I do makeup, not clothes, but I spend my working life in fitting rooms watching stylists pull things off a rail, and this is the first summer in years where I have genuinely not been able to guess what is coming next. There is a reason for that, and it has almost nothing to do with hemlines.
In Short
- Around fifteen houses debuted new designers for this season, including Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Jonathan Anderson at Dior.
- Klein blue and other primary, jewel-toned shades dominate. Quiet neutrals are having a rest.
- Sheer layers and cut-outs are everywhere, which makes what you wear underneath a real decision.
- The wearable end of it is linen, broderie anglaise, paisley and one loud accessory rather than head-to-toe drama.
Why this summer looks different from the last five
This was a debut season, not an evolution season. Upwards of fifteen new creative directors took over major houses for spring/summer 2026, among them Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga, Michael Rider at Celine, Demna at Gucci and Dario Vitale at Versace. A designer’s first collection is almost always an argument about what the house is for, which is why the season reads as one long conversation with the archive.
What that produces in practice is recognisable shapes handled unfamiliarly. Blazy’s Chanel tweeds looked softer and lighter than we are used to, and he closed on a ball skirt built from multicoloured feathers. Anderson shrank the Dior bar jacket. Trotter put Bottega’s woven intrecciato leather straight into her first show. None of them tore anything up, but none of them left it alone either.
The runway trend, and what it actually becomes in a shop
| On the runway | Where it showed | The version you will actually wear |
|---|---|---|
| Saturated primaries and jewel tones | Loewe, Jil Sander, Fendi, Dior, Ralph Lauren | One electric blue or sunflower yellow piece against neutrals |
| Head-to-toe transparency | Tom Ford, Jil Sander, Prada, Hermès | A sheer overlayer on top of something solid |
| Eighteenth-century volume and bell sleeves | Alaïa, Balenciaga, Gucci, Saint Laurent | A full skirt or a blouse with real sleeve movement |
| Nineties minimalism | Eckhaus Latta, Jil Sander, Max Mara, Tom Ford | Slip dresses, spaghetti straps, nothing fussy |
| Eighties power shoulders | Versace, Chloé, Valentino, Saint Laurent | A structured blazer over something soft |
| Chainmail and armour references | Burberry, Conner Ives, Yuhan Wang | A metallic mesh bag or a single chain necklace |
The high street has already translated most of this. Linen tailoring, from proper trousers to throw-on dresses, is doing the heavy lifting. Broderie anglaise, lace and fine embroidery have turned up on every blouse rail I have walked past this season. Paisley and bandana prints are the pattern of the summer. Ripped jeans are back on the runway too, at Brandon Maxwell, Simkhai and Area, which is a sentence I did not expect to type in 2026.
Three things worth buying into
Colour, if you have been living in beige
Klein blue is the shade of the season, the aggressive electric ultramarine Yves Klein made his own in the sixties, and it is not a colour that lets you hide. It also does something genuinely useful: strong blue flatters a much wider range of skin tones than the muted stone shades that have dominated the last few summers. If you are nervous, start with an accessory and see how you feel in a photograph.
Sheer, handled with a bit of thought
Transparency is unavoidable this season. The way it works outside a runway is as a layer, not as the whole outfit: a chiffon shirt over a vest, a mesh skirt over a slip. What I would flag from a working perspective is that sheer fabric photographs very differently from how it looks in a mirror, so if there is a camera involved, check it in one before you commit.
One loud accessory instead of a whole look
Charm necklaces were all over the New York shows and they are the cheapest possible way into the season. The same applies to a woven bag or a single wide cuff. Statement jewellery lets an existing wardrobe read as current without buying a new wardrobe, which is the entire trick of dressing to a trend without chasing it.
What I would leave on the runway
The 1920s beading revival at Tory Burch, Ferragamo and Versace is beautiful and completely impractical for a British summer, unless you have a specific event in mind. Full head-to-toe transparency is a styling exercise rather than an outfit. And the enormous trains and feathered volumes that showed at Chanel and McQueen are there to make a point about movement, not to be replicated. Take the shape, ignore the scale.
Quick answers
- Is boho still happening? Yes, but a tidier version: ivory, cream, sand and terracotta, tiered cotton dresses, lace worn over tailoring rather than instead of it.
- What is the single most useful purchase? A linen co-ord. It reads as tailored, survives heat, and splits into two separate outfits.
- Do I need to buy anything at all to look current? No. Restyling what you own around one saturated colour and one strong accessory gets you most of the way there.
- Will any of this last past September? The tailoring and the nineties minimalism will. The feathers and the armour references almost certainly will not.
If you want the wider view of what is rotating in and out across the whole year rather than just this season, I have written separately about what is in and what is out season by season.
Updated 12 August 2026. Trends are taste, not fact. Everything above describes what designers showed and what has reached the shops, not what will suit you.
Sources: spring/summer 2026 runway coverage and trend reports from W Magazine, Vogue Scandinavia, Who What Wear and Grazia; house debut collections shown in Paris, Milan and New York, autumn 2025.
What are you actually wearing this summer?
I want to know whether anyone is really buying into the sheer thing or whether we are all quietly in linen. Tell me in the comments and be honest.