How do I explain this feeling to someone who doesn’t put themselves through the ups and downs of this biannual happening? Maybe the metaphor is baked into the name of this platform (although this wasn’t the initial meaning assigned to the blog). Fashion season ends like a merry-go-round slowing to a halt. The music fades. The fairy lights dim. The carousel’s metal joints creak and groan, and you’re left swaying on steady ground — wondering what all that flying was good for and when you’ll get back on the ride for another round. 

Certain aspects of fashion week are cyclical, even repetitive. Getting stuck in hopeless traffic jams, stressing out over almost missing a show, fussing with blisters, running backstage for interviews, and repeat. As an independent writer, without a big team working the chaos behind the scenes, it can feel like too much at times. And yet — the work itself keeps me coming back. What I get to witness is a kind of creative nourishment, a reminder of why I do this in the first place. When I count my blessings, I never skip over the privilege of meeting burgeoning talents and of standing close enough to feel the beauty of what they make.

Whether in Copenhagen or Paris, this spring-summer season spun with many of those incredible moments. Riding the carousel let me see the world from someone else’s vantage point, if only for a moment, and reminded me what it feels like to be moved — literally and creatively. New York-based, China-born designer Caroline Hu pulled me into her deeply romantic, whimsical world with optical illusions, cloudy constructions, and intricate embroidery work. Finnish designer Rolf Ekroth made me think about what survival looks like for independent brands in this relentless industry. 

There was also Paris-based Alphonse Maitrepierre, who whirled me backward in time, reviving French couturier Paul Poiret’s legacy with a diligently researched and masterfully executed modern interpretation of his work. Then there’s Antwerp-based Austrian designer Florentina Leitner who swept me up in the dizzy, joyful rush of summer love with a collection doused in acid greens, star prints, and bows everywhere. Because that’s one more thing this crazy, exhilarating, exhausting merry-go-round can offer: a chance to be young again. So, without further ado, here’s my round-up of both emerging and under-the-radar talents from the spring-summer 2026 fashion season, in no particular order.

Maitrepierre: En Plein Cœur

Displayed across several floors of Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ stately atrium, Alphonse Maitrepierre’s spring-summer 2026 presentation at Paris Fashion Week was created as an ode to Paul Poiret, one of the most influential visionaries of the early 20th century. Working with the museum, which presented its first major monograph dedicated to the French couturier, the Paris-based designer spent months mining archives to dream up a modern interpretation of Poiret’s work. Alphonse, who launched his namesake brand in 2018, is known for mixing couture-like elements with ready-to-wear, and this collection was a brilliant example. There was the technical achievement of the clothes — the way he folded fabric like dogeared pages of Poiret’s illustrations, and reincarnated the famous harem jupe-culotte silhouette with clever draping around the hips. But there was the sense of craft — seen in the three-dimensional polka dots that mirror the couturier’s dot-and-line signature and layers and layers of fringe. Read the full review. 

What I loved most

Alphone’s exploration of volume though masterful cutting and draping. “This was really the idea of the collection: to try to do some volume but with some fabrics that are very liquid and very fluid,” he said during the presentation. He achieved that — and more.

Caroline Hu: Reverie

Born in Shenzhen, China, Caroline Hu developed an early love for painting — thanks largely to her artist father, who practiced and encouraged the craft at home. Caroline eventually carved out her own artistic identity in her chosen medium; she went on to study fashion design at Central Saint Martins and later, at Parsons. “I have always had a love for romantic and emotional things, delicate details and textiles,” she told T magazine in 2019, a year after she launched her namesake brand. Caroline’s artistic worldview manifests in her work, which often takes on an ethereal, couture-esque quality. This season, the designer played with optical illusions, flipping a shirtdress upside down and weaving socks into a garment’s paneling. As ever, Caroline embraced what the French call le flou — light and misty fabrics gathered, smocked, tiered, and layered to their most dramatic, feminine expression. Some looks proposed some unexpected pairings: sporty, jersey tops with cascading ruffles of silk or Victorian-like corseting in the back. 

