As I am sure more people have been noticing, this season of Spring 2026 involved a debut of at least 15 new creative directors of the major luxury fashion brands! This does not happen very often and made this Spring 2026 collection so much more exciting. It has caught our attention and made us want to analyse the important of these people behind a brand and explain a little bit more about some of the most important ones.
When I saw Halina Reijn had made a short film for Gucci “The Tiger” I was curious! I love Halina, I guess part of it is because she is Dutch (sorry is that inappropriate?) and about my age. I loved her movie ‘Babygirl’ that launched in 2024 including the iconic 90s star; Nicole Kidman.
The movie made by Demna Gvasalia premiered at Milaan fashion week on 23 september 2025. It was different and it made me think about the influence of new creative directors.
I remember first being aware of the big names in fashion, and thinking it was,
Yves Saint Laurent who was the man behind Yves Saint Laurent, Miuccia Prada at Prada…and Vivienne Westwood at Vivienne Westwood!
The way I have been looking at these designers that flourished into luxury brands, is that they had a vision, a style, a distinct way of looking at fashion, I guess you call it their signature.
I mean if I just picture Vivienne Westwood it is so particular - like nothing else.
Diving into all of this I discovered that Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was at the head of Chanel until 1971 (that is so much longer than I thought!)
The thought of creating a brand is enormous, I can not even imagine the endurance and the faith it must take to do so. It truly is a passion project that probably doesn't have a great chance to succeed. But when it does, it is a slippery and fine line that keeps it successful. A new creative director, you could say, means keeping the numbers up and staying or building a global brand. Which doesn't necessarily mean fresh designs but maybe more fresh branding….
But getting back to Demna, i mean who wasnt shocked and confused when Kim Kardashian showed-up at the Met Gala in 2021? At the time Demna was the creative director at Balenciaga. The all black look with the full covered face was so different and provocative. Her silhouette was unmistakable Kim K, but why and to later find out that she wore a full face off make-up...and didnt drink or eat a thing during the enire night, that just blows my mind.
The reason to get back to this while talking about the new creatives is that it truly touches the fact that todays creative directors are much more then designers. They juggle between getting the right celebrity for a campaign and the neccesity of launching the it-bag, while creating a 'brand-loyal' collection.
The fact that high-fashion is all that and a lot more makes me sad...but i do get it...this is the world we live in!
Love Eva
Obviously me and my mom grew up with different creative directors of the major brands. But the funny thing is, to me the designers that my mom mentioned such as Coco Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld are still the ones that I knew most about and was most aware of. This undeniably makes sense because they are the name of their brands which makes them ultra important. They are the ones that set a legacy.
I also have to be honest, the fact that I now am a fashion student does not take away from the fact that for such a long time and even still now sometimes I am completely clueless of the people behind a brand. I always just saw the brand and the items they produced. Now that I am studying fashion I am very aware of it and I love learning about the certain special tweaks creative directors have that spread their image.
A little side note:
A really big recommendation for all of you that are even slightly interested in fashion; watch Vogue in the 90s on Disney+. I got it recommended by one of my classmates and I have learned so much from it. In the show we get to see the dynamic and cosmopolitan world of Vogue in the 90s and it is just so fun to watch. We see intricate insights of John Galliano who has since been such a big part of my learning curve in the subject and many more awesome characters in the fashion world such as Victoria Beckham and of course our queen Anna Wintour.
John Galliano started his career off when he produced his graduation collection from the Central Saints Martins university in London, called “Les Incroyables”. This collection which immediately launched him in the spotlight created his first debut in the High- End fashion world. Galliano was always a hit or miss with the fashion world. However some people truly believed in the talents of Galliano. Among Anna Wintour, Galliano was quite close to other fashions icons in the London underground fashion world such as André Leon Talley, and Amanda Harlech. They believed Galliano’s deserved a bigger stage and helped him secure this fashion show in fall 1994. To make work with the amount of funds he got, all the garments were made out of the same black fabric since this was the cheapest. This collection ended up being a big fashion statement.
This show caught the attention of the head of LVMH; Bernard Arnault, who then appointed Galliano as creative director of Givenchy. After this he went on leading Dior where he truly became a global icon by giving Dior the change they desperately needed. After this he caused a scandal in 2011 where he made a series of anti-Semitic and racist remarks. This caused Dior to lay him off. After three years of recovery he came back stronger than ever as creative director at Maison Margiela.
I could really write so much more about John Galliano because he is a huge creative innovator with truly a mind of his own! But
I also really want to talk about the new Chanel collection for this Spring 2026, since it was the debut of the creative director Matthieu Blazy.
Mathieu Blazy is from the French speaking side of Belgium and was appointed to Chanel in December 2024. Previously Blazy worked for Raf Simons and Maison Margiela. The show presented for this Spring 2026 collection truly blew me away. It felt like a return of history with a more modern twist than ever. Chanel where it began was known for their incredible modernity. Coco "Grabielle" was the first to ever ignore the beauty standard of corsets and extravagant silhouettes that were worn in the 1910s when she started her house. Chanel was a pioneer for comfort. She made jackets and dresses with no place for corsets, she made them boxy, straight and simple. It was a major change because women could actually move with ease now - embodying Coco's vision.
Blazy's collection came back to this idea. Of letting women walk around with ease and confidence. The outfits itself were glamorous of course but what really made me excited was the way the women walked, not a model I saw looked uncomfortable in any way. And of course this ending of Awar Odhiang where she ran into the arms of Blazy after doing a graceful turn on the stage. I'll put the link to the full show here.
To many more awesome debuts of awesome people.
Love, Lola
Awar Odhiang at the Chanel Spring 2026 ready to wear show.
This was just a small perspective from what we have seen and noticed. We are both far from connoisseurs in this subject but it is so fun to explore and learn about it.
Have a great day!
Love, Eva Y Lola
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