The Who What Wear Podcast: Fashion Month S/S 2026 Recap: Disruptive Designers, Cinematic Color Combos, and the End of Quiet Luxury

0:10Bobby Schuessler:Welcome to the Who It Wear podcast, your direct line to the designers, stylists, beauty experts, editors, and tastemakers who are shaping the ever-evolving world of fashion. I'm Who It Wears shopping director, Bobby Shessler, and today I'm joined by associate director of special projects, Kristen Nichols, and editorial director, Lauren Eggertson, to debrief about this incredible month of fashion. Between the three of us, we've attended New York, London, and Milan Fashion Weeks. And lucky for us, our editor-in-chief, Kat Collings, sent us some voice notes from Paris that we'll share with you too.

0:48Bobby Schuessler:We get into our favorite shows and collections in each city, the trends we notice across the board, and the designers to watch moving forward. Plus, we share our predictions of what pieces and color combos are going to be huge this spring, as well as how we're planning to incorporate all the trends we saw into our own wardrobes. It's all coming up on Who What Wear.

1:18Bobby Schuessler:Hi, Lauren and Kristen, two of my favorites. How are you? Hi. Hi, Bobby. How are you? I'm good. You know, we're all exhausted. I know both of you just literally probably landed like what last night from Europe. We're at the tail end of fashion month and we have most of the cities represented here. Kristen and myself, we were in New York. Kristen was also in London. Lauren was in Milan. And then Paris Fashion Week is actually happening right now as we're recording this and our editor-in-chief, Kat, is there and she's actually going to send through some voice notes for us to make this as relevant as absolutely humanly possible.

1:53Bobby Schuessler:So to start though, can both of you give me a rundown on how the different fashion weeks compare to one another? Yeah, I actually think it's so interesting because each fashion week really has its own vibe and you really see that everywhere from the runway shows to the street style scene. We pick things off in New York and a lot of the collections are very wearable. People, their outfits are very wearable. And then it gets a little bit more fashion-y as you go through the fashion weeks. London, it's like young and experimental. Milan, it's a lot of color and layering. And then Paris, it's very like elegant and classic.

2:31And I think that really just carries through both street style and on runway. And I love to see how everyone interprets that each season.

2:38Bobby Schuessler:What about you, Lauren? Because I know you just landed. I did. Yes. Last night I went to bed at 8 PM. It was wonderful. Milan is definitely a huge shift from New York. It's my favorite out of all of the fashion weeks. Personally, it's such a whirlwind. There's so much packed into just one week. Everyone is just there to see and do as much as they can and absorb all of the newness that's going on. Seasonally, it really sets the tone a bit more than New York does, in my opinion, for change that we'll be seeing in the new season, trends, just those bigger moments and themes, I think they really start to come together in Milan.

3:12And then we're always excited to see what happens in Paris to see if our predictions come true or what changes we see there as well.

3:18Bobby Schuessler:Totally. I also asked Kat to send in a note about how Paris stacks up against New York, London, and Milan. So let's hear that now. Paris Fashion Week is definitely the grand finale of Fashion Month compared to the other cities. It is really the high point of the season. We work up to it because there's just so much going on. Of course, you have emerging brands that are exciting like you do in any of the cities, but you also have such a big number of established heritage houses that can really like set the narrative and the tone for the trends ahead. And you also get brands from all different locations around the world that come to Paris just because everybody is here to show as well.

3:59You're just spoiled for the amount of amazing fashion that you can see. And then segments the backdrop of Paris and all the locations that are available for the settings for the shows and for the presentations. It just makes for quite a magical fashion experience.

4:16Bobby Schuessler:I just also want to preface that we did a separate New York Fashion Week podcast. So please go listen to that if you haven't already. But I wanted to focus specifically here on London and Milan. So were there any personal favorite shows or collections that each of you saw? In London, I loved Burberry and Simone Rocha and Dallara. This is kind of an unprecedented season where we have 15 plus new creative directors taking the helm at the biggest fashion houses across the industry. So it's really this big moment of change, especially just coming off of Milan. we're starting to see a lot of the young and new designers.

4:54And looking back to New York, we started out with Ralph Lauren being one of the big shows to start out the season. And I thought it was just a really powerful jumping off point to consider a designer who has been at the helm of his house for almost six decades and has really refined his vision. And then on the other side of that, some of the strongest collections are designers who are doing something new, cinematic, disruptive, bold, fun, which really came to light in Milan. So the juxtaposition of those two has been really interesting to watch unfold and just got me excited about fashion month and what's coming up for spring.

