The fashion industry is happy to plan ahead – designers: Inside, the collections for the next year are already thinking about the next year, buyers: Inside, the range for the coming season and fashion magazines are already photographing winter stories in summer. It has always been like that. Nevertheless, the future prospects of the industry have become darker. What will the industry look like for artificial intelligence, climate change and geopolitical tensions in Europe?
Trend researcher Jan Agelink from the Buro Jantrendman creative office offers a calming perspective. He began his webinar “Design Fiction” for autumn/winter 2026/27 with the photo of a small ceramic work by the Dutcher Koos Buster with the title “The Button for World Peace” (“The button for world peace”), the viewer: Inside, the idea conveys that world peace can be reached at the push of a button. He addresses the imagination.
Fantasy – the ability to develop new ideas for existing problems (how big the problems may be) – calls Agelink “imaginative intelligence”. He goes from the fact that imagination is becoming increasingly important for the creative industry.
Imaginative intelligence: imagination as an engine of innovation
Agelink calls the Belgian designer Walter van Beirendonck as an example of someone with a strong imagination. The designer in Paris’s HW25 show contained 3D printed, alien-like finger accessories and prints created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Van Beirendonck explains in his show notes that every collection promises new things, but actually presents repetitions of the past.
Already last year, the designer expressed criticism of the lack of innovation in fashion. “Why are clothing still sewn when we have the potential to explore so many other techniques?” He asks.
The Swedish fashion designer Ellen Hodakova Larsson also develops new ideas and designs that encourage the imagination. With her label Hodakova, it transforms existing materials and shapes, such as the wood of a violin from which a dress is created, into new fashion.
In September 2024 she won the prestigious LVMH Prize, endowed with 400,000 euros and one year of coaching by the French luxury group. “It shows that even a luxury conglomerate of this size believes in the power of fashion, which is surprised, unpredictable and causes emotional reactions,” says Agelink.
A name that should also be remembered is Satoshi Kondo, and has been creative director of the Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake since 2019. At a time when many trends return, Kondo surprises with designs that combine the shape and function in an innovative way. At the HW25 fashion show in Paris, models wore clothes in an unexpected way and showed that a piece of clothing does not only have to be worn in one way.
“Bold New Classics”: Newly interpreted classics
For autumn/winter 2026/27, Agelink also sees the importance of “Bold New Classics”: classic cuts and prints that are supposed to inspire the imagination. Examples of this can be seen in Duran Lantink’s HW25 collection, which was presented in Paris.
The Dutch designer, recently appointed chief designer with Jean Paul Gaultier, gave classic design elements new by putting them in a contemporary context: for example, he processed very old prints in a surprisingly new robe. He also interpreted the corset, which is usually associated with the female form, as a male torso that was presented on a woman.
Rising the “Kidults”
Agelink mentions a striking phenomenon that is currently at the top of the fashion industry: the rise of the ‘Kidults’, a mixture of ‘Kid’ (child) and ‘adult’ (adults). These are adults who long for childish amazement. As an example, Agelink mentions the Courrèges HW25 show in Paris, where models ran on the ground via confetti. An unexpected effect that stimulates the imagination of “Kidults”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1g-eqzv5cq
Community-oriented retail activities
Consumer: Buy online more and more online. In addition, traditional retail seems to be pushed out, as Tech giants do everything they can to keep consumers: inside their web shops. You invest in technology, which can give personal recommendations at lightning speed.
But there is a paradox in these technological developments: the more personal the technology, the more impersonal the fashion industry seems to become. Hyper -modern consumer: Inside, clothing can buy without even getting in touch with a person. A piece of clothing goes through many hands before it ends up with the consumer: inside.
Agelink therefore predicts the trend community-oriented retail activities as a counter-reaction to automated interactions for HW26/27. “The consumers: Inside, in the history of the product, brand, shop or company,” says Agelink.
Brands such as the Dutch Bonne Suits and the Belgian Suspicious Antwerp give this trend a contemporary interpretation: they regularly organize events and thus create experiences, strengthen their community and ensure loyalty.
The new city life: need for sensory calm
City dwellers: Above all, the inside does not want to be overexcited. According to Agelink, you are already experiencing the downside of an increasingly digital existence: less human interaction, little sleep, less green and nature. “In some cities there are not more butterflies,” says Agelink.
He sees a clear reaction to this way of life: the growing meaning of clothing for sleeping (e.g. on the way). Among other things, he mentions the work of Gozzilah and Post Archive Faction (PAF) as examples of brands that deal with the need of consumers: on the inside after sensory calm.
The striking trends he observes include jackets with extremely large hoods that can be pulled over your eyes like a kind of mobile cocoon-as can be seen in the HW25 collection from Issey Miyake. Agelink predicts that a certain yellow – “the color of the sunset” – will be popular. This color can be seen in the HW25 collections by Maxivive and Henrik Vibskov. He also points to other colors inspired by nature, including violet, green, yellow, red and brown.
“Umit the brain”
In his webinar “Design Fiction”, Agelink emphasizes that at a time when AI seems to accelerate and repeat trends seem to be essential. “Review the brain, and the hand grabs the wallet,” said Harry Selfridge, the founder of the London department store Selfridge. His statement now proves to be more current than ever.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
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