The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear season

It’s the end of a busy – and very hot – menswear season in Florence, Milan and Paris. Over a packed-out schedule in the fashion capitals of Europe, designers across the board sought various modes of escapism, and a desire to unwind – largely via seeking the sunlit shores of a holiday – seemed to be the pervading mood.

Paul Smith’s love letter to European marketplaces made for a standout debut in Milan; Anthony Vaccarello imagined a nostalgic trip between Paris and Fire Island; Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons showed the ‘easiest collection’ they’ve ever made; and a theme of pyjama silhouettes at several houses, from Dolce & Gabbana to Armani, suggested many simply dreamed of going to bed.

Two debuts made for the most talked-about shows of the season – Julian Klausner’s sublime first menswear collection for Dries Van Noten, which offered up an insouciant portrait of summertime ease; and, of course, Jonathan Anderson’s landmark start at Dior, which, among various clever ‘decoding and recoding’ of the house’s vast archive of designs, went back to the reason he became a designer: the simple joy to be found in dressing up.

But between the blockbuster shows, a handful of quieter off-calendar presentations flew under the radar. Here, we look back at some of the best collections you might have missed from the S/S 2026 menswear season.

S/S 2026 menswear: the collections you might have missed

Martine Rose

There was a dearth of happenings in London this season after the British Fashion Council removed the city from the June slot (February and September fashion weeks are now co-ed). But there was one very, very good off-calendar outlier: Martine Rose. Showing ‘salon-style’ at the least glamorous of locations – a Job Centre off Lisson Grove, which she adorned with swathes of cream frilled curtains – her S/S 2026 collection offered up a love letter to Kensington Market and the unique mix of independent stalls and creative upstarts that have long called it home.

Strange, sexy, and every inch Rose’s ruefully original signature, the collection twisted high street uniforms and notions of British dress. Harrington jackets, electrician’s utility trousers, tracksuits, kilts and barber shop capes all got the Rose rework, so that they were either suctioned close to the body or chopped and layered into skewiff shapes. Inviting 20 local market stallholders to join the rows of fashion editors, the event felt – as ever with the designer – like a celebration of London and its eclectic pockets of life.

Post Archive Faction

If you haven’t heard of PAF, it’s probably because you’re not into technical gear. The South Korean brand is part of a new wave of designers pushing performance wear into avant-garde new territory. The brand is the brainchild of Dongjoon Lim and Sookyo Jeong, who studied industrial design and architecture respectively, and as such they do things a little differently. Their philosophy centres on a set of evolving uniforms that are divided into three distinct categories: ‘right‘ (conservative), ‘centre’ (intermediary), and ‘left’ (experimental). The kind of brand you might have spotted in the stands at Pitti Uomo in previous years rather than on the runway, the duo were the underdogs among the three guest designers selected for the annual display in Florence.

The display they produced, however, quietened any questions over their place at Pitti. Marking a surprising departure from their utility signatures, the collection was instead rooted in formality, opening with a series of sharp, contemporary tailored looks in inky blacks and mottled greys that gave way to lighter shapes in cutting-edge performance fabrics. Showing the pair can take on traditional menswear codes while still coaxing new beauty from a baseline of sportswear shapes, it was a grown-up, ambitious display from two designers working entirely on their own terms.

Our Legacy

This season, Our Legacy did away with the idea of a runway altogether, instead staging a Swedish Midsummer celebration in the heart of Milan. Blending Scandinavian tradition with Italian charm, the laid-back affair at Pizzeria Stella was complete with a leafy maypole and flower crowns for guests. Marking the brand’s 20th anniversary, the S/S 2026 collection it celebrated – released with a pared-back lookbook – emerged from a journey into the Our Legacy archives. Resisting nostalgia, creative director Cristopher Nying described the collection as a ‘mixtape of B-sides’ rather than a roll call of greatest hits through which he has subtly reflected on the ‘moments and memories’ that have shaped the past two decades. Sleek tailoring, slouchy knits, leather accessories and ‘cunning twists’ on wardrobe staples leant into Our Legacy’s language of understated style. Quietly marking 20 years of astute, wearable design, the collection seemed to say Our Legacy is more interested in what comes next.