5:35Bobby Schuessler:Cinematic, disruptive, bold, that pretty much sums up what Lauren's about to cover for Milan. Yes, so much happened in Milan. I feel like people were having really good conversations about these debuts again. And we saw a lot of polarizing opinions about certain debuts or collections. And I think that's very exciting and means that there's like real change happening. Prada always, I'm a huge fan. I feel like this is one where people either loved it or hated it. I feel like the brand is always one step ahead of everyone else and is kind of the brand to be in terms of setting this new standard every season.

6:10This season, Yuchia and Raf shared that the intention behind this collection was what they call a response to the overload of contemporary culture, a process of distillation of filtration through clothes. Prada is always about juxtaposition and finding innovation that just blows your mind in a lot of ways, truly thinking outside of the box. That's exactly what we saw with this collection in particular. They did workwear shirts paired with lady bags, satin opera gloves, Frankenstein skirts, as our senior fashion editor Eliza Huber called them in her review is kind of like these skirts spliced together with things like lace pleated fabrics.

6:44They were tight at the waist, weird colors paired together. I loved them. I think they're going to be like a new it item for product collectors. And then we saw tons of exciting saturated color combinations. The silhouettes were also super unconventional. They had these bras that came down the runway that were basically floating and hanging off of the body. They had no elastic, no support, the opposite of what you think the bra should be. And then really big bubble skirts that had interesting shapes, dresses, sharp 50s, silhouettes, and some really fun new bags. Versace, I could talk about it forever.

7:14This debut collection from Dario Vitale was quite polarizing as well. This collection had a really powerful reference to Gianni's 80s Versace period that we all know and love. There was a lot of statement denim, embroidered leather, strong shoulders, really beautiful color pairings. We were also given really unique styling, which was definitely to be expected due to Vitaly's time at Miu Miu. I also feel like we have a lot of soon to be it items that came from this collection, such as the new pumps that he did. And instead of the logo being at the forefront, which Versace has been doing for like years now, I feel like it was tiny on the back of the heel.

7:49It was very sleek. There was also the beaded bra tops. One of them was already worn by Addison Rae on her tour and tons of these really iconic silky printed shirts, which again is a nod to like the history and the heritage of Versace, in my opinion. We haven't really had a Versace item since the Medusa pumps, I feel like. And this brand identification is part of the reason why they would bring in someone like Dario who really has that experience, especially from a brand like Miu Miu. Jill Sander, another debut collection. I'm a huge Simone Belote fan. Previously was at Bali. He kind of like put ready to wear for the brand on the map.

8:22So seeing what he did at Jill was very exciting. It was clean, attention to detail, precision, which is also very Jill and a nod to the heritage brand there. He also did a lot of cohesive and timeless items that had this forward futuristic feel. Blues and reds contrasted with gray, tailoring attention to silhouette like trousers and coats and skirts, which he does so well. And then the shoes were very below T-coated, like a lot of these really beautiful Oxfords lace-up, just classic pieces that have an exaggeration or a uniqueness to them. And the Bottega, I mean, I don't even know what to say about this collection.

8:56It was amazing and beautiful and I think surpassed everyone's expectations. It was Louise Trotter's debut. She's currently, I believe, the only female creative director at Caring. She really leaned into the craftsmanship that the Bottega World and Heritage has to offer, but she also translated it into her own way. It was so fun. I feel like everyone is still talking about that recycled fiberglass that she did in a lot of looks. It looked like furry almost. It was so innovative, so beautiful.

9:21Bobby Schuessler:I was going to say, how many times have we seen that on our feed in the past 48 hours? So many, but it's so deserves the attention. I think it's those things that are mind blowing that you can never picture in your own head. And then of course, a beautiful leather weaving seen on outer pieces, the coats, the bags, the shoes, of course, and just the pristine trotter tailoring that I think so many were excited to see like her translation of in the Bottega world. Amazing. Also, Lauren, I just want to bring up because you were there in real time being in the Dolce & Gabbana show when Miranda Priestly walked in because I saw something about that on social media and then I text you immediately and then it needed real-time footage from you.

