The spring 2026 season is shaping up to be a mega super bowl of fashion, chockablock with designer debuts at many of Europe’s most famous heritage names.
Here, a roundup of all the main headline events due to unfurl over the rest of the year:
June
Luxury titan Bernard Arnault surprised the fashion world — and apparently everybody at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — when he revealed at the French group’s annual shareholders’ meeting in April that Jonathan Anderson has succeeded Kim Jones as Dior’s menswear designer and will present his first collection for the French house in June. It marked the first time LVMH made it official that Anderson has a new role in the group since the Northern Irish designer stepped down from Loewe last March after an acclaimed 11-year tenure. Dior has only said Anderson is working on its spring 2026 men’s collection, which will be presented on June 27 at 2:30 p.m. during Paris Fashion Week. However, it is understood the designer is poised to take on a bigger role at the storied fashion house, LVMH’s largest after Louis Vuitton, as he is tipped to succeed Maria Grazia Chiuri as head of women’s collections as well.
July
Michael Rider, who started earlier this year as Celine‘s new artistic director, will make his debut with a fashion show in Paris on July 6 at 2:30 p.m. The date falls between men’s fashion week in Paris, scheduled for June 24 to 29, and Paris Couture Week, happening from July 7 to 11. It marks a return to an IRL runway format for the fashion house, which in recent years unveiled collections with films by Hedi Slimane, its previous artistic, creative and image director. These were typically released outside of official fashion weeks. Rider was previously creative director at Polo Ralph Lauren, but he’s well familiar with Celine. He logged a decade as the French house’s design director of ready-to-wear from 2008 to 2018, working under its then-creative director Phoebe Philo.
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Glenn Martens will make his debut as the new creative director of Maison Margiela with a Maison Margiela Artisanal show during Haute Couture Week in Paris. “This marks the beginning of an inspiring new chapter for the maison, rooted in our core creative values and shaped by Margiela’s couture heritage. Under Glenn’s direction, couture will continue to ignite creativity for the brand and drive boundary pushing designs,” the house said in a statement earlier this month. The Paris house last presented an Artisanal collection for spring 2024, a blockbuster that ended up being the swan song of British designer John Galliano, who spent 10 years leading the house. Maison Margiela Artisanal collections have been part of the calendar since 2006 as a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. In 2012, Maison Margiela was officially named an haute couture house.
September/October
Demna is to make his first fashion statement at Gucci during Milan Fashion Week, although the timing and format have yet to be determined. The Georgian designer, creative director of Balenciaga since 2015, is to officially take up the reins at the troubled Italian mega brand after staging his swan song at Balenciaga, a couture collection, on July 9. “Demna will bring to Gucci something exceptional. His way of defining fashion today is pretty unique, and this is what Gucci deserves and needs for the future,” chief executive officer Stefano Cantino said in March when Demna was revealed as successor to Sabato De Sarno, who failed to spark a renaissance at the brand during a two-year tenure. It is understood Demna has already spent time in Milan, meeting the teams and plotting his first collection. Revenues at Gucci fell 25 percent in the first quarter of 2025, dragged down by low traffic and anemic demand for carryover styles.
Louis Trotter succeeded Matthieu Blazy at the creative helm of Bottega Veneta late in 2024, with her first collection to be unveiled during Milan Fashion Week. Most recently, the British designer reignited the French label Carven with her quietly sensual designs. Before Carven, Trotter was at the creative helm of Lacoste for four years. She studied fashion design at Newcastle University, and worked at contemporary British label Whistles before moving Stateside to design for Calvin Klein, and later Gap and Tommy Hilfiger. She is perhaps best known for serving as creative director of Joseph from 2009 to 2018, a period of product diversification and international expansion for the brand. Trotter said of Bottega: “The house’s storied legacy of artistry and innovation is truly inspiring.”
