Rereading FW26 Luxury Trends

On the fashion calendar, late July carries a very particular kind of tension.

That's because it's the moment when FW season product finally starts hitting store floors. As the 'Pimland' calendar puts it, "July is the first signal of FW26 deliveries." Right now is the first real test of whether the runway's dazzling spotlight translates into actual "sales" and "sell-through."

Brigitte Chartrand, Senior Buying Director at NET-A-PORTER, summed up the season as "a season that moved away from extreme trends and found balance through wearable yet luxurious textures."

Drawing on Burberry, Max Mara, and the six key trends that dominated the runway, we look at what we need to check right now.

Burberry FW26

"Midnight London, where the trench became everything"

In his fourth year leading Burberry, Daniel Lee's creative vision has finally come into sharp focus. Leaving behind last season's pastoral romance, he staged the runway at Old Billingsgate, London's former fish market, and shifted gears entirely to "midnight London" (an urban mood).

The core, as expected, was the "trench."

But these were no ordinary trenches. From an ivory trench whose gun flap erupts into ruffles to crumpled silk, patchwork shearling, and the piece Daniel Lee himself is said to cherish most, a "leather trench engraved with a map of London." Using a single trench coat as a canvas, he moved freely between excess and ease.

What to Watch
Burberry's Q3 signals are positive enough that Deutsche Bank named it a top pick. With a London Fashion Week return show scheduled for September, how archive-driven designs like the "London map trench," delivered in July, perform in stores will be the key to second-half momentum.

Max Mara FW26

"Queen of the boardroom, where the coat becomes armor"

Max Mara took as its muse Matilde di Canossa, the most powerful woman of the 11th-century Middle Ages, who ruled over the brand's hometown of Reggio Emilia. The collection reinterpreted her not as a warrior on the battlefield but as a fearless victor in the boardrooms of 2026.

In the end, this brand's true weapon is "material."

Architectural coats built from the most iconic and precious materials, including camel, cashmere, alpaca, mohair, and double-face, are in themselves the product of overwhelming craftsmanship. A ready-to-wear brand presenting an atelier line during Couture Week and elevating "the value of the coat" to couture level: that is the audacious confidence with which Max Mara approaches the coat.

2. Trends Proven on the FW26 Runway

① The King of Color: Purple
Purple appeared in every show, from Chloé and Ferragamo to Loewe. Celine in particular hit the peak of a bold palette, pairing a purple leather trench with red accessories.

② The Train Goes Everyday
Like Dior's layered tutu skirts and Alexander McQueen's organza trains, "dramatic silhouettes" with long, trailing hems moved beyond the runway and melted into the language of everyday life.

③ Touch, the Digital Age Strikes Back.
"In a digital age where nothing can be touched, touch paradoxically becomes what matters most." Texture-driven outerwear poured onto the runway, from thick faux fur and tweed to artisanal patchwork, pieces whose texture can never be fully captured in a photo.

④ As If by Agreement, Tartan Check
Burberry (British) was a given, but even Chloé (French) and Acne Studios (Scandinavian), each with a completely different sensibility, chose tartan and checkerboard at the same time. It means check has moved beyond any single brand's code to become the language of the FW26 season itself.

Acne Studios

⑤ "Oversized Volume Coats" Replace Proportion
Loewe and Louis Vuitton boldly amplified the volume of their coats. Pushing out skinny silhouettes, huge "sculptural coats" layered over slim tailoring and plush "shearling linings" took over the mainstream.

⑥ Doubling Down on Skirt Suits and Power Shoulders
The skirt suit, which signaled its comeback last season, returned even stronger for FW26, armed with massive '80s-style power shoulders.

The Row / Tom Ford Fall-Winter 2026 Collection

Checkpoints from a Retail Buyer's Angle

Checkpoint 1
Weaponizing the "touch" that screens can't capture
The common language of this season's outerwear is "clothes you have to touch to understand." Tactile materials whose texture can never be fully conveyed in a photo, such as shearling, artisanal patchwork, thick faux fur, and double-face wool, have taken center stage.

Checkpoint 2
Where "purple, tartan, and shearling" intersect

Amid the flood of runway trends, the three mega keywords that stand out most clearly are "purple color," "tartan check," and "shearling material." If there's a piece where two or more of these keywords converge into one, that is the master piece that most densely distills the sensibility of the FW26 season.

Hermès Menswear Fall/Winter 2026/27

💡EDITORIAL SMALL TALK

A Coat That Wears 1,000 Years of History

Matilde di Canossa, Max Mara's muse this season, is not just a source of inspiration. Born in 1046, she was a real historical figure who held the greatest power in medieval Italy and is recorded as "the only woman to have faced the Pope north of the Alps." What's interesting is that she came from Reggio Emilia, Max Mara's home base. Italy's finest coat maker summoned a woman who ruled the same land a thousand years ago as the "queen of the boardroom" for 2026. That a single coat we wear can carry a thousand-year narrative: that is how luxury sells story beyond material.