The Poetic Cartography of Homme Plissé Issey Miyake's Open Studio Collection in Florence

The Issey Miyake collection was presented amid the Renaissance gardens of the Florentine Villa Medicea della Petraia. Photograph (above) by Andrea Heinsohn for DAM

As the sun dipped behind the cypress-clad hills above Florence, a hush fell over the gardens of Villa Medicea della Petraia. This was no ordinary fashion show but Amid Impasto of Horizons, a meditative, sensory unveiling of Homme Plissé Issey Miyake’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, staged not on a conventional catwalk, but in the gardens of a 16th-century Medici villa overlooking the Renaissance heart of Italy, write Jeanne-Marie Cilento and Andrea Heinsohn. Photographs by Jay Zoo.

The majestic Villa Medicea della Petraia sits

above gardens of lemon trees and box hedges.

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn 

ON a late summer Florentine afternoon, with azure skies above, cicadas buzzing in box hedges, and the scent of lemon blossoms filling the air from terracotta pots warmed by the sun, the gardens of Villa La Petraia were bathed in golden Tuscan light.

Once the country stronghold of the Medici, the villa has long been a place of reinvention, its layered history unfolding from medieval tower to Renaissance retreat to 19th-century royal residence. Yet on this particular evening, it played host to another kind of transformation: the unveiling of Amid Impasto of Horizons, the Spring/Summer 2026 collection by Homme Plissé Issey Miyake.

Villa Medicea della Petraia wasn’t just a backdrop, it was integral to the presentation. This historic estate, once home to Cosimo I and later a beloved retreat of King Victor Emmanuel II, tells its own story of evolution. Medieval stronghold, Medici playground, Savoy ballroom, it has worn many guises over centuries, its architecture layered over different eras.

The scent of lemon blossoms mingled with the clink of cocktail glasses, and the soft rustle of pleated fabric stirred in the breeze: this was no ordinary fashion show 

The arcaded and frescoed atrium of the villa

 with the exhibition before the runway show.

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

 

 

Inside, beneath the villa's soaring glass atrium and frescoes painted by Volterrano to glorify the Medici dynasty, guests explored an exhibition that peeled back the layers of the design process. 

A slim, elevated table covered in pleated fabric and encircled by sketches and studies acted as a timeline of inspiration. Paint swatches, abstract prints, pinned fabrics, and experimental pleats spiraled outward like petals. 

It was a rare and generous gesture from the Japanese fashion house: not just showing the finished product, but tracing the entire arc of thought, research, trial, and play. Here, design was not a closed system. It was a loop: fluid, adaptive, and joyfully imprecise.

Fabrics shimmered with transparency in places, lightweight nylons, recycled polyesters, and breathable knits shaped into both tailored and flowing forms, color palettes like Renaissance frescoes

The pleated, richly hued fabrics

on display at the exhibition. 

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn 

The presentation marked the debut of Open Studio, a new direction for the Japanese fashion house, an evolving design practice grounded not in spectacle, but in observation, fieldwork, and process.

Steeped in the legacy of Issey Miyake’s lifelong devotion to movement, material, and the poetry of making, this latest chapter invited guests into a world where clothes are not just worn, but discovered, layer by layer, fold by fold, moment by moment.

The Florentine presentation marked the launch of this new and exploratory design philosophy. Instead of sketching ideas behind closed doors, the design team ventured out into Italy, absorbing the colors, textures, and atmosphere of local cities like Florence and Venice. That journey, observant, tactile, and curious, became the heart of the collection. A haiku, composed by the team, could be read by guests as they entered the villa’s sun-drenched atrium. It framed not just the collection’s ethos, but the entire evening’s experience as an unfolding of ideas.

The presentation launched Open Studio, a new direction for the Japanese fashion house, an evolving design practice grounded in observation, fieldwork, and process

Colours and shapes of Italian cities 

and landscapes inspired the new 

collection. Photograph: Jay Zoo  

“We travel,

Observing beauty in the ordinary.

We collect,

Gathering color and flavor of the vernacular fabric.

We compose,

Arranging elements redolent of the land.

Layer upon layer,

The portrayal of creativity takes shape.”

The decision to anchor this season’s inspiration in Italy wasn’t accidental. It was integral. Leaving their Tokyo studio behind, the Homme Plissé designers immersed themselves in the visual and material culture of Italy, not in search of spectacle, but of subtlety. 

