Paris Men´s A/W 2026

Paris brings menswear month to its crescendo. Over six dense days, the city offers not a summary but a statement: this is where the A/W 2026 season is tested, refined, and ultimately defined. The schedule balances heritage and provocation, spectacle and restraint. From the grand houses shaping global taste to independent designers pushing form and meaning, Paris once again proves itself as menswear’s most exacting stage.

“This season in Paris, menswear moved beyond surface statements. Designers looked inward, revisiting craft, identity and purpose, and asked what it means to dress with intention in an unsettled world. The result was a week defined not by excess, but by clarity, conviction, and quiet confidence.” - Charles Daniel McDonald

Blockbuster shows from Dior, Louis Vuitton and Hermès sit alongside some of the most challenging work in contemporary fashion. There is a sense this season of reassessment: of legacy, masculinity, craft, and what it means to dress with intention in an uncertain world. Across runways, salons, museums and unexpected spaces, designers explored warmth, identity, freedom, and contradiction. What follows are the collections that most clearly captured the mood and momentum of Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026.

HERMÈS

Véronique Nichanian’s final menswear collection for Hermès unfolded with quiet authority at the Palais Brongniart. After nearly four decades at the house, her departure was marked not by nostalgia or spectacle, but by the same clarity and restraint that have defined her tenure.

The collection reaffirmed her belief in longevity over trend, with garments designed to endure both materially and aesthetically. Familiar menswear forms were revisited with microscopic precision: duffel coats, rain jackets, tuxedo elements and tailored separates refined through subtle shifts in proportion, texture and tone. Nichanian has long spoken about the sensual intelligence of fabric, and here that philosophy remained central. Innovation revealed itself through touch and movement rather than visual excess. It was a measured, dignified farewell that reinforced her lasting influence on modern menswear.

WILLY CHAVARRIA

Willy Chavarria staged one of the week’s most emotionally charged presentations, transforming a judo dojo on the outskirts of Paris into a theatrical setting for a fashion narrative shaped by music, performance and raw feeling. The show unfolded like a cinematic production, complete with live performances and a cast that blurred the boundaries between fashion, culture and celebrity.

Chavarria’s clothing carried his familiar signatures: oversized tailoring, reworked uniforms and references to working-class dress. This season, however, those elements were softened by a romantic undercurrent, with silhouettes recalling mid-century elegance and moments of tenderness. The designer described the collection as an exploration of connection, echoing everyday encounters and shared vulnerability. It was a reminder that menswear can be political, poetic and profoundly human.

AURALEE

Opening the week, Auralee set a contemplative tone with a collection rooted in comfort, warmth and emotional resonance. Designer Ryota Iwai posed a simple question: what makes winter feel joyful? His answer came through a nuanced interplay of texture, colour and familiarity.

Presented at the Musée de l’Homme, the collection featured coats with plush linings, translucent shirts of remarkable lightness, and supple leather that caught the light softly. Many pieces carried a sense of intimacy, evoking garments worn, lived in and cherished. Colour played a crucial role, with muted neutrals offset by unexpected bursts of yellow, red and deep violet. Rather than offering escapism, the collection suggested quiet optimism, finding beauty in warmth, tactility and restraint.

RICK OWENS

Rick Owens once again transformed the Palais de Tokyo into a space of confrontation and spectacle, this time presenting a collection titled Tower. Shown indoors amid heavy fog and industrial lighting, the atmosphere felt enclosed and urgent.

The garments drew from militaristic and authoritative archetypes, distorted through Owens’ signature lens. Heavy boots, protective bodysuits and rigid outerwear were constructed from technical materials such as kevlar and waxed leather, creating silhouettes that appeared both armoured and vulnerable. In his characteristically stark show notes, Owens framed the collection as a response to global instability, using exaggeration and parody as tools for reflection. Despite its severity, the collection carried a thread of hope, positioning fashion as an act of resistance and care.

ACNE STUDIOS

At its Paris headquarters, Acne Studios presented a collection that reflected on legacy without becoming retrospective. Founder Jonny Johansson looked back on the brand’s origins in denim while questioning how younger generations engage with clothing today.

Straight-leg jeans reappeared as a foundation, reworked through distressing, taping and surface interventions that suggested both rebellion and continuity. Alongside denim, the collection featured sharp tailoring and elegant wool outerwear, reaffirming the brand’s ability to balance youth culture with refinement. Rather than fixating on the past, Johansson framed heritage as something fluid: shaped by wear, experience and reinvention. The result was a collection that felt confident, relevant and quietly self-aware.

