Meet the New Guard: The Young Designers Who Opened Paris Fashion Week FW26

Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2026 opened not with one of its storied maisons but with a full day dedicated to emerging talent, setting an experimental, individuality-driven tone before Dior and Saint Laurent took over the following afternoon.

The day began with a show by IFM Master of Arts before continuing through a run of younger labels: Weinsanto, Burc Akyol, Kimhekim, Julie Kegels, Hodakova and Vaquera all presented across the afternoon and evening, each bringing a distinct point of view that stood in deliberate contrast to the more commercially minded collections that would follow later in the week. Hodakova, in particular, has built a reputation among Paris insiders for repurposing found materials and everyday objects into wearable, conceptually rigorous pieces — a sensibility that continues to draw comparisons to the deconstructionist wave of Belgian and Japanese designers from decades past.

For industry scouts and buyers, opening day has increasingly become one of the most closely watched slots of the entire week, offering an early read on which of Paris's emerging names might be the next to land a major creative director appointment at one of the city's bigger houses — a pipeline that, in recent seasons, has moved faster than at almost any point in the industry's recent history.