They noted the faded sienna of ancient plaster walls, the wine-dark gloss of Chianti in a glass, the oxidized green of seaside anchors. These observations formed the foundation of a richly pigmented color palette: ochres, burnt oranges, vineyard purples, earthy browns, and sea-washed greys. But this wasn’t mere cultural referencing, it was a respectful act of study, an attempt to understand the Italian way of living, moving, and making, and to reimagine it through the lens of Miyake’s legacy: pleated textiles, movement, and modular design.

Leaving their Tokyo studio behind, the Homme Plissé designers immersed themselves in the visual and material culture of Italy, not in search of spectacle but of subtlety

Models winding their way through the 

16th century gardens of the villa.

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Models drifted through the villa’s tiered gardens like brushstrokes come to life. There were no spotlights, no booming music, no theatrical runway moments, just the rhythm of walking, the rustle of fabric in the breeze, and the murmurs of guests seated along sculpted paths and citrus terraces. As dusk turned the stone walls to amber, the collection quietly came into focus.

Every look bore at least one pleated element, but the silhouettes played with transformation. There were painterly vests with pockets designed to hold brushes, coats that folded into travel bags, and tunics layered under open cardigans that billowed like sailcloth. It felt less like a wardrobe and more like a toolkit for wandering creatives, a wardrobe built for travel and change.

Fabrics shimmered with transparency in places: lightweight nylons, recycled polyesters, and breathable knits shaped into both tailored and flowing forms. The color palettes like Renaissance frescoes, vivid but never loud, grounded yet imaginative.

The master of technological innovation and sustainable design, Miyake was one of the first to explore recycled fabrics long before the industry caught on 

The brilliant hues and pattern of the collection

were highlights. Photograph: Jay Zoo 

Though Issey Miyake passed away in 2022, his spirit was present in each fold. The master of technological innovation and sustainable design, Miyake was one of the first to explore recycled fabrics long before the industry caught on. 

His belief in clothing as dynamic, democratic, and very human continues to shape the label.This collection was not a nostalgic tribute to the Miyake but was all about a renewal. 

What set Amid Impasto of Horizons apart was not its elegance, but a sense of care and attention that infused every detail. This wasn’t design for design’s sake, it was fashion as response, reflection, and conversation. The sculptural fabric exhibited in the villa suggested future possibilities, clothing as architecture, as poetry, as landscape. Each one was a reminder that innovation often begins not with a bold idea, but with a small observation. A splash of terracotta on a wall or a dash of sunlight on a leaf. 

As twilight gave way to night at the Villa Medicea della Petraia and the lights flickered among the trees, the collection faded from view, leaving a lasting, luminous impression

In a circular grove in the gardens,

during the rehearsal of the show. 

Photograph; Jay Zoo

With Open Studio, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake doesn’t just propose a seasonal shift, it signals a new creative rhythm. Future collections may be inspired by different geographies, new materials, or evolving cultural dialogues. 

But this inaugural journey to Italy has laid a compelling foundation: fashion embedded in research, shaped by spontaneity, and rendered in movement.

As twilight gave way to night at the Villa Medicea della Petraia and the lights flickered among the trees, the collection faded from view, leaving a lasting, luminous impression. And somewhere, between the folds of fabric and the folds of time, a new horizon has quietly begun to take shape for Issey Miyake's next evolution.

See highlights below of the Hommes Plisse Issey Miyake SS26 Florentine show below

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo 

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026,, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026,Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn 

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026,Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026,Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of the Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo 

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026, Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of the Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amide the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph; Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid the Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph; Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph; Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph; Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph; Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Jay Zoo

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Amid Impasto of Horizons, Spring/Summer 2026. Villa Medicea della Petraia, Florence, Italy. Photograph; Andea Heinsohn

The Art of the Australian Imagination: Romance Was Born’s Emotionally Resonant Resort 2026 Collection

Romance Was Born's otherworldly collection was a standout at Australian Fashion Week. Photograph (above) by Nathan James.

