Akris and Jean Paul Gaultier F/W 2026 Review

Paris Women’s F/W 2026 Highlights Part 8

Gaultier sets the agenda

March 9, 2026

Jean Paul Gaultier

After relatively apocalyptic reviews for his debut at Gaultier, Duran Lantik seemed not too perturbed and dug further into the house’s codes and notably his own to send out a winner collection. It was daring, other worldly, sexy, and super cool. A serious fashion statement from a designer who has so much talent that he can send out a vase handle lookalike dress and claim fashion territory. His signature fabric inflations were sprinkled throughout the show but he really leaned into a serious black tailoring exercise which had the best models Paris can offer with glossed back hair look like sexy undertakers with their duster coats and big hats at the end of the show and judging from the soundtrack song Peter the opening look of a long black coat with white shirt and black tie was an homage to Marlene Dietrich who sang it and showed up on another very directional runway a few days ago (yes, Rick Owens).

Jean Paul Gaultier F/W 2026

Black tailored focus

Marlene Dietrich was on the moodboard

Lantink has found a cool way to layer Gaultier typical corsets over his pants to make for a subversive silhouette and place cool cut outs at the front or a giant outward pleat on pants. The red velvet section with a tight dress and a saloon owner floor length gown towards the end added great attitude. To balance the tailoring, he added technical outerwear in parkas fit for going to a festival, most models wore the rain caps on to bring in the sporty vibe.

Corsets and pants play

Red velvet floor-sweeping dress

Technical outerwear to bring a sporty vibe

Akris

By the looks of it, Akris may be ushering in a golden era offering a F/W 2026 collection full of optimism. Opening with a lot of gold looks, this collection had a lot of toughness vs softness play, armor-esque ideas of gold as a hard material in juxtaposition to the soft fabrics actually used. Their shoes and almost all accessories such as belts or bags were metallic, also here, many of them in gold. The knot played a part in the line-up, as dresses or knit sweaters were not finished all the way, so the leftover yarn was bundled up and knotted as one of the continuous details in the collection.

Akris F/W 2026

A gold opening

The knot as a continuous detaill

The colorful section of classic Akris silhouettes and ensembles added a fun spirit with one outfit particularly memorable: a heavy green knit cardigan-coat with an almost plastic or latex-like bounce. Ending the show in gold again, more towards the night-wear end of things with gowns adorned with square, fish-scale-like sequins were the standouts of the Akris F/W 2026 collection.