Paris Fashion Week: Form Follows Function, and Feeling ~ Inside Niccolò Pasqualetti’s Modular Modernism

Backstage in Paris before the Niccolo Pasqualetti SS26 show in Paris. Photograph (above) and cover picture by Jay Zoo for DAM. 

Niccolò Pasqualetti’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection in Paris consolidated his reputation as one of the most intelligent new voices in contemporary design. Merging fine tailoring with an experimental approach to form, the Tuscan-born designer explored modularity, material innovation, and sustainability with quiet authority. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Jay Zoo

Shoulder pads became sculptural

accessories in the new collection. 

AT Paris Fashion Week, Niccolò Pasqualetti presented a new collection that combined conceptual rigor with functional adaptability. 

Shown in the stripped-down concrete halls of the Palais de Tokyo, the collection examined how precision tailoring and modular construction can serve as tools for contemporary living rather than symbols of status or gender. It was a collection that spoke less about identity and more about adaptability, the ability of clothing to move, shift, and respond to the person who wears it.

Pasqualetti has developed a design language that sits between sculpture and pragmatism. This season, structured forms softened into rounded edges, while convertible silhouettes blurred distinctions between categories. 

The Italian designer presented work built on transformation, garments that reconfigure, adapt, and endure. The focus on structure, craft, and clarity felt strikingly modern, proving that evolution in fashion can be as much about construction as concept.

"The collection is a mix of my different inspirations, as I always like to work with lots of contrasting aspects in the process," Niccolo Pasqualetti explained backstage to DAM before the Paris show. "Also, I worked with simple geometric shapes to create new constructions and asymmetries. These ideas were mixed together with the Italian wardrobe that is always there: you will find trenchcoats, suits, jackets and white shirts, but everything is twisted a bit, like there is an element of wrongness."

"The collection is a mix of different inspirations; I always like to work with contrasting aspects and I used simple geometric shapes to create new constructions and asymmetries"

A leather bomber jacket

has removable sleeves. 

A leather bomber with removable sleeves, tunics made from geometric cotton panels, and shoulder pads that could be detached or repositioned illustrated the designer’s ongoing pursuit of flexibility in construction. The use of recycled lyocell furthered this sense of intelligent functionality, aligning craft with sustainability rather than treating it as an external concern. 

"My sculpted shapes are inspired from Richard Serra’s works which are very big but kind of bent," Pasqualetti comments. "My work has sculptural elements like the shoulder pads that are normally internal elements of garments, but I use them as external details, like accessories. Some have sequins or are elastic and others become objects on their own."

A neutral palette of whites, creams, and blacks reinforced the clarity of the forms. Sequined sarong-style skirts layered over asymmetric swimsuits introduced texture without excess. Oversized safety pins, a recurring motif, acted as both fastening and ornament, suggesting that the smallest detail could redefine structure. These gestures reflected a designer intent on reducing fashion to its most elemental components and then rebuilding it on his own terms.

"My sculpted shapes are inspired from Richard Serra’s work with sculptures that are very big but kind of bent"

The sequined shoulder and geometric 

shapes are highlights of Pasqualetti's 

designs this season in Paris. 

"There are some garments that look like objects, like squares or big triangles and there is this idea of combining lots of textiles with beading and leather," the designer describes. "There are a lot of details that are not apparent at first glance but are in all of the garments."

Pasqualetti’s approach stands out precisely because it resists grand gestures. His work is not theatrical but investigative, exploring how garments behave when simplified, deconstructed, and reassembled. In an era when modularity is often treated as a novelty, Pasqualetti’s insistence on adaptability feels genuinely relevant. His clothes are designed to evolve, not through seasonal reinvention but through structural intelligence.

Born near Florence in 1994, Pasqualetti trained at IUAV in Venice and later at Central Saint Martins in London, where he was awarded the Stella McCartney scholarship. Before launching his own brand in 2021, he worked for The Row in New York and Loewe in Paris, experiences that sharpened his sense of proportion and fabrication. 

His trajectory since has been steady and strategic: recipient of the Franca Sozzani Award in 2021, winner of the Camera Moda Fashion Trust in 2023 and 2024, and a finalist for the LVMH Prize last year.That recognition is not accidental. Pasqualetti represents a strand of Italian design that fuses craftsmanship with conceptual clarity — where tailoring is not merely a heritage code but a structural discipline. His work embodies a shift from spectacle toward thoughtfulness, from seasonal novelty toward sustainable evolution.

For Spring/Summer 2026, Pasqualetti did not attempt to redefine fashion’s future; instead, he offered a precise study in how garments can reflect the complexity of the present. In his hands, construction becomes conversation, between wearer and maker, tradition and change, permanence and fluidity.

Scroll down or tap pictures to see more highlights and backstage at the SS26 collection in Paris.

Backstage in Paris before the Niccolo Pasqualetti SS26 Show at the Palais de Tokyo 

Paris Fashion Week: Caroline Hu Redefines Romance on the Runway. Photography by Brittany Scott

One of Caroline Hu's creations for her new collection in Paris. Photograph (above) by Brittany Scott. 

CAROLINE Hu has always thrived in a realm between fantasy and reality, and her Spring/Summer 2026 collection, proved to be her most immersive journey yet. Presented at Paris Fashion Week, the show unfolded like a daydream, where familiar garments were unraveled and turned upside down to reveal unexpected new shapes.