The fashion world tends to cast its gaze north, to Parisian salons, Milanese runways and London's creative enclaves. But sometimes, magic happens farther afield. As we look back on the season's most compelling fashion moments, one of the boldest and emotionally resonant came not from Europe’s capitals, but from Sydney. Romance Was Born's Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales, closed Australian Fashion Week last month with a show that was part couture, part nostalgia, and wholly unforgettable, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Nathan James, Patrick Marion, Anna Nguyen and Mohan Raj

The Ballets Russes were an inspiration 

for the collection. Photo: Mohan Raj 

THE END of any marathon fashion week often carries with it a collective exhale. The tempo slows, the crowds thin, and the industry turns its gaze toward the next destination on the global circuit. But at this year’s Australian Fashion Week, the closing moment didn’t fade quietly into the night. Instead, it was a memorable crescendo and a vibrant, emotionally charged, celebration of creativity. Romance Was Born marked its 20th anniversary with a show that was more than a runway ~ it was a portal into another world.

Titled It’s in the Trees, the Resort 2026 collection, by designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales, transformed Sydney’s Carriageworks into an immersive dreamscape steeped in memory, fantasy, and natural beauty. 

This wasn’t just another seasonal showcase, it was a personal journey into the brand’s creative DNA, one that resonated with powerful nostalgia and an imaginative spirit that has always defined Romance Was Born, but now with a new depth born from two decades of storytelling.

The audience was swept into a world that felt at once strange and familiar. Childhood memories with all their curiosity, and colour, formed the emotional undercurrent of the show. The designers drew from their own Australian upbringings, revisiting the sensory terrain of growing up immersed in bushland, surrounded by toys, pets, trees, and the thrill of dressing up. That blend of play and nature, of the real and the surreal, created a vivid and often poignant narrative on the runway.

Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett marked their 20th anniversary with a show that was more than a runway, it was a portal into another world

Vivid colour and pattern were key to 

the designs. Photo: Patrick Marion 

Billowing silks and cascading tulle brushed the floor like wind through tall grass. Layered fabrics mimicked the dappled shadows of eucalyptus leaves, and shimmering embellishments recalled the glint of beetle shells, or the iridescence of a butterfly wing caught in sunlight. 

The palette was unapologetically tempestuous, a riot of colour that suggested pulsing emotion. Deep forest greens met electric pinks; sunburnt ochres collided with fairy-floss pastels. There was nothing muted, nothing demure  ~ and thank goodness for it.

Motifs from the natural world appeared as recurring characters. Butterflies, beetles, and birds adorned the garments in embroidered constellations and beaded clusters, each symbolising growth, wonder, and the alchemical nature of transformation. 

And they weren’t merely decorative. They were central to the storytelling, visual anchors in a narrative that refused to stay grounded in a single realm of reality. Plunkett and Sales sought to capture moments of play where fantasy blurs with truth, where dressing up as a child becomes a genuine act of becoming.

Layered fabrics mimicked the dappled shadows of eucalyptus leaves, shimmering embellishments recalled the glint of beetle shells, the iridescence of a butterfly wing caught in sunlight. 

Layers of voluminous fabrics

added drama and movement. 

Photo: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born has always blurred the line between fashion and costume, and It’s in the Trees was no exception. The designers tapped into their long-standing admiration for the Ballets Russes, that legendary early 20th-century dance company known for its avant-garde fusion of movement, music, and ornate costume design. 

The influence came through in the dramatic silhouettes, exaggerated sleeves, and sculptural headpieces that would feel equally at home in an opera house or on the set of a fantastical film.

But this was no historical pastiche. There were modern notes threaded throughout: sequined flame motifs reminiscent of Hot Wheels packaging; toy-like accessories rendered in crystal and lacquer; even Barbie’s iconic pink reinterpreted through a surrealist lens. These playful elements didn’t detract from the elegance, they enriched it, placing the collection in a contemporary, and Australian, context.

One of the defining characteristics of Romance Was Born’s twenty-year journey has been their ongoing commitment to collaboration and this season exemplified that ethos. Notably, the collection featured the work of Australian artist Laura Jones, whose paintings of native flora were transformed into textiles that whispered across the body like botanical reveries. Jones’s watercolour sensibility lent a softness to the collection’s more theatrical moments, creating an emotional experience that was as meditative as it was extravagant.

The designers drew from their own Australian upbringings, revisiting the sensory terrain of growing up immersed in bushland, surrounded by toys, pets, trees, and the thrill of dressing up

Couture fabrication and sparkling 

details reimagined childhood icons. 

Photo: Anna Nguyen

Plunkett and Sales embedded references to childhood toys, rendering them in couture fabrications and sparkling details. 

These symbols of early imagination were not used ironically but reverently. In the hands of Romance Was Born, these toys became relics of the joy, chaos and emotion that define growing up.

