noten with elegance and restraint. SS26 paid homage to Van Noten’s love of pattern and silhouette but stripped back the excess.
Think sun-washed palettes, boxy blazers, silk tunics, and breezy kaftans. The collection floated between the Mediterranean and Antwerp, marrying resortwear with urban clarity.
There was an unmistakable intimacy in the clothes, a sense that Klausner was easing the house into a new chapter rather than rewriting it. Soft tailoring and tactile depth defined the quiet beauty of his arrival.
SEAN SUEN
Sean Suen’s SS26 collection felt like a slow summer afternoon distilled into fabric. Inspired by the quiet hum of cicadas and the nostalgic warmth of languid July days, the collection embraced slowness as both concept and aesthetic.
Fluid silhouettes in soft linens, tonal neutrals, and gauzy cottons moved with the breeze, reflecting a poetic sense of calm. Details like open-weave knits, layered tunics, and asymmetrical hems echoed traditional Eastern philosophies of balance and harmony.
Suen created a collection that was less about fashion as spectacle and more about clothing as emotional resonance, each look a meditation on memory, comfort, and subtle masculinity.
AMIRI
Mike Amiri’s SS26 show turned a Parisian venue into a cinematic homage to a Los Angeles summer. The collection played like a visual diary of a weekend at a sun-drenched, old-Hollywood hotel, complete with draped silk shirts, deconstructed tuxedo jackets, and bleached denim.
Drawing inspiration from classic American luxury and the laid-back glamour of California’s rock-and-roll past, the show fused handcrafted details with louche silhouettes. Soft tailoring, marbled prints, and metallic accents sat alongside oversized blazers and open shirts, offering a sensual, jet-set mood.
Amiri continues to bridge the space between nostalgia and aspiration, where artistry meets allure.
RICK OWENS
For SS26, Rick Owens brought his signature brutalism to a more elemental, stripped-back place, offering what he described as a “pilgrimage toward spiritual purification.” The show opened with models in monastic robes and veils, walking through clouds of smoke.
Stay tuned for part two of our Paris Men’s Fashion Week SS26 round up report!