10:02Bobby Schuessler:So what was that like? There were rumors going around that they were going to film something. And I was like, I don't want to believe it. I'm not getting my hopes up. But people got there early. I mean, Dolce always has huge crowds barricades outside of fans and it's a huge one. We're all sitting, we're waiting. And there are two seats in the front row that have not and filled. But Dolce like historically does that when Madonna came a couple of seasons ago, they bring her in once everyone is seated for security reasons. So I'm like, maybe it's Kim, maybe it's Madonna, like, you know, and then all of a sudden in walk Nigel and Miranda, and they were doing like a filming of it.

10:37I don't know what the exact situation was, but the center aisles were lined with security. Everyone freaked out. We're all fangirling over this. They stayed in character the entire time. I don't even know if anyone looked at the clothes. I mean, they did, but it was just like, how could you not be staring at them? They were sitting there the whole time. People were like texting after the show, like this made my life. This is full circle. And I know it's just a movie, but it just defined so many things for I'm sure a lot of us growing up. And so getting to see it was just so meta.

11:06Bobby Schuessler:Also like such a benefit to be on that side of the runway to watch them versus like if you were behind them. Oh my God. Yes. I was thinking about that. It was perfect. Amazing. Okay, let's hear from Kat about some of her favorite shows in Paris. My favorite Paris Fashion Week show so far, there's still a lot to come, but I would say Jonathan Anderson's women's debut at Dior for a women's collection was very exciting to see. I've been a fan of Jonathan Anderson. I feel like he gave the people what they wanted, which was, you know, a lot of the codes of Dior, like the new look, the bar jacket and bows and just elements that are signature to the brand.

11:52But like reimagined through this lens that is more experimental, a little off in a good way, cool. So I think it was this perfect meshing of that. And there's something for everyone from that collection, from gowns to like what the chicest travel lady is wearing on the plane.

12:12Bobby Schuessler:Next, let's start talking about some of the runway trends. So Kristen, you kind of mentioned this earlier. You know, we saw a lot of emphasis on wearability and practicality in New York. Lots of great styling moments also. But any key trends that you saw between New York and London? Yeah. The first one I've been talking a lot about this recently is this like preppy bourgeois trend, which I really first noticed at the Celine show for Michael Ryder's debut back in July. And I think we're starting to see other brands weave elements of this in their collections as well. Specifically Tory Burch, Prada and Versace even like bourgeois was in the show notes.

12:54So it just seems to be this kind of like buzzword of the season. And at Tory Burch, we saw a lot of polo tops paired with midi skirts, pumps, and belts. Interestingly, the collection at Tory Burch was also styled by Brian Malloy, who works on the Celine shows. So it was interesting to make the connection and see some of the through lines just in the styling. And then in London, I noticed some similar looks at Toga, which was an editor favorite at Fashion Week. There were these great polos and Oxford shirts tucked into midi skirts and these kind of like unnecessary belts that were a fun styling element.

13:30And Prada and Milan, we saw some elements of this kind of sporty, preppy, even though the overall collection felt a little more ladylike. There were these jackets with these crest details and polo tops. And I think it may even be a new logo for Prada, but just kind of connected to a little bit of what we're seeing at other brands. And then another trend I have really started to see, and this actually ties back to what we reported on for the fall shopping report, but there's a lot of these off-kilter contrasting color palettes. And at Prada, it was really a balance of this ladylike elegance and sporty prep.

14:09So we saw powder pink, chartreuse, canary yellow, all mixed in the same looks and they're colors that kind of like shouldn't work together, but do. And then I think this was really hammered home at Versace that had this bourgeois 80s meets 90s Miami Beach palette. Butter yellow, lilac, kelly green and cobalt all in one look. And even like look to look, there were so many different colors. I think it'll really make a big impact on how people are getting dressed and, you know, be a big turn away from the neutral minimalism that's been reigning. and this like quiet elegance, more of like a high octane, colorful way of dressing for next year.

14:52Within that vein too, I think there was like the sex appeal and glamour that we saw at Versace specifically, and also at Gucci that has been a little bit absent from the runways and was really like in your face in the best way possible. We've also been talking a lot about elegance and what elegance looks like today. And I think this was big at Prada where there were off-kilter bras, splice skirts, satin elbow-length gloves that were all mixed together. And the bras, as Lauren mentioned, weren't like form-fitting. Everything was a little off-kilter. And it's like trying to reimagine what elegance looks like today.

15:28I think another show that did this really well was Kate, where there were these lady jackets, but they were shrunken, yet somehow had wide proportions and paired with pencil skirts constructed of denim with flipped up hems. And so everything's just a little reworked and reimagined in a less formulaic way for spring. It seems like we're really moving away from this quiet luxury movement. I think the overall aesthetic feels less special just due to algorithms, influencers. It's just in our face constantly. And designers are like encouraging this push away from that. And I think if quiet luxury is truly your personal style, you will be chic no matter what.