SACAI

Chitose Abe approached A/W 2026 through the lens of destruction as a creative act. The show environment itself reflected this idea, with fractured architectural elements suggesting force and rupture. Inspiration came from Muhammad Ali, whose image symbolised freedom through resistance and reinvention.

The garments embodied this tension. Tailoring appeared deliberately undone, with loosened ties and disrupted structures, while Sacai’s hallmark hybrid silhouettes combined contrasting materials and functions. Shearling was spliced, surfaces were punctured with hardware, and garments seemed caught mid-transformation. The soundtrack reinforced the theme of liberation, underscoring Abe’s belief that dismantling convention is essential to creative progress.

DRIES VAN NOTEN

Julian Klausner’s latest menswear collection for Dries Van Noten explored transition and inheritance. Described as a quiet coming-of-age, the collection imagined a character leaving home with garments imbued with memory: heirlooms, childhood knits and pieces shaped by time.

This narrative translated into richly layered looks that combined archival motifs with bold patterning. Stripes, chevrons and fairisles were often merged within a single garment, creating visual complexity without chaos. Strong tailoring and sculptural outerwear grounded the collection, while accessories introduced playful proportion shifts. The overall effect was expressive yet composed, celebrating renewal without severing ties to the past.

KIKO KOSTADINOV

Kiko Kostadinov’s presentation signalled a deliberate return to fundamentals. Shown in a light-filled space in Paris’ 5th arrondissement, the collection focused on construction, material and form as primary drivers of design.

Early looks conveyed near-uniform precision, with tailored pieces marked by strict lines and controlled volumes. As the collection progressed, colour and movement entered more fully, with knitwear and nylon garments designed to shift and adapt on the body. Sculptural installations in the space echoed the collection’s architectural clarity. Kostadinov described the work as intentionally challenging, driven by a commitment to pushing wardrobes forward rather than refining what already exists.

WOOYOUNGMI

Madame Woo drew on personal memory for Wooyoungmi’s A/W 2026 collection, reflecting on winters in South Korea and beyond. The show space was transformed with a faux-fur runway resembling fresh snow, immediately grounding the collection in seasonal reality.

Historic references, including Edwardian tailoring, appeared alongside contemporary cold-weather staples. Faux-fur trims, padded outerwear and elongated silhouettes created a dialogue between tradition and modernity. Accessories added moments of levity, from oversized hats to exaggerated gloves, while clashing knit patterns injected colour and humour. The collection balanced seriousness with play, demonstrating Woo’s ongoing ability to reinterpret menswear through a deeply personal lens.

SOLID HOMME

Staged at the Maison des Métallos, Solid Homme’s latest collection examined the layered identities of contemporary life. Designer Madame Woo presented characters who shift roles daily, moving between professions, passions and responsibilities.

This multiplicity was reflected in styling that combined formal and casual elements with apparent spontaneity. Bright primary colours, pastels and deep neutrals appeared across relaxed tailoring and utilitarian pieces, creating a wardrobe designed to adapt rather than define. The collection positioned menswear as a flexible tool for modern living, shaped by lived experience rather than fixed archetypes.

DIOR

For his second menswear outing at Dior, Jonathan Anderson proposed a cast of privileged young characters, dressing them in a wardrobe that toyed with lineage, wealth and performance in his characteristically off-centre manner. Rather than offering a straightforward revival of house codes, he treated tradition as something to be remixed, placing historical references beside contemporary irreverence.

The starting point was the world of Paul Poiret, and the spirit of his extravagant costume soirées. That influence surfaced in fluid, lightly decadent pieces such as sequinned silk waistcoats, contrasted with deliberately disrupted takes on the Bar jacket rendered in denim. Styling sharpened the sense of theatricality, not least through flashes of surreal colour like luminous yellow wigs. Opulence was amplified through exaggerated furry cuffs and cape-like silhouettes that moved with dramatic sweep, creating a collection that folded past and present together with ease, and with a wink.

Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026 revealed a season shaped less by uniform trends than by thoughtful divergence. Across the week, designers grappled with questions of identity, continuity and responsibility, often favouring substance over spectacle. Whether through quiet craftsmanship, emotional storytelling or deliberate disruption, the strongest collections shared a commitment to meaning.

As menswear continues to evolve, Paris remains its most rigorous testing ground. This season affirmed that innovation does not always arrive loudly, but often through nuance, conviction and a willingness to engage deeply with the world as it is.