Paris Fashion Week: Maison Kitsuné’s Urban Glide Finds Its Current Between Climate and Culture

On a hot summer Paris afternoon in the lovely gardens of the Hôtel de Rohan, Maison Kitsune's presented the new SS27 collection. Photograph by Jay Zoo for DAM

Maison Kitsuné has long occupied a distinctive space between Parisian and Japanese aesthetics. The Spring/Summer 2027 collection by Abigail Smiley-Smith focused the house's contemporary identity through a collection that fused technical innovation, relaxed sophistication and multidisciplinary creativity, reflecting the changing demands of both fashion and modern urban life. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Feature photographs by Jay Zoo 

One of the sculptures by Japanese artist

En Iwamura were part of the show. 

Photograph: Jay Zoo

WHEN Maison Kitsuné presented its Spring/Summer 2027 collection in the gardens of Paris’s Hôtel de Rohan, it signalled a confident continuation of the house’s evolving identity under Creative Director Abigail Smiley-Smith's third season. 

The brand’s Paris-to-Tokyo dialogue remained central, but was reframed this season through a sharper focus on adaptation, climate responsiveness and the realities of contemporary urban living.

Titled Urban Glide, the collection explored how clothing can respond to increasingly demanding summer environments, where heat, density and constant movement require a new balance between performance and ease. Smiley-Smith approached this through a refined wardrobe language grounded in utility, lightness and fluidity, positioning function not as opposition to elegance, but as its extension.

 “With Urban Glide, I wanted to explore how clothing can create a sense of protection and freedom at the same time," explained the designer. "The collection reflects the ways we adapt to our surroundings, whether navigating the intensity of the city or seeking moments of escape. It's about creating garments that move with the wearer and respond to the environment around them.”

With monumental sculptures and a live choral reinterpretation of electronic music, the collection expanded to a broader cultural experience

Relaxed silhouettes and breathable fabrics, 

keys to the collection's ethos of adaptability.

Photograph: Jay Zoo 

This idea of duality, protection and freedom, ran throughout the collection, expressed through relaxed silhouettes, breathable technical fabrics and a focus on movement. Garments were constructed to suggest shelter without weight, favouring ventilation, volume and adaptability over rigidity. 

The result was a collection designed to operate across shifting contexts, from dense urban streets to more open, coastal environments.

Material references to heat-adaptive construction and lightweight protective clothing informed the technical direction, while ideas of layering and spatial intervention subtly shaped the overall silhouette language. Rather than emphasising overt performance detailing, the collection integrated function into its structure, allowing innovation to sit quietly within refined tailoring.

Visual cues moved between marine blues, sun-faded neutrals and softened greys, evoking the effects of light, heat and reflection across surfaces. Rather than literal maritime references, the collection suggested water through texture, finish and movement, creating a sense of constant transition.

"The collection reflects the ways we adapt to our surroundings, whether navigating the intensity of the city or seeking moments of escape" 

Layering in clever ways and subtle tonalities

added to the sense of comfortable elegance.

Photograph: Jay Zoo

Collaboration remained a key element of the season, particularly through the involvement of Japanese artist En Iwamura, who reinterpreted the house’s fox motif into sculptural and visual forms.

“Receiving this invitation was both exciting and deeply intriguing," the aritist said. "In my studio practice, I primarily work with clay, moving fluidly between sculpture and two-dimensional works such as drawings in search of new creative possibilities. In that sense, collaborating with fashion in this way was a fresh and unexpected challenge”

Further collaborations with Snow Peak, ATP Atelier and Lono extended the collection’s dialogue between utility, and lifestyle, reinforcing Maison Kitsuné’s ongoing interest in the intersection of urban life and nature.

In the gardens of the Hôtel de Rohan, the presentation unfolded as an immersive environment, where monumental sculptural interventions and a live choral reinterpretation of electronic music expanded the collection into a broader cultural experience. The result was a show that positioned fashion not as static display, but as a lived, multisensory landscape.

With Urban Glide, Smiley-Smith continues to refine Maison Kitsuné’s contemporary vocabulary, one that designs for creating adaptability and responsiveness to our environment.

See the full Maison Kitsune Paris Spring/Summer 2027 Collection