While the show was steeped in personal history and the duo's artistic legacy, it never strayed into nostalgia for its own sake. Instead, it felt like a reawakening, a way of honouring the past while stepping into the future. 

Archival pieces made cameo appearances, including a reimagined version of their beloved “budgie” dress from the 2000s, originally made from recycled shoulder pads, now rendered with couture finesse. This circular dialogue with their own design history underscored just how far the Australian fashion house has come, and yet how faithfully it has held onto its core identity.

Plunkett and Sales anniversary show was not about summarising their career, but about diving deeper into the themes that have always fascinated them: transformation, fantasy, and emotional resonance. In a world that increasingly values minimalism, they have remained committed to maximalism, not just in visual terms, but in the emotional depth and richness of their work.

The show pulled the audience out of their chairs, metaphorically, and into a parallel universe, one where imagination takes precedence over seasonal trends

The treed and twilit set of the show 

was a portal into another world.

Photo: Nathan James

The collection embodied the designers' vision, where each piece tells a story, holds a memory, and the models became characters in a sprawling fable. 

In many ways, the presentation defied categorisation. It was fashion, yes, but also performance art, costume design, installation, and visual autobiography. It metaphorically pulled the audience out of their chairs and into a parallel universe, one where imagination takes precedence over seasonal trends. 

And perhaps that’s the magic of Romance Was Born. They’re not in the business of manufacturing desire in the traditional fashion sense. They don’t make clothes to fit into the feed or follow the market. They create to connect, to evoke a feeling, a sense of something remembered but almost forgotten.

At a time when many labels are still pivoting toward speed, volume, and formulaic design, Romance Was Born continues to carve out a rare space where creativity comes first. Plunkett and Sales are designers, yes, but also dreamers, storytellers, and cultural custodians of a uniquely Australian kind of beauty: wild and emotive yet sophisticated and strong.

In a world that increasingly values minimalism, they have remained committed to maximalism, not just in visual terms, but in the emotional depth and richness of their work

The atmospheric finale of the show felt like the end

of an immersive performance. Photo: Anna Nguyen

As the last model disappeared into the shadows and the applause surged under the canopy of trees, it felt less like the end of a fashion show and more like the closing act of a grand theatrical performance. There was a sense of shared catharsis, a release of joy, memory, and collective wonder.

It’s in the Trees was a love letter to the pair's shared inventiveness. Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales honoured their artistry, while also making space for evolution and new beginnings. 

In a fashion landscape which often prioritises the surface, this collection reminded us of the importance of recollection, ardour, and the capacity of human ingenuity. In that liminal space between costume and couture, between toy and treasure, between dusk and darkness, Romance Was Born gave us not just a show ~ but a world. One that, twenty years on, is still well worth stepping into.

Scroll down to see more highlights from Romance Was Born's Resort 2026 Collection

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Nathan James

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Mohan Raj 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Patrick Marion 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Nathan James 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Mohan Raj

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Patrick Marion

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Nathan James

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Mohan Raj. 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Patrick Marion

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Nathan James 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Mohan Raj

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Patrick Marion

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Nathan James 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Mohan Raj

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Patrick Marion

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Nathan James 

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Anna Nguyen

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Mohan Raj

Romance Was Born, It's in the Trees, Resort 2026. Australian Fashion Week. Photograph: Patrick Marion

What the Notre Dame Restoration Says About France’s Past and its Future

The facade of Notre Dame de Paris after a five-year restoration. A fire in 2019 devastated the world heritage building and toppled its spire. More than 250 companies and hundreds of experts worked to restore the cathedral. Photograph above: AFP/Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool. 

By Bradley Stephens, University of Bristol:

Visitors rediscovering Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral will be stepping into a highly charged conversation about France’s past and its future. Both sacred and secular, the cathedral tellingly illustrates the conflict between tradition and reform in France, as a historically Catholic and imperial power tries to adapt to its multicultural and postcolonial present.

After the blaze that engulfed Notre Dame in April 2019, the French government quickly announced a competition to redesign the cathedral’s roof and spire. But the following month, 55% of respondents to a public poll favoured preserving the original design.

A row eventually erupted between Jean-Louis Georgelin, the army general in charge of Notre Dame’s reconstruction, and the cathedral’s chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve. Their exchange (Georgelin told Villeneuve to “shut his mouth”) typified the tension between those who believed something new could emerge from the ashes, and those who wanted Notre Dame to be rebuilt exactly as it was.

