.jpg)
We may be fresh from the Milan and Paris menswear shows, Copenhagen Fashion Week, Couture Week and Berlin. But now, it’s time for the main event, as the Fall/Winter 2026 womenswear season kicks off and we prepare for a month of shows in New York, London, Milan, and Paris.
Those early fashion weeks have given us a helpful barometer on some of the bubbling trends for the upcoming season. Layer on the Golden Globes, the Grammys, a 2016 revival, and some pretty bold press tour looks for Wuthering Heights and The Moment, and we have a strong indicator of the silhouettes, textures, and hues set to soar for FW26, solidified by data and insights from trend forecasters.
Here are the trends in store.
Opulent romance
The ethereal mood we noted for SS26 will continue into the fall, with added drama, a touch of romance, and more period-inspired silhouettes. Call it the Wuthering Heights effect, with Emerald Fennell’s adaptation starring Margot Robbie garnering major press attention this month, ahead of its February 13 release. We can expect rich, lush textures, hues of red and purple, and voluminous, ruffled and feathered silhouettes for the season ahead. Think Robbie’s bold press tour looks — from a crimson, corseted velvet Chanel gown at the Paris premiere, to the gothic lace, corseted Schiaparelli couture number that looked like it had been dipped in red paint.
“We are turning to historical references, from Victorian-inspired pieces to Napoleon jackets [for FW26],” says Karis Munday, retail analyst at retail intelligence firm EDITED. The company noted a 35% year-on-year uptick in in-store arrivals of velvet jackets for FW25, and expects the trend to continue. Despite making up a small proportion of arrivals to begin with, embroidered velvet jackets grew 58%, also speaking to the trend.
Capes were a major trend at Paris Men’s and in Copenhagen, spotted at Dior Homme, Anne Sofie Madsen, and on pavements of the Danish capital, thanks to the street style set. “Capes are something I feel like we’ve been talking about for ages, but actually, we’ve started to see store arrivals grow,” Munday says. Mentions of “capes” in fall 2025 arrivals were up 217% year-on-year, per EDITED data.
“What we love about this direction is that it doesn’t focus on one historical aesthetic,” says Kim Cupido, content manager at trend forecasting firm WGSN. “We reference historical and cultural prints, but it doesn’t have to rely on a single aesthetic. Designers can really draw from their own experience and culture, and bring that through in a refined and opulent way.”
Color-wise, rich hues like red and purple will be key for the trend, emerging under the “new neutrals” umbrella, as consumers continue to embrace bolder shades in place of black, season after season. In-store, “plum” arrivals were up 175% year-on-year across European retailers, per EDITED. Meanwhile, retailers almost doubled their arrivals on maroon apparel.
Red hues are “always relevant”, says Frida Tordhag, analyst at trend forecasters Heuritech, which analyzes millions of daily social media images with AI to predict trends. In the US, visibility of carmine red is expected to grow 9% from FW25 to FW26. In Europe, darker hue purple red (+18%) is considered to be a “rising star”, with social media visibility set to grow 18% over the same period.
Prints will be another key driver for the opulent romantic trend, Cupido says, especially at entry-level price points, “as not everything can be overly embellished, embroidered, or beaded”. “We’re seeing dark brown florals, interior motifs, scarf prints, and bordered prints coming through strongly, alongside pattern clashes, with florals and animal prints playing into a maximalist feel,” she says.
Lace
Already spotted in Copenhagen, at Skall Studio, Caro Editions, and at the Grammys on Olivia Rodrigo, Katseye and Karol G, lace will be a key trend for the season, across dresses, separates and accessories, continuing the romantic mood.
Heuritech predicts visibility of lace across social media will surge from FW25 to FW26, across fine lace (+42%), thick lace (+5%), lace detail tops (+107%), lace skirts (+33%), fine lace dresses (+54%), and lace pants (+13%).
“Lace has been around for quite a few seasons, but it feels so relevant for this year, particularly with lots of talk about 2016, and discussion of the lace slip dress,” says Munday. Lace in-store arrivals were up 22% for FW25, according to EDITED data. Black lace remains dominant, driving almost 30% of lace apparel sellouts in FW25. Lace trims are proving a must-have detail across tops, skirts, and dresses, with 31% of lace trim dresses stocked in-stores selling out.
The trend is also set to extend beyond garments. In its 2026 Pinterest Predicts report, the platform noted a surge in search for all manner of lace accessories, including belts (+55%), bandanas (+150%), and lace doilies (+105%).
The new volume
We’ve had a few seasons of boom boom and ’80s silhouettes in womenswear, as consumers embrace power dressing and younger generations seek to look rich through strong, big-shouldered fits. For this season, voluminous power dressing will remain, with some updates in silhouette and style.
Cinched and sculpted shapes continue to gain momentum. Across Copenhagen FW26, we saw sharp ’80s shoulders at Anne Sofie Madsen, Taus, and Caro Editions. While in-store shoulder pad arrivals increased 29% during FW25 in Europe, per EDITED.
As demonstrated by Victoria Beckham in her 2025 documentary, bold necklines are also on the rise in tops and dresses, to add oomph to a look, including funnel necks, scarf necklines, and emerging upward collars. On Pinterest, searches for “high collared jacket” are up 60% year-on-year, while power dressing accessories like the “chunky belt” are also on the rise (+65%). In stores, arrivals of funnel tops and dresses were up 41% this season, with further growth expected for FW26, according to EDITED.