What I loved most

Caroline’s larger-than-life vision. Entering her world feels like stepping into a dream. This season, several pieces were embroidered and pieced in the most painstaking, intricate ways, resulting in pixelated geometric patterns and trompe l’oeil bows. I’d also be remiss not to mention that Caroline’s used her talent for oil painting to create her own floral patterns throughout. 

Litkovska: (Dis)Connected

“I launched Litkovska in 2009 in Kyiv as a form of self-exploration and as a result of my infatuation with clothing from an early age,” founder and designer Lilia Litkovska told Vogue Business earlier this year. The Ukrainian designer comes from four generations of tailors, so it would seem she was predestined for her line of work. Although she relocated from Kyiv to Paris after the war, Lilia’s work remained deeply rooted to her homeland — and this season was no exception. Presenting her spring-summer 2025 collection inside a raw, industrial space in Paris, she dedicated her show to “the fragile balance between belonging and detachment,” giving deconstructed tailoring a lighter, hand-crafted appeal. She showed pinstripes but added floral embroidery in the pocket of a jacket, softened suits with sheer layers of fabric, and topped off a cleverly constructed white blazer with hand-carved wooden sunflowers — the national flower of Ukraine. Ukrainian writer and journalist Irena Karpa delivered a powerful spoken-word performance as models wound their way through a venue packed to the brim — every square inch filled with guests leaning in to catch a glimpse. 

What I loved most

Lilia’s ability to bring together such divergent styles. There was some beautiful lace and embroidery — and yes, hand-carved wooden flowers shaped into jewelry and tops. It’s also worth noting that although there are often nods to traditional Ukrainian handiwork and motifs in Litkovska’s collections, the context is always sleek and modern. 

Kettel Atelier: Unravel

Long before Kettel Atelier became a brand, Laura Tønder, a Dane based in Spain and a street style regular, was known for her messily eccentric approach to dressing — layering well-chosen vintage finds with bright, playful pieces in ways that felt entirely her own. In 2023, she launched Kettel Atelier, reimagining vintage home textiles and deadstock fabrics into breezy, one-of-a-kind garments. I’d heard plenty about the label and was excited to see its presentation at Copenhagen Fashion Week. Arriving at the event, there was a palpable airiness to the space — partly thanks to the fifth-floor perch, where floor-to-ceiling windows framed the skyline and flooded the room with natural light. That sense of lightness extended to the garments themselves. Titled “Unravel,” the two-hour showcase felt more like a living installation than a traditional presentation, with models posing in Kettel’s handcrafted pieces in various corners of the venue. Retained in a muted palette of eggshells and whites, the collection played with lace and crochet collages in delightfully chaotic ways. Grandmotherly doilies, pulled from the dining table, became part of a curved waist or a draped sleeve, while large swaths of openwork fabrics were transformed into striking, big-day-worthy gowns. 

What I loved most

How Laura explored the delicate dance between the exposed and the covered, creating infinitely romantic pieces that didn’t teeter too far into the flowerchild category. 

Swedish School of Textiles: Graduate collection

For the Swedish School of Textiles’ showcase of graduate collections at Copenhagen Fashion Week, we gathered inside a cavernous warehouse, its weathered interior mottled with tiles, blistered paint, and cracks that ran through the walls like veins. Sixteen of the school’s students were tasked with redefining what it means to be a young designer today. The show opened with Zuzana Vrabelova and her beastly garments. The first dress — all fringe and giant knots — formed a silhouette so monstrous it looked as if it had gobbled up another dress entirely. Zuzana imagined clothing as living organisms, using experimental knitting techniques and unconventional materials like paper yarn to create larger-than-life, organic-looking garments. Andrea Rehbein followed with her own study in structure by exploring the pattern drafting process. She showed twisted, manipulated, and deconstructed pieces whose basting stitches were still intact. Yuting Xia also approached her garments like a living canvas, sending out a candy-colored lineup marked by exuberant doodle-like prints and brilliant knitwork. “I’ve always been drawn to painting — the freedom it gives me is irresistible,” she said in the show notes. “I’m fascinated by this raw, spontaneous energy.” 

