"Clothes That Cry": The Latest Alaïa Show Was a Celebration of Craft

Craftsmanship and technique have been center stage this spring/summer 2026 fashion season, where we've seen designer after designer present some of their most innovative and skilled work to date. It seems that they're making a statement about what fashion is really all about. It's not hype, social media virality, or even sales—it's art. There's perhaps nobody with a better command of this today than Pieter Mulier, the creative director of Alaïa since 2022. Mulier is a designer who has earned a reputation for transforming fashion into art.

The winter/spring 2026 collection (because Alaïa likes to be one season ahead) was a perfect example of Mulier's unique ability to elevate clothing to the realm of the intellectual while still making pieces we all want to wear. This time, he manipulated fabrics like knit and macramé into appearing as fringe and pearl accents that deserve a second or third look. Silhouettes both dialed up the volume—as the new 2026 version of the viral genie pants did—and showed remarkable restraint, which a series of next-gen body-con looks did. Here, discover every key trend, color, and potential It buy to know from the Alaïa winter/spring 2026 collection.

A Digital Stage

At the Cartier Foundation in Paris, Alaïa staged a digital display throughout the space where blown-up photos of the models projected across the floor underneath their feet as they walked. It gave the show a futuristic quality that somehow added to the effect without taking away from the clothes themselves. Alaïa has a long legacy of transforming fashion into art, and this felt like an installation worthy of a gallery.

Clothes That Cry

Before signing off his show notes, Mulier ended them with a line that simply read, "Clothes that cry." He was referencing many of the looks that moved with a waterfall-like effect with flowing elements that were light as air and fluid as water. Here, the designer flexed his fabric-innovation skills by deploying several trompe l'oeil moments that he described as "invention through craft": A fringed coat that swished and bounced was made from macramé, and strings of knitted pearls flowed over and under as accents to belted coats.

Genie Pants 2.0

Alaïa's genie pants had nothing short of a viral moment, and they were featured all over social media this summer, inspiring countless iterations and trickle-down designs. This latest collection doubled down on the design IP and presented the next phase of the pant trend. This time, they arrived as hybrid skirt-pants that featured billowing volume and skin-baring cutaways before finally cinching around the ankle. As you can imagine, they deserve to be seen from multiple angles to get a proper look.

Movement, Movement, Movement

It's hard to fully appreciate this collection through still imagery alone because so much of it was defined by how the clothes moved through space. Fringe details were found all throughout in ways that ranged from the overt, like the fluffy faux-fringe coats you just saw above, to the more subtle, like the knee-high fringe socks that peeked out from underneath long layers. Gown-like cape coats and high-low tassel skirts were other features that gave each look a certain dramatic flair. As beautiful as they are to look at, these are clothes that are meant to be worn, a nod to Azzedine Alaïa's pragmatic design ethos.

Rich Jewel Tones

Alaïa tends to be at the forefront of next-season color trends, and there are already several to take note of for winter and spring 2026. The palette was all about rich jewel tones, and deep emerald green, royal purple, and inky navy blue each got their own standout moment as they were styled against neutrals in each look.

New-Age Body-Con

"I'm fascinated by the idea of tension," Mulier said about the collection's skintight silhouettes that punctuated the majority of its free-flowing movement. "A tension between genders, between excess and restraint, covering and revealing, between our history and our future, cultural forces. There is a tension in the performance of the show, the figure of each model caught between a filmed and mirror image of herself." Tightly fitted tops that limited the models' range of arm motion offered a modern vision for what body-con dressing could look like in 2026.

Gorgeous Cape Coats

Finally, I'd be remiss not to point out the pieces that will immediately go onto many fashion people's shopping lists: the coats. Cape coats were the quiet counterpart to Mulier's flamboyant fringe, and they came with funnel necks and floor-sweeping shapes that felt dramatic in a much more restrained way. I can already see these becoming best sellers.