Hu’s talent lies in questioning fashion and society, not with defiance but with delicacy. A simple T-shirt reemerged as an elaborate corset in quilted silk, a shirtdress was turned up so its collar brushed the hem, while linings were reimagined as outerwear. Even humor found its place: socks transformed into color-blocked panels across a ruched pink mini, striking an irreverent note amid the sophistication.

The true magic, however, was found in Hu’s embroidery. A cropped black jacket worn inside-out revealed stitches as an abstract, whisper-like pattern. Organza frocks carried trompe l’oeil bows that shimmered as if drawn onto the fabric. Elsewhere, fragments of floral prints blurred into pixelated geometry, pushing the line between craft and illusion. Layered tulle, overlaid with textiles derived from Hu’s own oil paintings, added a painterly depth that brought her personal vision vividly to life.

The presentation was heightened by a performance from Canadian choreographer Emma Portner, weaving dance into the collection’s atmosphere of movement and metamorphosis. That dialogue with the body extended to the footwear: Hu’s ongoing partnership with Adidas introduced the CLOT Taekwondo by Caroline Hu, shoes that merged the precision of martial arts with the fluidity of ballet. Rendered in black, blush, and ivory, they anchored the collection’s ethereal flights of fancy. Hu offered not just clothing but a meditation on transformation, gentle yet radical, playful yet profound. ~ Antonio Visconti.

Scroll down to see more highlights and backstage of the Reverie by Caroline Hu SS26 Collection

Paris Fashion Week: Cultural Cartography ~ MaXhosa Spring/Summer 2026 Maps the Spirit of Africa onto the Runway

In Paris, at the MaXhosa show backstage, a model wears one of the new designs from the latest collection. Photograph (above) by Brittany Scott. 

Marking a significant chapter in South African fashion, MaXhosa's Spring/Summer 2026 showcase in Paris encapsulated both celebration and continuity. Under the creative direction of Laduma Ngxokolo, the brand used its platform at fashion week to reaffirm a decade and a half of work dedicated to fusing Xhosa heritage with contemporary design. Story by Antonio Visconti. Photographs by Brittany Scott

The new MaXhosa collection

in Paris mixed vivid hues with

intricate patterns and textures. 

LADUMA Ngxokolo’s aim for his new MaXhosa collection was to bridge continents and generations by presenting Izipho Zabadala, “Gifts for the Ancestors,” reaffirming his position as one of Africa’s leading fashion designers. 

Presented as part of the official Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode schedule, the designer paid homage to lineage while charting new creative ground. 

With more than 30 intricately constructed looks, the show combined traditional motifs with modern construction, reflecting Laduma Ngxokolo’s ongoing mission to position African craftsmanship within the vocabulary of international luxury.

"This collection stands as our heartfelt offering of gratitude to the wisdom, creativity, and heritage passed down by our elders," the designer said. "Every garment speaks across time, weaving past, present, and future together, a bridge connecting the living with the ancestral realm." 

The showcase, held at the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, marked the brand’s fourth consecutive season on the official Paris schedule and its 15th anniversary, milestones that underscore its steady rise from a South African knitwear label to a global luxury name.

Ngxokolo’s vision for Spring/Summer 2026 was a meditation on heritage as both inheritance and innovation. Conceived as an offering to his forebears, the collection celebrated the wisdom and artistry passed down through generations of Xhosa craftsmanship. The designer described the garments as vessels for ancestral memory, a dialogue between the spiritual and the contemporary.

The presentation opened with a soulful performance by South African legend Yvonne Chaka Chaka, setting the tone for a show steeped in both rhythm and reverence. Models walked on richly patterned carpets from MaXhosa’s homeware line, wearing garments alive with movement: tiered ruffles, beaded motifs, and geometric knits in vivid harmonies of pink, ochre, turquoise, and black. The intricacy of Xhosa beadwork was translated into cascading textures, while pulled-thread embroidery and modular silhouettes introduced a modern, adaptable sensibility.

The collection mixed traditional motifs with modern construction, reflecting Ngxokolo’s ongoing mission to position African craftsmanship within the vocabulary of international luxury

Elegant rows of ruffles were offset

by the clever mix of patterns. 

 

Ngxokolo’s expertise in knitwear remains central to his approach. His exploration of digital effects and detachable garment components underscored a desire to merge heritage craft with today's design, ideas as much about the future of African luxury as its past. 

"These pieces act as antennas: vessels through which we honour our ancestors, showing them, their gifts endure, carried forward to advance culture," the designer explained.  

The designer sees African culture as a universal language, and he emphasized his commitment to defining a South African aesthetic within the worldwide fashion lexicon.

This season’s collection also functioned as a broader reflection on MaXhosa’s evolution. Once synonymous with knitwear, the label has expanded into a lifestyle brand encompassing homeware and accessories, with flagship stores in Johannesburg and New York. Yet its core philosophy, of clothing as cultural storytelling, remains unchanged.

Paris Fashion Week proved momentous beyond the runway. Ngxokolo was simultaneously honoured in Johannesburg with the Outstanding Contribution to Fashion award at the inaugural South African Fashion Awards.

 In Izipho Zabadala, MaXhosa presented more than a collection; it delivered a cultural offering, one that stitched together memory, identity, and ambition. Through colour, craft, and conviction, Ngxokolo continues to affirm that African heritage is not a reference point from the past, but a living, evolving force shaping fashion’s future.

Scroll down to see highlights from the MaXhosa Spring/Summer 2026 presentation in Paris