What I loved most

Everything! Truly. Nothing gets me more excited than seeing fresh-out-of-school designers letting their imagination run wild. I’ve included some of my favorite pieces below from each talent on the roster. 

Paula CAnovas del Vas: Private Matters

Paula Canovas del Vas’s presentation took place in front of Café de la Mairie — a spot that’s about as quintessentially Parisian as it gets. When I arrived, a substantial crowd had gathered around a truck parked just outside. Some were there for the show; others lingered at their tables, surrounded by half-full glasses of beer, empty escargot shells, and ashtrays brimming with cigarette butts, watching the scene unfold. Paula had transformed the dropside truck into a bathroom — the most private of domestic spaces. Titled “Private Matters,” the collection explored the tension between intimacy and visibility, and how in today’s world, so many private rituals have become public spectacles. I watched as models laughed together, scrolled through their phones, and helped each other into clothes. The collection itself mirrored that reveal-conceal theme with lots of semi-sheer fabrics and open-work knitwear. Of course, the designer’s defining sense of whimsy was there, too — and as dramatic as ever. Read the full review. 

What I loved most

The textures! Paula went through the painstaking process of hand-cutting strips of jersey and layering them to create a massive orb-like dress, as well as tops and pants covered in pompoms. The results were absolutely stunning. 

Florentina Leitner: My Heart Will Go On

Hailing from Austria, Florentina Leitner launched her brand in 2021 after graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. “As a child, I dreamed of becoming a movie director, but fashion felt somewhat similar, like directing collections and building the world around them,” she previously told Double A Magazine. The designer’s spring-summer 2026 collection was inspired by film — more specifically, Harmony Korine’s cult classics Gummo and Spring Breakers. It was raining when I arrived at the venue — an underground lot in Paris. Two cars are parked at the head of the runway, covered in bumper stickers and their plates stamped with the brand’s name. Models emerged through them, as if escaping in the night to meet their summer crush, dressed like skater-wannabe teens. (Or should I say “sk8er girl”? Because that Avril Lavigne punkishness was felt throughout.) Clothes in multilayers and bright colors were layered to create chaos-chic. Think: two bikini tops (one upside-down), polka dot skirt, floral tights, and flip-flops. Oh, and colorful braids of course. The long-sleeve-under-short-sleeve look was back — so were star prints, ultra-short skirts, and baggy skater shorts, and lots of stripes. 

What I loved most

Florentina took all of the relics we’ve long said “never again!” to and made them, dare I say, cool? It’s also worth it to note that amidst the early-2000s-soaked lineup, there were some fantastic bubble-hemmed dresses and scallop-edged corsets. 

Taus Studio: Past and Present

“It’s very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present,” lamented Edith Bouvier Beale, once a successful model and aspiring actress, in 1975 a documentary about her gothic life in the dilapidated Grey Gardens in East Hampton, New York. Edith’s story — as well as the lives of other misunderstood women from the past — was a starting point for Freyja Taus and Juho Lehiö, the duo behind Copenhagen-based Taus. Set in the open air in the yard and winter garden of Villa Kultur, a historic villa in Osterbro, during Copenhagen Fashion Week, Taus Studio’s spring-summer 2026 presentation explored the relationship between clothes and memory. Models lounged in the grass, soaked in the sunshine, settled in with a paperback — dressed in languid jersey, lace, and crochet that simultaneously veiled the body and revealed it. A floor-sweeping look, with a bodice made out of different panels of crochet edgings, was particularly striking. Ditto the flapper-style dress the designer fashioned out of a vintage scarf (a flea market find). “We remain fascinated by the stories that textiles carry,” the designers wrote in the show notes. “By repurposing materials, we honor their past lives — and invite new stories to be written by future wearers.”

What I loved most

For the most part, the collection was as romantic and light as can be, but there were military-style jackets and cropped trench coats, too — clothes that married past and present, to be sure, while also feeling fresh and of the moment.