On The Cusp Of Change: Moving Fashion Houses For SS26

Words by Ella Mansell

A fre­net­ic atmos­phere descends upon New York City, Lon­don, Milan, and Paris this Sep­tem­ber. While not too unusu­al con­sid­er­ing fash­ion month’s insa­tiable appetite for spec­ta­cle, both the for­tu­itous and the staged, this sea­son is espe­cial­ly more so. That is because, there are at least a dozen design­ers debut­ing col­lec­tions this spring/ sum­mer 2026 season.

Like a chess game of well-cal­cu­lat­ed mov­ing pieces, Mat­tieu Blazy moves to Chanel, suc­ceed­ing Vir­ginie Viard (although the last few col­lec­tions were designed by the in-house ate­lier), Louise Trot­ter moves from Car­ven to Bot­te­ga Vene­ta to fill his spot. Dem­na leaves Balen­ci­a­ga to head up Guc­ci while Pier­pao­lo Pic­ci­oli moves to Balen­ci­a­ga with Alessan­dro Michele fill­ing his spot at Valenti­no. Donatel­la Ver­sace departs fam­i­ly name­sake brand Ver­sace and Dario Vitale steps in. 

And that’s to only name a few this year. This is an incred­i­bly rare moment of intro­spec­tion and change in the indus­try, one that has not been seen for decades – if at all. The whole indus­try seems to be toy­ing with and antic­i­pat­ing the answers to: what is fash­ion now and what will it become? Check mate? 

In her recent inter­view with The New York­er, Anna Win­tour con­fessed that to her, the word “lux­u­ry” no longer means any­thing. Instead, high fash­ion is about cre­ativ­i­ty. What does a fash­ion house become when its name­sake design­er departs? How much does the iden­ti­ty of a fash­ion house rest on the shoul­ders of its named design­er? After the last few sea­sons that in many of the her­itage hous­es  felt very safe, SS26 feels any­thing but. And it’s incred­i­bly exciting. 

After a sprin­kling of fash­ion teasers on the Venice Film Fes­ti­val red car­pet, that for some fell short (not enough house codes), for oth­ers were refresh­ing (spoke to the “every­day”, “mod­ern” woman). Here are the design­er debuts Over­due is antic­i­pat­ing this Spring/ Sum­mer 2026 season.

New York

We start over in New York, the Amer­i­can cap­i­tal for fash­ion, that has the pres­ti­gious task of open­ing fash­ion month every sea­son. Amer­i­can fash­ion is tra­di­tion­al­ly clear­er-cut in its mod­ernist approach, as the lead­ing cap­i­tal for sports­wear and streetwear dot­ted in between high fash­ion. Kick­ing off the week, Rachel Scott opened with her debut at Proen­za Schouel­er. The Jamaican design­er first entered the fash­ion scene with own label Dio­ti­ma, going on to win the CFDA Wom­enswear Design­er of the Year award in 2024. Known for fus­ing Caribbean her­itage with­in each design for her own label, this was a par­tic­u­lar­ly excit­ing debut, packed with burnt red block colours, loos­er tai­lor­ing, asym­met­ri­cal cuts, and fun prints to sig­nal this fresh perspective. 

Nicholas Aburn who has pre­vi­ous­ly worked at Alexan­der Wang, Tom Ford, and under Dem­na at Balen­ci­a­ga (but has nev­er held the esteemed Cre­ative Direc­tor title) also debuted at Area this week with decon­struct­ed den­im jeans, and a fresh “par­ty girl” ener­gy with bedaz­zled sports jer­sey, bead­ed dress­es, and tin­sel-like materials.

Lon­don

Lon­don is next on the cal­en­dar but the only city on the fash­ion week cal­en­dar with no design­er debuts (not to say it won’t be excit­ing, espe­cial­ly now the cal­en­dar is under the guise of Lau­ra Weir who has just start­ed head­ing up the British Fash­ion Coun­cil). Expect plen­ty of emerg­ing design­ers to keep an eye out for.

Milan

Over in Milan, the third city to show this fash­ion month, Louise Trot­ter at Bot­te­ga Vene­ta marks the only female cre­ative direc­tor debut in Europe. Known for her min­i­mal­ist touch at Car­ven, it’s yet to say which direc­tion she will take at the Ital­ian label pre­vi­ous­ly helmed by Matthieu Blazy. 

On to Dem­na, who arrives at Guc­ci to suc­ceed Seba­to de Sarno (last­ing two years, leav­ing abrupt­ly alleged­ly on the count of plum­met­ing sales). Simone Bel­lot­ti at Jil Sander (pre­vi­ous­ly at Bal­ly) takes over from Luke and Lucie Meier. 

Dario Vitale arrives at Ver­sace, teas­ing his vision with Julia Roberts’ car­pet look of jeans and a blaz­er at Venice Film Fes­ti­val – a far cry from the black, Medusa-encrust­ed, high-heel lega­cy he inher­its. Is this a false start to throw us off tracks? Vitale pre­vi­ous­ly worked at Miu Miu under Miuc­cia Pra­da and takes the helm over from Donatel­la Ver­sace mark­ing the first time in Versace’s his­to­ry that the brand’s Cre­ative Direc­tor role will not be held by a fam­i­ly member.

Paris

Final­ly, in Paris, Por­tuguese design­er Miguel Cas­tro Fre­itas (whose career spans stints at Dior, Dries Van Noten, and Sport­max) takes Mugler while Glenn Martens dou­bles up as Cre­ative Direc­tor of Diesel and Mai­son Margiela. Jack McCol­lough and Lazara Her­nan­dez (who left Proen­za Schouler) arrived at Loewe after Jonathan Ander­son left for Dior. Duran Lan­tink arrives at Jean Paul Gaulti­er, and Matthieu Blazy will debut at Chanel. Pier­pao­lo Pic­ci­oli  (pre­vi­ous­ly at Valenti­no) will take on Balen­ci­a­ga where Dem­na leaves behind a decade of exper­i­men­tal collections.

What will fash­ion look like for spring / sum­mer 2026? Its fate is in the hands of these designers.

Image cred­its to Show Stu­dio, cour­tesy of the brands.