Dario Vitale is the latest hidden talent to be thrust into fashion’s bright lights. Previously Miu Miu’s ready-to-wear design director, he is now chief brand officer at Versace and is expected to show his first collection as the brand also arrives under the ownership of Prada Group. He has big shoes — make that platform heels — to fill as Donatella Versace gives up the design reins after almost three decades to become chief brand ambassador of the Milan fashion house. “Championing the next generation of designers has always been important to me,” Versace said at the time of the handover. “I am thrilled that Dario Vitale will be joining us, and excited to see Versace through new eyes.” For his part, Vitale said he was “truly honored ” to join the company and “to be a part of this special and powerful fashion luxury house created by Gianni and Donatella.”
Simone Bellotti, the new creative director at Jil Sander, credits the house for creating “a new aesthetic with its unique approach and strong identity,” one that “has always had such a significant influence on the design community.” Founded in 1968 by the namesake designer in Hamburg, Jil Sander has also been designed by Raf Simons, Rodolfo Paglialunga, Milan Vukmirovic and, most recently, Lucie and Luke Meier. The brand has been controlled by Italy’s OTB Group since 2021. Bellotti was previously creative director at Bally, named to that post in May 2023 after a 16-year tenure at Gucci. Previously, he held senior design positions at Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta and Gianfranco Ferré, boasting an experience in both ready-to-wear tailoring and accessories. He also counts a stint at A.F. Vandevorst on his résumé.
Chanel surprised many when it selected Bottega Veneta’s star designer Blazy as its new artistic director of fashion activities, responsible for all haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories collections. He started on April 1, becoming only the fourth official creative director in the history of the 114-year-old brand, known for its tweed suits, quilted handbags and No.5 perfume. In his three years leading Bottega Veneta, Blazy made the brand’s show one of the hottest tickets in Milan, winning consistent acclaim for collections hinged on sophisticated, grown-up chic, and haute craftsmanship. “Matthieu stood out immediately because he has a track record, a vision of Chanel and a modernity that seduced us,” according to Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS.
Pierpaolo Piccioli said he’s no big fan of fate, but as the new creative director of Balenciaga, even he was struck by the fact that his first Instagram post in 2018 was an austere wedding ensemble by Spanish fashion legend Cristóbal Balenciaga. He vowed to build on the legacy of the founder, and his successors, which included Nicolas Ghesquière, Alexander Wang and Demna, wrapping up his 10-year tenure with a swan song couture show on July 9. “His mastery of haute couture, his creative voice, and his passion for savoir-faire made him the ideal choice for the house,” Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of brand development, said of Piccioli. The Italian designer spent most of his fashion career plying romance, glamour and couture grandeur at Valentino, working for 25 years at the Roman house, making his final exit in March 2024. In a letter penned to reveal his arrival, Piccioli said he sees in Balenciaga “a brand full of possibilities that is incredibly fascinating.”
Seasoned designers with the aura and cool of emerging talents, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are to start with womenswear as the new creative directors of Loewe. The duo behind New York fashion brand Proenza Schouler succeeded Anderson, who stepped down after an acclaimed 11-year tenure that catapulted the Spanish leather goods house into fashion’s big leagues. McCollough and Hernandez carry “the entire creative responsibility of all Loewe collections across womenswear, menswear, leather goods and accessories,” as reported. Loewe CEO Pascale Lepoivre lauded them as “highly creative and also entrepreneurs, whose curiosity and vision go beyond fashion and extend to diverse cultural fields as well as to the diversity of markets and customers that we talk to.” Foreshadowing their new European gig, last January they revealed they were stepping down as creative directors of the brand they founded in 2002.
Duran Lantink will make his debut as Jean Paul Gaultier’s new permanent creative director by showing a women’s ready-to-wear collection during Paris Fashion Week, with his first couture outing scheduled for January 2026. This marks a new chapter for the house, which had pursued serial collaborations ever since the founding designer retired from the runway in 2020. Glenn Martens, Simone Rocha, Olivier Rousteing, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Chitose Abe of Sacai and Haider Ackermann were among those who created one-off couture collections. Lantink was the winner of the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize in last year’s LVMH Prize competition. The Dutch designer is known for his cut-and-paste approach, puffed-up silhouettes, and a subversive sense of humor.
