Balenciaga But Bigger: Pierpaolo Piccioli's Fall 2026 Couture Debut
Prioritizing the shape, color, and movement of garments over his predecessor’s theatrical approach.
Summary
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Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga debut featured a stripped-back, outdoor show, prioritizing the garments over his predecessor’s theatrics.
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The collection focused on masterful cuts and fabric movement, using a minimalist approach to create bold, voluminous designs.
Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut Haute Couture collection for Balenciaga took place in the outdoor gardens of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Soundtracked by the serene voice of singer Anohni, Piccioli’s collection was bathed in light and air as it proceeded down the white carpet — a stripped-back setting for the colorful, supple, and buoyant numbers crafted by the house’s couturiers.
The show stands in contrast to former Creative Director Demna’s style, which often placed high attention to set design and theatrics, sometimes pulling the focus away from the clothing. Instead, Piccioli’s debut was dialed in on delivering a refined and focused show, where the clothing certainly took primacy over any theatrics.
In a quote originally provided to WWD, Piccioli explained his methodology: “Engineering the cuts, not using so many fabrics, not using additional structures, but arriving at the perfect meld between the fabric, the shape, the color and the surface — as if you used only one gesture to create the object.” The designer’s restrained approach shows in the simple, though large forms, where the movement of the fabric and its interaction with the light are what drew interest.
One of those numbers includes a full-feather tan trench coat that hides a pair of teal trousers, while another is a monolithic, violet gown that seemed to inflate as it caught the wind. Elsewhere, Gigi Hadid wore an all-black number crowned by a massive black feather mane — something you’d easily imagine Icelandic singer Björk performing in. Even where these descriptions sound outlandish, the garments deliver on Piccioli’s promise of using “one gesture to create the object.”
