Trend forecasting has a credibility problem. Most of what you read online is either recycled press releases or listicles written by people who did not attend the shows. "Dopamine dressing is back!" says someone who said the same thing last year and the year before that.
This page tries to do something different. We track the designers, prizes, collections, and cultural forces that actually shape what gets made and worn. Named designers, named collections, specific garments. When we say a silhouette is moving, we point to who is doing it and where.
The prize circuit
Fashion prizes are the best leading indicator of what the industry considers interesting. The judges are working designers, retailers, and editors. The shortlists tell you what experienced eyes are drawn to before the press catches on.
We cover the major prizes in depth as they happen:
- LVMH Prize — the biggest; finalists are worth knowing about years before they go commercial [coming soon]
- ANDAM — France's main prize; historically a better launchpad than LVMH for certain kinds of designers [coming soon]
- International Woolmark Prize — where material innovation meets design [coming soon]
- Hyeres Festival — photography, fashion, and the avant-garde pipeline [coming soon]
Emerging designers
The most interesting work often comes from designers in their first few seasons. They have not yet compromised on their ideas. Graduate collections from Central Saint Martins, Antwerp, Bunka, and Polimoda frequently signal trends two to three years before they reach the mainstream.
- 5 designers redefining silhouette in 2026 [coming soon]
- Central Saint Martins graduates 2026 — the collections that signal what is next [coming soon]
- The Antwerp effect — why Belgian schools keep producing iconoclasts [coming soon]
- From graduate collection to first stockist — the economics of emerging design [coming soon]
What is actually happening on the runways
We decode the Fall 2026 collections by looking at what is repeating across multiple designers. Not "trends" in the magazine sense. More like: which construction techniques are resurfacing? Which fabrication choices keep appearing? What does that mean for what gets made over the next two years?
- Deconstructionism is back — who is doing it and what is different this time [coming soon]
- The fabrication shift — why natural fibers keep gaining ground [coming soon]
- Sustainability vs craft — the tension defining emerging fashion [coming soon]
Cultural forces shaping fashion
Designers do not work in a vacuum. Film, music, exhibitions, and subcultures feed into what they make. We look at the upstream influences, not the downstream TikTok aesthetics.
- How film and music are shaping fashion's 2026 visual language [coming soon]
- Fashion prize shortlists as trend forecasting — what the judges are rewarding [coming soon]
- How emerging designers use AI in their design process [coming soon]
This page gets updated quarterly and after every major prize announcement or fashion week. We also update individual articles as events unfold.
