Our spring 2026 trend report reflects the fact that fashion’s big reset turned out to be a big remix. How could it be otherwise? We’re living through a period of late-stage postmodernism, one in which change happens ever more slowly. And as the lines of succession at heritage houses only grow longer, allowing for remixes of remixes, show watching has become a sort of spot-the-reference memory game.

With so much attention on the season’s 15 designer debuts, this was a kind of inside-baseball moment, which allowed designers to mostly avoid engaging with the unpleasantries of the world. As this is spring and summer we’re talking about, there were clothes to imaginarily transport you to Madonna’s La Isla Bonita, where you might want to don a pair of the loose jupe-culottes, or balloon-legged pants, that are trending. Alternatively there were collections that encouraged you to stay snuggled up in bed, and still more that would tempt you to take a more active role in the bedroom—or wherever the mood strikes. While it’s unlikely that cruising will replace swiping right, designers are proposing skin and hip bone reveals, transparent bottoms, and exposed bras, as well as for the slightly less bold, an undone, caught-in-the-act look that suggests rather than actually reveals.

As for character dressing, both Marie Antoinette and Daisy Buchanan made cameo appearances. Likewise, the influence of designers who were pro-curves, like Charles Frederick Worth and Christian Dior, were as much in evidence as those who endorsed straight-line silhouettes, such as Paul Poiret and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.

With military references and all imaginable shades of khaki, the idea of trusty uniform dressing was turned on its head; similarly the notion of dressing for (women’s) work was addressed through the surprise return of aprons, frilly and functional. This comes as female autonomy is being questioned and TikTok has flattened the idea of the suburban housewife, a fixture of American literature whose complexities have been mined by the likes of John Cheever, Betty Friedan, Richard Yates, and John Updike, into the surface-oriented tradwife aesthetic.