SS26 Menswear: Walter Van Beirendonck Delivers a Dazzling, Avant-Garde Vision for SS26 Menswear

Walter Van Beirendonck

In Paris this July, Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck once again challenged convention with his Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection, unveiling a riot of mixed prints, colour, texture, and conceptual flair that defied easy categorisation.

Inspired by the utilitarian garments of artists, Van Beirendonck sent models down the runway described in his notes as "starry-eyed, wide-eyed boys on a time-warping, postmodern pilgrimage." 

The result was a boldly imaginative display that merged clashing colours with eclectic shapes and patterns, all "wrapped in pure future-forward imagination," according to the designer.

The collection featured painter's coats and smocks reinterpreted in exaggerated silhouettes, crafted from a range of fabrics. Oversized accessories played a starring role — fabric-covered buttons, oversized cuffs, dramatic collars, and super-scale necklaces lent a whimsical, almost surreal edge to the ensembles. Prominent pockets, frayed edges, and sculptural detailing completed the show’s off-kilter, dreamlike aesthetic.

Once again, Van Beirendonck proved that in his hands, menswear is a vivid, theatrical art form.

All photos from Walter Van Beirendonck / Totem Fashion

Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week go digital this January

Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week will still proceed this January but all shows and presentations will be held online only without live audiences, according to the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, due to Covid-19 restrictios in France and public gatherings are prohibited.

Although fashion houses and brands can still organise meetings as well as live shows with models, these are to be done behind closed doors, under strict coronavirus guidelines, including only a limited number of people can be present at the same time in any given space.

Paris Men’s Fashion Week runs from January 19 to 24 and reportedly the provisional calendar at the moment includes Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, Issey Miyake, Dries Van Noten, Dior Homme, Paul Smith, Wales Bonner, Hermes, Vetements, Jil Sander, Thom Browne and Celine.

Haute Couture Week is running from January 25 to 27, with the provisional schedule opening on the Monday with Schiaparelli, Iris Van Herpen, Christian Dior and Giambattista Valli.  Following on the Tuesday will be Chanel, Stéphane Rolland, Alexandre Vauthier, Giorgio Armani Privé and Valentino. The third day will feature Maison Margiela, Elie Saab, Viktor and Rolf, Zuhair Murad.

Challenges posted by the current coronavirus has forced Jean-Paul Gaultier to postpone its one-off couture collection by Sacai’s Chitose Abe, and the London-based couture and ready-to-wear label Ralph and Russo has cancelled its presentation.

Kim Jones will make his womenswear debut for Fendi Couture on January 27 with a show that will be livestreamed on the Italian brand’s website and social media channels. Jones who was appointed as artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women at Fendi in September is making his womenswear debut at Haute Couture Week.

Alber Elbaz is returning as an invited guest member of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode with his joint venture with Richemont, AZ Factory. Elbaz’s new luxury label will present its first products on January 26.

Other newcomers to the schedule include 24-year-old Charles de Vilmorin on January 27,  and S.R.Studio.LA.CA. by Sterling Ruby on January 28.

European shows are rescheduled, cancelled or staged digitally

While it may seem optimistic or ambitious even to announce or organise 2021 trade shows in the current pandemic climate, trade event organisers recognise the continued importance of such professional events for business developments of the various sectors.  When physical shows are not possible, digital events take their place.

Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week will still proceed this January but all shows and presentations will be held online only without live audiences, according to the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, due to Covid-19 restrictios in France and public gatherings are prohibited.

Although fashion houses and brands can still organise meetings as well as live shows with models, these are to be done behind closed doors, under strict coronavirus guidelines, including only a limited number of people can be present at the same time in any given space.

Paris Men’s Fashion Week runs from January 19 to 24 and reportedly the provisional calendar at the moment includes Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, Issey Miyake, Dries Van Noten, Dior Homme, Paul Smith, Wales Bonner, Hermes, Vetements, Jil Sander, Thom Browne and Celine.

Haute Couture Week is running from January 25 to 27, with the provisional schedule opening on the Monday with Schiaparelli, Iris Van Herpen, Christian Dior and Giambattista Valli.  Following on the Tuesday will be Chanel, Stéphane Rolland, Alexandre Vauthier, Giorgio Armani Privé and Valentino. The third day will feature Maison Margiela, Elie Saab, Viktor and Rolf, Zuhair Murad, and Jean Paul Gaultier.

