SS26 Menswear: A Season in Soft Focus

Dig­i­tal Fash­ion & Beau­ty Edi­tor Eve Fitz­patrick

In a fash­ion cal­en­dar that often bar­rels for­ward at break­neck speed, Spring/Summer 2026 in Paris invit­ed us to slow down. Not in lethar­gy, but in con­tem­pla­tion. What does menswear look like in an era of post-pan­dem­ic intro­spec­tion, dig­i­tal accel­er­a­tion, and cli­mate anx­i­ety? Accord­ing to this season’s design­ers, it looks human again. Del­i­cate, inti­mate, and qui­et­ly profound.

Gone were the hol­low the­atrics. In their place: emo­tion, nos­tal­gia, clar­i­ty, and craft. From the ghost of child­hood mem­o­ries in the South of France to roman­tic tai­lor­ing dyed by nature itself, Paris offered a menswear moment that teth­ered to memory.

These are OVERDUE’s stand­out collections:

Dior Men

All eyes were on Jonathan Ander­son as he unveiled his debut col­lec­tion for Dior Men, and he did not dis­ap­point. Seam­less­ly thread­ing the wear­able with the wist­ful, Ander­son con­jured a col­lec­tion that was ground­ed in ele­gance but float­ed just above the ordi­nary. Time­less tai­lor­ing was inject­ed with a sur­re­al­ist sen­si­bil­i­ty: sil­hou­ettes were soft­ened, fab­rics light­ened, and details whis­pered rather than shout­ed. Ander­son has cre­at­ed a new Dior Man, anchored in tra­di­tion, but unmis­tak­ably forward-facing.

Jacquemus

In an era obsessed with the arti­fi­cial, Jacque­mus went home, lit­er­al­ly. His SS26 cam­paign mined the inti­mate archives of his child­hood, recre­at­ing sun-soaked fam­i­ly pho­tographs tak­en in the South of France. There’s some­thing qui­et­ly rev­o­lu­tion­ary about fash­ion in the age of AI that dares to be sin­cere, and Jacque­mus leaned into that whole­heart­ed­ly. The cam­paign, echo­ing raw fam­i­ly snap­shots, remind­ed us that fash­ion can still be ten­der. The clothes fol­lowed suit: breezy, nos­tal­gic, and utter­ly human.

Prada

At Pra­da, sim­plic­i­ty became the ulti­mate sophis­ti­ca­tion, jux­ta­posed by burst of colour and messy straw hats. This was a study in ele­men­tal ele­gance: crisp white shirts paired with play­ful bloomer shorts, prep­py macs, and boat-neck jumpers. Miuc­cia Pra­da and Raf Simons offered a col­lec­tion that dis­tilled the brand’s DNA into its purest form. Intel­lec­tu­al, iron­ic, impec­ca­bly tai­lored, and playful.

Hermès

Véronique Nichan­ian con­tin­ued her qui­et mas­tery at Her­mès with a col­lec­tion in search of light­ness. Neck­er­chiefs were a sta­ple through­out the col­lec­tion, and a palette of warm neu­trals bathed the run­way in under­stat­ed lux­u­ry. Every­thing felt breath­able, from unstruc­tured jack­ets to paper-thin knits. This was effort­less elegance.

Louis Vuitton

Phar­rell Williams’ lat­est col­lec­tion for Louis Vuit­ton took a play­ful detour through child­hood imag­i­na­tion with a Snakes and Lad­ders-inspired motif. But beneath the whim­sy sur­face lay a seri­ous com­mit­ment to craft: wildlife prints were adorned across struc­tured jack­ets, hand­bags and trunks nod­ding to the design teams explo­rations of India. Bold stripes added rhyth­mic punc­tu­a­tion to a col­lec­tion that con­tin­ues to expand the def­i­n­i­tion of lux­u­ry menswear.

Songzio

South Kore­an brand Songzio offered a shad­owy, roman­tic vision of mas­culin­i­ty. Think over­sized lay­ered jack­ets, gauzy organ­za shirts, and earthy tones that ground­ed the avant-garde styling. Cut-out sleeves and wide-brimmed hats gave the col­lec­tion a cin­e­mat­ic qual­i­ty, like a desert wan­der­er halfway between past and post-apocalypse.

Feng Chen Wang

Titled A Future in Bloom, Feng Chen Wang’s col­lec­tion was a poet­ic call for men to embrace vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Sil­hou­ettes were mod­ern, but imbued with ten­der­ness. Many pieces were lit­er­al­ly dyed using plants. Roman­ti­cism met tech­ni­cal pre­ci­sion, yield­ing suits that felt both ground­ed and oth­er­world­ly. A man­i­festo for the mature romantic.

Egonlab

Design duo Kévin Nom­peix and Flo­rentin Glé­marec craft­ed a poignant trib­ute to Glémarec’s late grand­fa­ther, weav­ing mem­o­ry and melan­choly into every stitch. The Bre­ton coast served as a rich ref­er­ence point, with lace and sea­far­er sil­hou­ettes anchor­ing the col­lec­tion in place and time. Over­sized hoods and boat-shaped col­lars added the­atri­cal flour­ish to oth­er­wise qui­et­ly tai­lored pieces.