chanel | reach for the stars

Louis Vuitton.

The Louis Vuitton Monogram turned 130 this year, and the house has been marking the occasion with numerous celebratory releases running since January. Its latest announcement? The official debut of Monogram Emblème, a tactile evolution that traces its lineage straight back to the inception of the iconic motif itself.

Originally created in 1896 by Georges Vuitton as a tribute to his father Louis, the founder of the Maison, the Monogram was originally conceived as a signature to safeguard the house’s creations, inspired by Neo-Gothic ornamentation and the influence of Japonism. What began as a practical solution to counterfeiting became, over more than a century, one of the most recognisable symbols in the history of luxury.

Louis Vuitton.

The Monogram Emblème, now available as part of the Pre-Autumn 2026 collection, is a new jacquard canvas that returns to the material logic of the original: a blend of GOTS-certified cotton and linen fibres, echoing the cotton canvases that once covered the house’s travel trunks, now made water-repellent and woven with a denser pattern that reads almost like embroidery at close range. Five differently coloured threads build the texture, creating a depth that the standard Monogram canvas, for all its authority, was never designed to have.

Colour comes from the Vuittonnier, the house’s proprietary colour library, and the two shades launching in June say something about where the inspiration is rooted. Peuplier, a warm neutral drawn from the wooden structure of the historic trunks, and Rose Ruban, a nod to the ribbon detailing that once finished those same trunks, both point back to the archive without becoming archival. In September, two further colourways follow: Monogram Bleu, taken from the house’s 1930s register, and Vert Jura, inspired by the flora of the region where Louis Vuitton himself was born.

Louis Vuitton.

The canvas appears across the full range of house icons: the Alma, the Neverfull, the Speedy, the Noé and the Keepall, alongside the Side Trunk, which sits at the intersection of the house’s luggage heritage and its contemporary accessory offer. Small leather goods, shoes and accessories complete the picture.

The Emblème is the year’s most substantive product statement yet, making it the perfect continuation of the occurring celebrations. 

Discover more here.

photography. courtesy of Louis Vuitton
words. Gennaro Costanzo

Robin Galiegue.

Nearly a year into his tenure at Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli is becoming increasingly interesting. Spring 2027, titled ’Unsized,’ is his most considered collection for the house yet: a rethinking of what clothing can be when it stops insisting on a fixed relationship with the body beneath it.

The concept reiterates a central Balenciaga edict, the integrity of the human body as the base for creation, and takes it somewhere new. Garments are drawn around the body and adjusted through ribbons of cloth, gestures borrowed from traditional couture construction, so that fit becomes something negotiated rather than assigned.

The clothes themselves are extraordinary in their lightness. Featherweight techno taffeta, a new house signature made from recycled materials, runs through the entire wardrobe alongside double cashmere, kid mohair, poplin and denim in various weights and washes. Entire ensembles weigh less than a kilogram. The effect is what Piccioli calls a liberation of form: clothes that respond to how a body moves through the day instead of imposing a shape upon it.

Robin Galiegue.

Robin Galiegue.

Piccioli has been compiling Cristóbal Balenciaga’s archive into slim grey volumes, shelved like an encyclopaedia set, and his study of the founder shows. The balloon, the cocoon, the drape reappear not as predictable archival references but as living ideas, reengineered for the way people actually dress today. The category-blurring is where the collection becomes most fun. Shirts arrive with the trains of grand evening gowns; evening gowns carry themselves with the attitude of t-shirts. Jeans are worn beneath plissé jersey eveningwear; TechWear sits alongside tailoring, while draped silk jersey meets different washes and weights of denim across day and evening.

The accessories push the same thinking further. The Rodeo is reconsidered in fine nappa leather lined with techno taffeta, softening its silhouette so it moves with the body rather than against it. Le City Core arrives in natural smooth calf with rounded or braided handles and the iconographic City leather plaque and metal studs, alongside iterations in soft washed-effect lambskin with a muted brass chain-strap, both considerably more subtle in register than their predecessors. 

Robin Galiegue.

Robin Galiegue.

Shoes follow suit: the Sunset line, built around an inner glove structure in hyper-soft suede and toile canvas, wraps the foot like a second skin, while the Core sneaker is engineered to follow the curve of the foot in mesh and rubber. The Aviator boot, in fine leather with zip detailing, and the expanded Bloom pump in ballerina and sling-back form complete a footwear range that moves between softness and structure without contradiction.

Jewellery has been reconsidered as function as much as decoration. The Bow line draws directly from Cristóbal’s penultimate haute couture collection of Autumn/Winter 1967, reinterpreted in crystal. The Echo line gathers Balenciaga talismans and charms into necklaces as keepsakes. Le City hardware, the studs and plaques that have defined the bag for decades, becomes a line of jewellery and jewel-accessory hybrids.

The lookbook, photographed by Robin Galiegue on the threshold of Balenciaga’s historic home at 10 avenue George V, captures exactly the tension the collection lives in: couture and street not collapsed into one another, but in more honest, more considered conversation than they have been in some time.

Robin Galiegue.

Discover the Spring 2027 collection here.

photography. courtesy of Robin Galiegue for Balenciaga
words. Gennaro Costanzo

George Muncey.

Jimmy Choo has unveiled its Summer 2026 men’s campaign, continuing its ‘Creators’ series by shifting from structured urban settings to the slow, bucolic rhythm of the British countryside. Titled ‘Summer in Bloom,’ the project stars model and professional flower farmer Alfie Nickerson – accompanied by his dachshund, Wolfie – to explore how raw botanical textures can intersect with high-end luxury footwear.

The curated collection reinterprets Italian craftsmanship and traditional British shoemaking through a slightly subversive, seasonal lens overseen by Creative Director Sandra Choi. The brand’s signature Meadow Sandal transforms the classic fisherman silhouette with a modern, nostalgia-infused buckle embellishment featuring a metallic English rose.

George Muncey.

For formal configurations, the Vine Lace Up updates the classic Oxford shoe with a stacked heel and intricate floral detailing engineered straight into the outsole, while the Eliot Slipper receives a highly tactile, hand-woven leather construction. The casual line-up features the brand’s signature chunky Diamond Maxi Trainer, completely reworked with a breathable, woven textile upper calibrated for warm climates.

The accessories department mirrors this focus on intentional travel utility, anchored by the spacious Bar Holdall weekend bag, which takes its name from its industrial, custom-moulded metal bar closure.

George Muncey.

Discover the collection here.

photography. courtesy of George Muncey for Jimmy Choo
words. Gennaro Costanzo