Three Trends From Paris Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2026

As Paris Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2026 comes to a close this week, there is undoubtedly a well of inspiration coming from the City of Lights. This season blended bold designs, subdued silhouettes and interesting footwear to tell us one thing: menswear is slowly but surely becoming on-par with its female counterpart. Keep reading to see how design hours like Dior, Dries Van Noten and Willy Chavarria are leading the charge in defining the potential of menswear.

Keeping It Colorful

Bright colors are nothing new when it comes to a spring wardrobe—one needs something to combat the gloomy rain—but Paris brought this to another level. Unexpected color combinations and fabric patterns took center stage at more than one show this season.

For example, Dries Van Noten was a masterclass in showing us that being effortlessly elegant doesn’t mean succumbing to a monochromatic wardrobe. Quite the opposite, in fact. As the first collection under the house’s new creative director, Julian Klausner, there is an undoubted weight in showing such a bold collection, but keeping within the brand’s well-established design principles made the transition all the easier for fans of this Belgian brand. Red was the star of the show, cropping up throughout the presentation, paired with equally eye-catching blue sweaters, silky purple button-downs and impossibly short shorts.

For a more principles approach to color theory, three brands stood out. The first among them is Sanderlak, whose debut presentation in Paris was inspired by the washed-out tones of Los Angeles. “There’s something about the light in LA that always gets me. It’s soft yet harsh and dry, and it settles over everything in this quiet way,” says founder Sander Lak. Taking inspiration from endless vistas and the Golden Coast, these same colorways made it into the 51-piece collection, predominated by desaturated pinks, yellows and blues.

Similarly inspired by place, Willy Chavarria used his hometown of Huron, California as the starting point for his politically-charged collection. The opening of Chavarria’s show highlighted thirty-five men, dressed in white shirts, who knelt on the runway, hands behind their back, as a symbolic statement of the impact the Trump Administration’s weaponization of ICE has caused in his hometown.

“The opening piece was to contrast against the beauty of the people that are actually being kidnapped and shipped away, broken away from their families, the chaos that we’re seeing right now,” explains Chevarria about his controversial opener. And in stark contrast to this opening was a collection that was big, bold and full of character—or, as the designer put it—it’s “color as an act of rebellion.”

Utilizing oversized silhouettes at near-zoot suit level proportions, Chevarria’s collection was filled to the brim with pink, yellow and turquoise, a visual representation of rebellion against the norms which define menswear—and, to an extent, the broader political tensions that are happening outside the runway.

Old-Money Aesthetics Are Here to Stay

There seems to be an interesting dichotomy at play when it comes to the cultural conversation around money. At once, income equality is at an all-time high and continues to be a flashpoint across the political spectrum (for example, the criticisms following the Bezos-Sánchez wedding last week). And yet, there is a continued fascination with the upper-class way of life, with elements of that familiar TikTok trend of hashtag-Old Money becoming ever more present in recent collections. It is as if society is saying: If you’re going to have money, at least look the part.

Leading this aesthetic is Jonathan Anderson, whose highly anticipated first collection as the newly creative director of Dior was presented during Paris. Pulling elements from French aristocracy, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Dior archives, Anderson presented a collection that was understated, yes, but entirely singular in its vision of understated elegance. From cravats tied around models’ necks to slouchy pullovers loosely draped across their backs, the small details of this collection show an innate understanding that style is as much how you wear something as to what you’re wearing to begin with.

It should come as a surprise to no one to find The Row, Lemaire and Hermès as strongholds in the conversation around sophisticated styling. Each brand kept within a similar monochromatic color palette of black, tan and grey, making for a wardrobe in which one can create a kind of uniformity to their personal style. Loose-fitted garments remain the standard, with flowing shirts and loose-fitted pants focusing more on comfort and fabric versus the model’s body, giving one room for movement when walking the streets of New York, Paris or Milan.

Footwear Gets Its Moment

Here is a riddle for you. What do beachgoers in the southern United States and models on the runways in Paris have in common? If you said an appreciation for sandals, then you’d be correct.

More and more, designers this year have embraced the sandal, making for an interesting departure from the more sophisticated boots and trainers that have long dominated the spring shows. Lemaire, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Dries Van Noten all styled their models with a toes-out look, showing a bit of unconventional skin during an otherwise conservative runway.

Another designer who showed us that footwear remains an untapped canvas for creativity in menswear was Wales Bonner. While this should come as no surprise (the British brand has held a longstanding partnership with Adidas since 2020). Now, designer Grace Wales Bonner seems to have adapted an almost feminine ballet flat-style driving shoe for her menswear collection, with a flat, low sole that hugged the models’ feet as they walked down the runway in clothes that were a continuation of the Met Gala’s earlier theme, Superfine: Black Tailoring Style.

Mark Your Calendars

Just because Paris is now behind us, there remains a full calendar of fashion weeks still ahead, both for menswear and womenswear. To see all upcoming shows, visit the official calendar by the CFDA.