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 

Paris Fashion Week: Issey Miyake Spring/Summer 2026 ~ A Study in Form, Freedom, and the Future of Dress

A fluid, deconstructed silhouette wraps the body in a single sheet of synthetic leather creating a sculptural form, in contrast to a tailored garment, at the Issey Miyake show in Paris. Photograph (above) by Jay Zoo for DAM. 

At Paris' Centre Pompidou, Issey Miyake’s artistic director Satoshi Kondo explored how clothing interacts with the body for the new Spring/Summer 2026 collection. Under the Japanese designer's guidance, familiar garments, from jackets and shirts to everyday casual pieces, were reimagined with unconventional shapes, asymmetrical constructions, and innovative use of volume, creating a dialogue between wearer and garment. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Jay Zoo 

Distorted, high shoulders plus sleeves

sewn on to pants, gave the collection 

a Dadaist vibe. 

SATOSHI Kondo called his latest Issey Miyake collection, Being Garments, Being Sentient, examining the idea of clothes having consciousness as a design provocation. 

Familiar pieces such as polos, hoodies, and shirts were reconfigured into sculptural shapes that challenged their own function. 

Shoulders lifted into sharp ridges high up on the neck, jacket arms were attached to trousers, seams drifted off axis, and collars stood upright, as though adjusting to new rhythms of wear. The garments were like engineered forms responding to movement and gravity in unexpected ways, as if they had a life of their own.

The question, “What if garments were aware?” became a surreal lens through which he and his team in Tokyo looked at flexibility, volume, and textiles in motion. In the form of a haiku, the designer wrote:

"If garments become autonomous. 

If the body becomes an object

At a liminal state where fabrication 

and the living Stand opposed yet entangle

A vivid relationship of otherness takes form"

Through a series of focused design experiments, including modular sleeves, exposed linings, and pieces that highlighted negative space, as well as collaborations that introduced new materials and textures, the collection investigated flexibility, structure, and functional creativity. 

From commentary on consumer culture to pleated textiles inspired by resilient natural forms, the show offered a comprehensive study of modern dress where design intelligence and human interaction are inseparable. In another series, sleeves were shifted, split, or repositioned to create dissonant silhouettes. A jacket might trail from one arm or wrap asymmetrically around the torso, transforming the routine act of dressing into a moment of decision and play. These gestures made visible the dialogue between garment and wearer, one directing, the other adapting. 

Through a series of focused design experiments, including modular sleeves, exposed lining and negative space, the collection investigated flexibility, structure and functional creativity

As a commentary on consumer

culture, the designs have pockets

filled with plastic detritus. 

Kondo also looked at consumer culture and made a commentary about that with colourful, jersey pieces that had pockets filled by large, plastic objects, hinting at the weight of excess. Some appeared stuffed with washing up bottles and even toilet paper rolls.  

In another section, garments were inverted, making linings outwardly visible. While another group of designs focused on negative space, defined as much by the air they enclosed as by the body beneath.

For the finale, photographs of palms and resilient plants were pleated into textiles. Their structured yet fluid shapes reflected how nature endures in built environments, a fitting metaphor for Issey Miyake’s ongoing balance between technology and humanity

A collaboration with Camper, extended this conversation into material innovation. Using synthetic leather molded into fluid, continuous sheets, the pieces echoed the flexibility of footwear design. 

Throughout the show, held during Paris Fashion Week, Tarek Atoui’s live soundscape underscored the movement of the collection, filling the space with rhythmic pulses that mirrored the garments’ shifting geometries. The performance reinforced Kondo’s central point: that clothing need not be static and can be expressive.

In Being Garments, Being Sentient, Satoshi Kondo examined how a fold, a seam, or a silhouette can evoke curiosity and a surreal way of thinking about dress. It was a statement about the future of fashion and the art of making design feel alive.

Scroll down or tap pictures to see more highlights from Issey Miyake's SS26 collection in Paris