Ironically, the “original” edifice many French people wished to recreate was, itself, a new creation. It was architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s modern reimagining of medievalism, designed during his mid-19th-century restoration of the cathedral. He argued that “to restore a building is not to preserve it” but to “reinstate it”. Viollet-le-Duc understood the preservation of the past as an act of rehabilitation that required a modern touch if history was to live on.

Macron’s soft power

In a similar vein, by the summer of 2020, President Emmanuel Macron had dropped the idea of a dramatic revamp. The French National Commission of Heritage and Architecture even recommended eschewing modern, potentially more sustainable, building materials.

They did, however, envisage modernising the cathedral’s access and surroundings to better manage its 14 million annual visitors. Their approval of the related interior refurbishments and new lighting effects deepened the general discord.

The essayist Alain Finkielkraut and the historian Pierre Nora blasted the plans as “kitsch” in the New York Times. Notre Dame’s then rector, Patrick Chauvet, countered that they would make more sense for visitors and connect the cathedral’s medieval origins with the modern day.

Neither view has yet resolved the quarrel over Macron’s desire to introduce new stained-glass windows in the side-chapels. Despite these ongoing disagreements, reactions to last Friday’s images from inside Notre Dame suggest that the president’s resolve for an ambitious renovation has paid off.

Touring the site, Macron posted a picture on X (formerly known as Twitter) of the assembled crowd. Photographed from the galleries, some 1,300 members of the restoration team stood cradled within the newly bright nave. Its walls had been cleaned, not just of soot, but also of the dirt that had accumulated since Viollet-le-Duc’s restoration.

This was French solidarity cast in its most sublime light. And Macron’s instinct for soft power was on full display. “To realise the impossible together. This is France,” he tweeted.

Macron was using the reborn Notre Dame as a recognisable symbol of endurance and unity to reiterate his faith in French exceptionalism. Expressing France’s deep gratitude for the monument being “repaired, reinvented and rebuilt”, he has channelled this spirit of renewal into a national mood beset by the same decline that has increasingly hamstrung his presidency.

France’s fears of waning international influence and of growing internal dissent have powered a “booming industry” of national self-doubt. The cathedral’s €700 million (£582 million) renovation helps to counterbalance that insecurity. Not least in a year when the Olympics have drawn the eyes of the world to Paris.

Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame

By harnessing Notre Dame’s combination of a sense of institution with the spirit of innovation, Macron was imitating one of his heroes – Victor Hugo. Hugo’s bestselling 1831 novel, Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), was integral in making the cathedral a beloved icon.

Victor Hugo is one of Macron’s heroes. The National Library of France

Hugo mustered public support for the cathedral’s restoration after it had been vandalised during the French Revolution. He roused public sentiment by comparing the building to flesh that had been wrinkled by time and bruised by revolt.

Yet Macron would also do well to remember that this vision of Notre Dame remains as much a warning against complacency as it does an ode to its unifying majesty. That warning is apt in a week when his latest government looks almost certain to fall.

For Hugo, nothing remains unchanged through the ebb and flow of time, making continuity and rupture part of the same universal law of creation. This is why his novel – a “cathedral of poetry”, as historian Jules Michelet put it – thinks in nuanced instead of categorical ways about the fluidity between the past and the future.

Hugo’s Notre Dame is “an edifice of transition”, mirroring France itself. Marked by both Romanesque and gothic styles and built over successive centuries, it is a collective and continuing achievement: at once whole and diverse. For Hugo, it therefore nurtures the multifaceted outlook that he argued exemplifies France’s potential to welcome, inspire and elevate all people.

The western façade and parvis of Notre-Dame in 1699. WikiCommons

At the very heart of Paris, Notre Dame invites visitors to see beyond the dividing lines between this and that, then and now, and them versus us. But Hugo also insists that the “vast symphony” he hears ringing in Notre Dame’s bells and across its history has the sound of a storm.

In his romantic understanding of the way opposites are intimately interconnected, foreboding uncertainty and forthright conviction ultimately go hand in hand.

The future is not set in stone and so obliges us to be vigilant and to continue working. With an additional €140 million from worldwide donations to invest in Notre Dame’s future preservation, France is well positioned to meet this obligation. The cathedral’s fortunes nevertheless serve as a reminder that the social togetherness dreamt of in France’s revolutionary history – and in its future ambitions – requires concrete labour, not just vivid imagination.

Bradley Stephens, Professor of French Literature, University of Bristol