Elsewhere, a softer, rounder silhouette is emerging, when it comes to bold suiting and dresses, as designers seek fresh ways to create exaggerated shapes, beyond the boxy, big-shouldered look. From Jonathan Anderson’s bulbous, curved gowns at Christian Dior Couture Spring 2026, to Hed Mayner’s rounded power shoulders at Pitti Uomo, there’s a renewed desire for exaggerated curves and bubbled lines, which are trickling down to ready-to-wear. “We are noticing a shift toward more exaggerated draping and cocoon silhouettes, especially for dresses — as seen at Stella McCartney and Victoria Beckham,” Munday says.
Barrel silhouettes are “particularly prevalent”, she continues. “These shapes have shifted from feeling highly directional to having broader commercial appeal.” Thirty-five percent of barrel leg shapes across pants and jeans sold out during FW25. More voluminous balloon fits also gained popularity, as balloon pant arrivals jumped 314% year-on-year, per EDITED. Drop-waist silhouettes are another strong example of market success, with fall arrivals up 64%.
Sportsmart
Performance fashion continues to dominate the runways, as sport increasingly permeates the fashion world. We’re already feeling the influence — from the Milan Fashion Week Men’s season, inspired heavily by the Winter Olympics across Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo, to a very cold Copenhagen, dominated by performance outerwear, snowboots and raincoats; and all the way to fashion’s biggest Super Bowl on February 9, and the upcoming World Cup in June. But for FW26, trend forecasters expect an interesting update to performance dressing, blending feminine pieces with high-tech garments, to create a so-called “sportsmart” look.
“We’re looking at the influence of sports aesthetics on everyday women,” WGSN’s Cupido says. “It’s not going to be interpreted in a literal sense. We’re not going to see soccer jerseys on every runway or every second show in Paris, but athletic influences will permeate collections in a number of ways.” Think functional fashion, but in delicate fabrics and ultra-feminine silhouettes like cinched waists and bubble hems.
Cupido references Balenciaga’s recent performance line launch, which paired a soft volume bomber with a maxi bubble skirt — feminine influences applied to an athletic shape. “We expect to see more of this, including soft volumes, peplums for bottoms, and balloon shapes in wide-leg pants, with romantic influences permeating athletic or sporty aesthetics.”
New feminine silhouettes in performance fabrics are expected to surge on social media, according to Heuritech data, including deep plunge tops (+47%), ringer tees (+38%), and blouson windbreakers (+10%) in delicate hues like cream (+9%) and powder pink (+4%) or printed with dainty polka dots (+35%). The sleeves are balloon inspired (set to grow +5%), and the Nylon fabric is airy with an elasticated drawstring waist that allows for an adjustable silhouette.
Munday calls it “technical romanticism”, blending utilitarian themes with softer, more romantic notes. “This includes utility jackets and coats, layered tops, organza, knits, jersey, and crease-effect fabrics,” she says. The Cecilie Bahnsen x The North Face collaboration, featuring cinched waterproofs in the brand’s signature floral print, which sold out in three weeks after its latest drop in October, is a “clear reference point for the trend”.
The trend already showed up during the menswear season, with tailoring blended with ski at Ralph Lauren, and utilitarian cargos paired with tailored Bar jackets at Dior.
Another direction speaks to the Winter Olympics and cultural pride, incorporating cultural influences and techniques — such as beading and print — into sportswear, WGSN’s Cupido adds. “We may see this strongly from sportswear brands, whose designers already have a heritage focus, as a natural evolution of the category,” she says. There’s certainly an appetite for the fusion of performance and culture. Ralph Lauren’s artist in residency collaboration with Indigenous-led brand Tópa, including lots of traditional motifs on workwear and canvas, has seen majority sellouts across 71% of styles, EDITED says.
Brown is the new brown and fun color combos
Womenswear trends are moving slower than previous seasons, as the micro-trend cycle continues to slow. So brown, a familiar shade throughout previous trend prediction stories, remains an important color for FW26.
“Dark brown hues have been massive for the past year and have taken over black in terms of growth,” says Tordhag. But in FW26, we can expect warmer and brighter browns, closer to dark beige. Heuritech predicts online visibility of several brown shades to grow, including dune beige (+4%), hemp brown (+6%), cinnamon (+8%), oak brown (+12%), camel (+11%), and chestnut (+17%).
As we saw during the men’s shows, khaki is another important shade for fall; for women, so-called cardboard khaki will be a key among them. Spotted in Copenhagen at Skall Studio, the shade is expected to grow 9% in terms of online visibility, per Heuritech data. “The trend is considered a comeback and sits within this beige yellow hue,” Tordhag says. “We can expect to see this color on outerwear such as blazers, as well as leather jackets with funnel necks, and tailored pants.”
Perhaps it’s thanks to Dario Vitale, but rich, unlikely color pairings will be big heading into fall, as consumers increasingly embrace bolder styling. “In FW25, we noted light blue and brown, and pink and burgundy sell well [together]. But now we are seeing braver combinations come through, like purple and red, and green and yellow, as we’ve seen in Versace and Other Stories campaign imagery,” Munday says.
It speaks to the broader openness to experimentation in women’s styling, as consumers increasingly seek investment staples they can re-style or re-accessorize to feel fresh season after season, instead of buying into entirely new trends. This means the trends each season feel like evolutions of past seasons and moods, as macroeconomic challenges continue to weigh on the average consumer, and they seek more mileage from their wardrobes.
“Today, women are looking for heirloom pieces,” Cupido says. “They want to buy a piece that becomes synonymous with their style, like that one jacket you become known for. It is a lot like we’re seeing in menswear. There’s now a step-by-step, incremental move on trends today. Women can see the progression. It gives them confidence to buy into a trend.”
