2025 JANUARY ISSUE
SPRING SUMMER 2026 TREND REPORT
Report by Genevieve Redding
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From the Desk of the Publisher
For the new season, Genevieve introduced the four themes – Boho Chic, Ballerina Core, Caged, and Gilded Botanicals. Once again, they were so well selected with the renowned lingerie brands, and the colors.
More, we can refer to styles that were handpicked by Genevieve to make the different themes stronger and more inspiring.
Genevieve is so gifted in this area, and I am sure that those boutiques would find her selections very interesting.
SPRING SUMMER 2026 TREND REPORT
Boho Chic
The early aughts boho trend is staging a comeback. After years of structured minimalism and quiet luxury, boho is back, but this time it is softer and more refined. This vintage style making a resurgence is the boho fashion trend of the 1970s, but with a modern edge. It is a slightly more restrained approach to 1070s styling. There are fewer prints and a softer color palette. Designers including Chloe, Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren, and Isabel Marant tapped into this nostalgic trend showing feminine clothes in soft silhouettes.
Boho is a romantic way of feminine dressing with a touch of wanderlust. Iconic romantic florals are reinvented in voluminous new silhouettes. Frilly lace dresses, sheer layers of patterned tulle, eyelet fabrics, cascading ruffles, billowing pleats, delicate lace, and flowing diaphanous layers of chiffon give off a vintage vibe.
Boho’s free-spirited essence is elevated in a softer more refined color palette this season including white, ivory, terracotta, pale peach, and chambray blue. Boho’s softer, more romantic, feminine pieces in a refined color palette are this season’s approach to laidback luxe.
Ballerinacore
Another aesthetic returning to the runway this season is Ballerinacore. This trend originated in the early 2020’s on TikTok, but started to attract mainstream attention in late 2022. This trend and the presence of all things ballet-adjacent dominated runway collections this season at Simone Rocha, Sandy Liang, Christian Dior and Jacquemus.
The aesthetic is strongly associated with Coquette, a hyper-feminine aesthetic. Girly, pink, and full of bows, this trend speaks to the inner girl of many women, regardless of age. A major part of the overall aesthetic is about tapping into things that are pretty and traditionally feminine, which manifests through colors, textiles, and silhouettes. Ballet-inspired pieces have become prevalent within high fashion, and this season designers reinvent ballerinacore into something bolder than ever before. Ballet-inspired fashion has always been subversive.
Silhouettes include leotards and leggings, as well as, tutu-inspired bubble hems and voluminous layers of tulle and chiffon. This pretty and traditionally feminine aesthetic manifests through a muted pastel palette of pale pinks and muted peach with pops of neutrals, including white, black and nude. Occasionally, a brighter color like saffron red will be thrown into the mix, but overall, most of the color palette is demure.
Caged
Although historically restrictive, the corset takes a different form today. Designers are tapping into corsetry elements such as boning to create sculpting effects that accentuate the body in a modern way. The tight-laced, boned cage popularized in the Victorian era is combined with the flow of dresses and draped in sheer layers of tulle and lace. The fusion of corsets and dresses provide the perfect blend of structure and femininity. Deconstructed sportswear is also reimagined using corsets. Designers create sheer renditions that make the underlying structure of the garment itself the feature.
For Spring the corset trend continues to evolve with fresh styles, modern silhouettes, and innovative designs. Corsets in many forms flooded the haute couture runways from Christian Dior, Loewe, Schiaparelli, Victoria Beckham and Dilara Findikoglu. Brands are injecting corsetry with new narratives around body positivity and gender neutrality, putting the corset front and center on both male and female models.
Victorian corset elements are subverted into modern romantic pieces in a sophisticated and muted neutral color palette of nude, taupe, ivory and grey.
Gilded Botanicals
Florals, always ubiquitous for Spring, took on a new iteration in the form of gilded metallics. Gilded botanicals are a fashion trend that combines the romantic appeal of floral motifs with the luxury of gold or silver embellishments. This trend manifests in various forms, including embroidered or appliquéd gilded leaves and flowers, floral metallic lace motifs on a sheer tulle ground, and even silver or diamond flower motifs trapped in a layer of delicate chiffon. The trend combines romantic motifs with contemporary and edgy silhouettes.
Designers at Fendi, Christian Dior, Simone Rocha, and Chanel used gilded floral embroidery or metallic lace appliqué to add a touch of luxury to garments. This was subtle, with delicate botanical details, or more dramatic, with ornate gilded floral motifs. Theses metallic blooms rendered in silver, gold, or iridescent finishes, add a new dimension to clothing embellishments.
The color palette consists of neutral mostly nude grounds incorporated with gold, chrome, and silver. This palette creates modern pieces that exude a sense of luxury and innovation.