International audiences can access the shows on the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode’s online platform at www.fhcm.paris.  

In Italy the winter editions of the Pitti Immagine Uomo and Pitti Immagine Bimbo respectively leading menswear and childrenswear trade shows, along side knitwear show Filati, all originally scheduled to take place in January, have now been pushed back to 21-23 February due to Covid-19. Organisers say the events based in Florence will encompass three extraordinary days of special events, installations and live digital features.

Also in February 2021, Copenhagen Fashion Week will be a fully digital edition while other related trade shows such as Revolver and CIFF have been cancelled thanks to restrictions of going development of Covid-19. This February digital show will allow brands to present their seasonal collections to an  international audience, between 2-4 February 2021 via Copenhagen Fashion Week's new digital platform on www.copenhagenfashionweek.com, which will be launched on 14 January. The show schedule has already been published and the talks program will be announced in mid-January.

Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week says they hope the physical shows will return in August 2021.

Meanwhile in Paris, while Messe Frankfurt France recently announed the cancellation of their February 2021 textile trade shows, they are offering an alternative solution to the international industry fashion players with a new event from February 1 to 5 at the Atelier Richelieu, in the heart of Paris.

Texworld Evolution Paris - Le Showroom will allow buyers and designers to explore offers from a selected number of exhibitors from the sister events of Apparel Sourcing, Avantex, Leatherworld and Texworld Paris.

Upon invitation at the time slot of their choice, visitors will have direct access, in optimal conditions of comfort and security, to the textile and clothing collections arranged around two main areas:

• A Trend Forum imagined by the artistic directors of Texworld Evolution Paris, Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud, will offer to the buyers a creative inspiration book elaborated around a selection of textile and clothing samples that will become the fashion of spring-summer 2022.

• A Library will unveil, by categories, a precise selection of several thousands of fabrics samples and finished goods to be discovered in specially designed areas that will facilitate the professionals' journey.

Upon arrival at the showroom, buyers will be provided with a digital tool specifically developed to facilitate direct contact with manufacturers for expressing interest, requesting samples or quotations. Le Showroom is therefore an innovative response to ensure that this essential connection between the international garment industry and textile and clothing buyers is maintained, and to prepare for the July 2021 trade shows.

“Le Showroom is the first international professional textile event to be held in Paris within a year and offers a new way of organizing fashion sourcing, explains Frédéric Bougeard, President of Messe Frankfurt France. 

Also the international Première Vision Paris show for all sectors of the textile and materials industry will be holding a digital show for its February edition, presaging the continued health constraints on a global scale.

The PV Paris digital show will run from February 15 to 19, with the introduction of new services for the industry thus refleting the marked acceleration of the group's digitization. Première Vision will also be bringing online its new website, to be rolled out in several stages over the coming year, which will bring together all its trade shows and its own Marketplace platform.

Throughout the last few months, Première Vision has been engaged in supporting the international fashion industry as it faces the difficult challenges posed by the Covid-19 health crisis, introducing new and innovative e-commerce features to its Marketplace, and speeding the development of its digital system.

The organisers announced their December 2020 Digital Denim Week (held from November 30th to December 4th in lieu of Denim Première Vision) was successfully launched, allowing some 4,661 industry professionals (the number of unique visitors) to participate and build their denim collections for Spring-Summer 22. These included international buyers from the world's most creative fashion companies - fashion and luxury brands, pure players in jeanswear, web players, etc.

In comparison, the December 2019, Denim Première Vision held in London show, which was a physical event, welcomed nearly 2,000 visitors, they reported.

Li-Ning on the international stage at Paris Men's Fashion Week

In China, Li-Ning is an iconic  and successful sports brand named after their star Olympian.

China's iconic sports brand Li-Ning, named after the Chinese star Olympian,

will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2020.

And now its ambition is to conquer the world, especially after a successful introduction in its home country at retailers like Lane Crawford. Li-Ning’s elevated runway collection, now in its fourth season, continues to expand its global distribution at a range of high-end retailers and specialty sneaker boutiques including KITH, SSENSE, LN-CC, Slam Jam, END Clothing, Oki-Ni, Selfridges, and END Clothing to name a few.

