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You’ve heard this before, but here it goes: 2025 will be a transformational year for fashion. Almost every major luxury house is undergoing some sort of creative leadership change. From Chanel and Givenchy to Tom Ford and Dries Van Noten, change either has come or will come in the near future.
And while most of the debuts will take place this September, this summer will see the pieces begin to move, thanks to a flurry of switches happening around the cruise, menswear and couture seasons, between June and August. This week’s, for instance, was the announcement that Glenn Martens’s first collection for Maison Margiela would arrive during couture week in July, not in September — how tantalising. But summer is not exactly when the industry is in full-fledged fashion mode, making it hard to keep up.
While most other freshman efforts from newly appointed designers — Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Demna at Gucci, among others — are coming in the autumn for the Spring/Summer 2026 season, there is lots to look out for at the cruise, menswear and couture shows this summer before everyone retreats for the month of August. Chanel kicked off the resort season with a show in Lake Como, Italy, on 29 April — it was one of the last shows pre-Blazy, with only a couture show in July left to be led by its in-house studio before the Belgian designer’s debut.
Read on for a full date-by-date, show-by-show breakdown.
Gucci
When: 15 May
Where: Florence, Italy
Season: Resort 2026
Designed by: Gucci studio
Today’s (15 May) Gucci show in Florence is taking place at the Palazzo Settimanni. Gucci acquired the building in 1953, and it has served as a showroom, workshop and home for its archives since 2021. It’s a timely show to host at this location, given that Gucci is currently being designed by the in-house studio following Sabato De Sarno’s exit earlier this year and ahead of Demna’s much-discussed, potentially promising debut this autumn. Given that the studio-designed AW25 collection shown in February was presented as a co-ed show, we can anticipate the label skipping the men’s shows in June, meaning that this archive extravaganza will be the last Gucci show pre-Demna.
Louis Vuitton
When: 22 May
Where: Palais des Papes, Avignon, France
Season: Resort 2026
Designed by: Nicolas Ghesquière
Nicolas Ghesquière has been a beacon of stability at Louis Vuitton, where he celebrated his 10-year anniversary last March. Having made travelling shows one of his signatures at the maison, he is taking his upcoming resort 2026 collection to Avignon. The Palais des Papes, a Unesco World Heritage site, will host a fashion show for the first time in its close to 1,000-year history. Ghesquière often chooses these historic venues for his shows as a doorway for Vuitton to support the preservation of heritage sites.
Dior
When: 27 May
Where: Rome, Italy
Season: Resort 2026
Designed by: Maria Grazia Chiuri
Dior’s creative future has been much discussed over the past few months, particularly since Jonathan Anderson exited Loewe and was announced as Kim Jones’s replacement at Dior Men. Industry chatter places Anderson as Maria Grazia Chiuri’s would-be successor should she exit the house in the coming months. Part of that ongoing he-said, she-said conversation would potentially mean that the Dior resort 2026 show this summer is Chiuri’s last. The show will take place in Rome, Chiuri’s hometown — make of that what you will.
Max Mara
When: 17 June
Where: Royal Palace of Caserta, Italy
Season: Resort 2026
Designed by: Ian Griffiths
Max Mara’s long-time creative director Ian Griffiths will stage his resort 2026 show at the Royal Palace of Caserta, located north of Naples in southern Italy. The remarkable piece of late-Baroque architecture is considered the largest former royal residence in the world. Not unlike Ghesquière, Griffiths has been the exception to the rule, having been at Max Mara for over two decades.
Dior Men
When: 27 June
Where: Paris, France
Season: SS26 Menswear
Designed by: Jonathan Anderson (debut)
When Anderson was announced by Bernard Arnault as the designer behind the label’s upcoming menswear collection — and effectively Kim Jones’s replacement at Dior Men — during an LVMH shareholders meeting last month, much of the industry chatter around the maison was confirmed. It remains to be seen whether Anderson will or will not take the helm of womenswear at Dior, too, unifying both categories under one designer for the first time since Marc Bohan was the house’s creative lead. Either way, this is, as of now, the most-anticipated menswear show this summer.
Celine
When: 6 July
Where: Paris, France
Season: SS26
Designed by: Michael Rider (debut)
Michael Rider was announced as the new creative director of Celine, following Hedi Slimane’s simultaneous exit, in October 2024. Rider’s debut show has been scheduled for the evening of 6 July in Paris this summer, a curtain-raiser to Haute Couture Week, which kicks off on 7 July. He was most recently creative director of Polo Ralph Lauren, though his appointment is a homecoming at Celine: he worked under Phoebe Philo as design director for ready-to-wear. This off-schedule show will mark Celine’s return to the IRL show format following Slimane’s video presentations, which were released with no set cadence.
Maison Margiela
When: Haute Couture Week, date TBC
Where: Paris, France
Season: AW25 Couture
Designed by: Glenn Martens (debut)
Glenn Martens’s debut at Maison Margiela is confirmed to happen during Haute Couture Week, running from 7 to 10 July, this summer in Paris. It’s a smart move from Margiela, given that Martens would have to otherwise compete with the many debuting designers for the spotlight during the ready-to-wear shows in September and October. Peter Copping and Lanvin did a similar thing in January, staging his debut during the menswear season and circumventing the stacked Paris ready-to-wear schedule in late February that included buzzy debuts.
This move all but guarantees Martens to have a moment, and establishes continuity between his Margiela and that of John Galliano. The latter’s swan song, lest we forget, was the spring 2024 Margiela Artisanal collection that seemingly took over the world. By debuting with couture, Margiela and Martens are making a commitment to the creative legacy of the house before they begin outlining their business-minded choices with ready-to-wear.
Balenciaga
When: Haute Couture Week, date TBC
Where: Paris, France
Season: AW25 Couture
Designed by: Demna
Demna’s finale at Balenciaga will be his fifth couture collection for the house. It’s a fitting farewell given that he was the first designer at the house, following Cristóbal Balenciaga himself, to design its couture. Gucci, where he is headed, does not currently show couture, but it certainly has a roaster of starry ambassadors to outfit for the red carpet, in addition to its annual LACMA Gala, which Sabato De Sarno turned into an opportunity to release Gucci Notte, an eveningwear collection. There is currently no successor announced for Demna — whoever takes on the role next has a robust brief to fulfil.
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