Mordecai

‘It’s zen but make it technical’ reads the epithet found in Mordecai’s Instagram bio. It’s a mantra that perfectly captures the spirit of designer’s Ludovico Bruno latest collection, which explored his lifelong passion for martial arts. Highlighting the ways the combat sport of Judo balances both force and intimacy – where fighters embrace, hands dig into flesh, and bodies tumble as one – the resulting collection elevated the uniforms of the sport with a technical lightness gained from his years spent designing in-house at Moncler. Shown at a dojo in Milan on a cast of real athletes from wrestling and karate schools, the presentation was a display of the designer’s sensitive approach to bold design ideas – and a standout presentation of the week in Milan.

Magliano

A sabbatical is a period of leave most commonly associated with academia, where professors are granted time off after years of research or service to their department. Young designer Luca Magliano is neither an academic nor decades into his field, but even so, the fashion industry’s relentless churn can wear on designers’ energy and resources. Many are pushing back with creative answers to the official schedule, and the ‘sabbatical’ film the Bologna-born designer produced instead was one such of these solutions. Shown at a central Milan movie theatre dubbed ‘CineMagliano’ for the evening, the film was shot by British director Thomas Hardiman, best known for his 2022 breakout indie Medusa Deluxe – an offbeat thriller-comedy set within the chaotic world of a hairstyling competition. With a shared taste in stories of the surreal, Hardiman and Magliano made a perfect pairing.

Showcasing a character-led take on the designer’s ‘f-d up classics’ for S/S 2026, the film the pair produced told the story of a ragtag crew of fricchettoni – an Italian term for a bohemian, hippy kind of outcast – on a boat from Sardinia to Tuscany. Drawing on nautical themes old and new, the collection featured outerwear cut in 1950s noir silhouettes, roughed-up tuxedos that looked hastily packed, flag dresses, swim goggle-inspired sunglasses, and lace-up boots that took after the Titanic era. It was a fun, memorable alternative to a runway – and proof that Magliano is a designer with more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

Sanderlak

Sander Lak made the most low-key of debuts during the Paris shows this season. After a five-year hiatus following the closure of his cult Antwerp brand Sies Marjan in 2020, the Brunei-born designer is back with a label under his own name. Shown via a smattering of in-person appointments in Paris, Lak’s new venture hinges on a particular concept – one collection per year, inspired by one specific place.

Aiming to capture a ‘feeling of home’ through clothes that reflect the ‘mood, textures, and everyday rhythms’ of a given location, the first is a tribute to Los Angeles. With relaxed, unisex silhouettes in soft knits and well-cut denim made for year-round wear, the collection brought together cosy textures – cashmere, cotton, and shearling – in sun-bleached shades the show notes described as ‘corn masa, ocean eyes, desert sage, and strawberry milkshake.’

‘There’s something about the light in LA that always gets me,’ Lak said in a statement. ‘It’s soft yet harsh and dry, and it settles over everything in this quiet way.’ An easy, wearable offering crafted with heart, the understated debut was the work of a designer who knows exactly what he wants to make, and what he wants to wear.

Sacai

Eschewing the runway for a clean, studio-shot look book this season, Chitose Abe’s proposition for S/S 2026 was one of simplicity. Its name – ‘Everyday All Day’ – related the wearable ease of the offering, which fused everyday staples with the formality of tuxedo suiting. Bringing a deconstructed whimsy to collaborations with all-American brands Carhartt and J.M. Weston, the silhouette this season was billowing – Japanese-style barrel trousers, cleverly constructed voluminous sleeves, and oversized shirting – while Abe’s knack for fusing disparate modes of dress shone in outerwear that hackneyed workwear jackets with blazers. Worn with bohemian T-bar sandals, the collection tossed out ideas of formality and casualness in favour of simply wearing whatever feels good. Alongside the visuals, the brand has invited Canadian painter Geoff McFetridge – a New York Times contributor who got his start painting West Coast skate culture in the 2000s – to create a series of soft, cinematic artworks immortalising the collection on canvas.