16:09But I think if it isn't, we're going to see people start to like venture back into their closets, play with color, play with texture, play with statement pieces, like figuring out how to dress for themselves versus this algorithm of a world that we live in. And again, thanks to Prada, Fendi, Bottega, I think those are going to be the key players. And I'm sure many more to come in Paris. Definitely.

16:28Bobby Schuessler:I asked Kat about the runway trends she's noticing in Paris right now, also in how some of that played in the Paris collections. So I don't like to make too many trend predictions until everything's wrapped and you can look at everything holistically. But one thing I've been seeing recur a bit is this layered look that can feel very 90s, kind of minimalistic with little thin tanks layered or knits. And that kind of, you know, peek out around the collar or at the sleeves and just add a little dimension to the look. Based on some of the trends you spotted, everything we've been discussing, are there any very specific key pieces that we think are going to be everywhere come spring?

17:07Yeah, so I think we'll see a lot more of these preppy 80s, 90s pieces come into play. On top of that, I think spring 2026 will be the time to buy your next bag. With so many designers coming into new houses, there's obviously like such a strong push for them to create their first major hero bag. And designers are really focused on that. And there are so many great bags already coming out. At Gucci, there was this kind of like slouchy take on the classic Jackie bag that I know Lauren posted about and I saw all over my feed. And then at Spottega, obviously there's always a new interpretation of their woven leather bags.

17:49There were some beautiful open top crocodile totes and dop kits. And then at Prada, there were some new flap bags and satin pouches that have just been everywhere. And I think spring 2026 is really the moment when there'll be so many options that people are excited about. Yeah, I think that Gucci bag is going to be huge. For sure. No one's done a take that really challenges the exact structure of the Jackie in a while. It was definitely talked about a lot at the Reesey. People either were obsessed with it or they were like, why are we doing this? But I think the softness of the leather makes it feel truly like an everyday bag that you can carry.

18:28And it has that east-west nature. I think putting it over your shoulder is more doable. Like it just feels more lived in. And I think that's very exciting for that shape. And to move maybe away from like exact items, I just think figuring out how to incorporate color will be huge this spring. All of the major players really showed us that you can also look very refined while wearing color. It doesn't have to be suddenly you need to live in this maximalist world. I really loved the simplicity of some of the looks at Fendi that played with color. The looks that had just like a pink t-shirt paired with red pants or like red or pink paired with a green pencil skirt.

19:04Like the silhouettes are still very classic and minimal, but the colors take it to a new level. And I think that's something that will be exciting to see come to fruition in people's wardrobes soon.

19:13Bobby Schuessler:Speaking of, I think I saw Hilary Duff wear a great Fendi color block moment. I was into that. She looked very chic. Yes. I think she wore like a version or the exact one of what was on the runway. And I think that's something you can recreate on your own. You could even go to like a thrift store and find a bold skirt or something, right? J.Crew, we're going to be able to like recreate these things and live in that world of color in our own way and at every price point, which I think will be really fun. Yeah. I definitely see a lot of color stories happening on Who Will Wear for 2026. Because even for me, I think you can get like all one color, like, you know, the monochromatic vibe, but like really having the courage to pair even simply like two colors together, like that Fendi look you mentioned for everyday life is totally doable.

19:59Bobby Schuessler:And I'm excited about that too.

20:04Okay.

20:05Bobby Schuessler:Let's talk about styling a little bit. Were there any styling moments that you saw on the runways that you want to incorporate? I feel like even just me personally from Spring 2025, fall 2025, I'm so into tying a shirt or sweater around the waist as opposed to over the shoulder. But any other styling moments that you saw that you're going to incorporate? Yes. I also immediately felt inspired by a lot of the looks styled by Brian Malloy at Tory Burch and Celine. And I think he's also someone who just uses color in such a great way and even does it in more subtle ways than we were seeing at Versace.

20:40whether it's like a subtle popped collar or a knit tied in a certain way. And so at London Fashion Week, I actually tried to implement a little bit of that into my wardrobe and wore a pink Ralph Lauren Oxford shirt with a pink knit layered on top. I saw that. I liked it. And a pink bag, which is probably the most color I've worn in years. And it feels nice to incorporate some of that into my personal wardrobe already, even though we're not quite there yet.