The sports brand has now presented for the second time at Paris Men’s Fashion Week. This season the event was in a show space inside the Lycée Turgot in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris.  Within the custom set, graphics from the collection adorned the hyper-colour, multi-layer walls; with seating arranged in a maze-like format.

Models walked the labyrinth to an eclectic Chinese soundtrack, ’90s hip hop, and abstract Jazz, revealing the collection to a front-row crowd that included world champion skier Eileen Gu, Chinese performer Ayunga, singer Can Chengyu, and Lucas Jagger, as well as Mr. Li-Ning himself, who took in the show alongside his daughter Xiaoyan.

Mr. Li-Ning at the Paris catwalk alongside his daughter Xiao-yan.

Li-Ning finds the inspiration for its latest collection in ping-pong—or simply known as table tennis in the West, the Chinese national sport that commands a fervor greater than basketball, baseball, or soccer and one in which China has won 28 of 32 Olympic gold medals since its introduction in 1988.

For Spring/Summer 2020, the simple ping-pong polo informed the design direction of the entire collection, which offers easy shapes and voluminous silhouettes cut away from the body.

For an airy look, Li-Ning has used a set of new, ultra-lightweight fabrics for an array of coats and shirts, trousers and shorts, bags and accessories and footwear. 

In its styling and coloruways, the collection fused nostalgia and futurism.

SS20 highlights include deconstructed, zip-away Mackintosh coats trimmed in contrasting piping and affixed with patches, layered paperweight anoraks in contrasting tones of khaki and yellow, oversized polo—short or long-sleeved, striped, patterned, patched, piped, open V-neck, or zip-neck with vintage-inspired circular pulls. The breezy look carried through to the women’s range: females wore long tennis dresses darted with contrast stitching, as well as zip-away track coats and waisted track dresses. And for all genders, Li-Ning reimagined its signature garment—the track suit—in a wild range of colors, materials, and techniques, each of them at home on the ping-pong courts of yesterday or today.

Across all apparel, Li-Ning made strong use of vintage-inspired graphics including repeating paddle prints, abstract collages, comic book sketches, and the critical number 11, which was assigned to Mr. Li during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

LGN by Louis Gabriel Nouchi launches a poetic collection for SS20

Although LGN is a very young brand, founded in Paris in 2017 by Louis Gabriel Nouchi who was trained at l’Ecole des arts visuels de la Cambre, he has had worked for Vogue and Raf Simons, and now widely recognized for his commercial success and creative ability, having launched capsule collections with Galeries Lafayette, la Redoute, Damart and more recently for the honored French luxury accessories brand, Agnelle.  Previously his work earned a nomination at the Hyères Festival in 2014, where he was awarded the Camper and Palais de Tokyo Prizes.

This season, at Paris Men's Fashion Week, he calls his SS20 collection The Skin,  as the designer is entering a new cycle of inspirations based on the iconic Italian writer, Curzio Malaparte.

As literature is an essential starting point of all LGN’s collection, according to the brand, “THE SKIN” takes place during the liberation of Napoli by the US army in 1943 when soldiers discovered through the eyes of the narrator, which is supposed to be the writer Malaparte, on how to face the reality of war."

The collection however is not played out in full military style but rather leaning towards a poetic direction featuring old-time elegance as silhouettes are constructed as patchwork of technical details between print, knitwear and dyeing techniques. The colour palette is based on the an ancient Italian city.  Classic pieces are delicately sloughing to reveal Italian marble pattern, like distilled through history.

There are military details adding functionality to classic 1940’s tailoring, teaming with grunge details, and the LGN signature  is manifested through raw edges, "destroyed" sleeves and hem that seems to  refer to the poetry of ruins in romantic paintings, showing the violence of human behavior, nature and time.

The oversized silhouette works well for a layered, tailoring look.

Patterns appear through tattoo-like prints, images "spinning joy and pains of soldier on missions, translate the deepest moment and becoming another skin."

"Like a banner of intimate memories. It is carrying sensibility and a history in every clothes, showing the world what the man has been through."

The collection is a message based on the book imagery. A message of love, coming for peace in this amount of violence.