Published
January 21, 2026
Paris Fashion Week Men’s opened on Tuesday, putting French creatives centre stage. Before Pharrell Williams’s Louis Vuitton show, Jeanne Friot, Études Studio and Valette Studio unveiled their Autumn/Winter 2026 collections.
Jeanne Friot: a queer manifesto to rouse Fashion Week
With her “Awake” show, Jeanne Friot literally brought her guests to their feet at the Théâtre du Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées. Making her debut on the official calendar, the French designer opened the Paris proceedings with a high-octane performance that, true to form, championed LGBTQI+ causes.
The unveiling of Jeanne Friot’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, blending runway and choreography conceived with choreographer Maud Le Pladec and the Ballet de Lorraine company, could not have felt more timely given recent headlines and the American president’s posturing. The thirty-something designer issued a call to wake up, with several dancers wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “It’s never too late to fight fascism“.
Beyond words, the designer opened with three powerful womenswear looks: a black tweed suit with a cropped jacket; a cocktail dress reimagined in a tartan of silver, red and purple sequins, worn by a model with gothic make-up; and a jacket-and-mini-skirt ensemble in black faux leather, heightened by a play of metal straps and buckles—one of her signatures, applied horizontally or vertically to form skirts or dresses—always nodding to the queer wardrobe.
Soon, dancers—wearing tartan catsuits paired with thigh-high boots, faux-leather mini-shorts, colourful tulle tops or black sequin hoodies—launched into breathless choreography. Then came two women in generously cut suits, one black, the other white. The two models drew closer, stared each other down, touched and kissed intensely and at length, melding like yin and yang as, all around them, the troupe ratcheted up the intensity of their stagecraft. The tableau prompted a wave of approval throughout the Parisian theatre.
Ever more exacting in her use of deadstock materials, the French designer introduced several other visually striking pieces, including a long black faux-leather coat worn over a bodysuit and teamed with metallic thigh-high boots, a houndstooth suit with a broad-shouldered jacket and micro-shorts, and an opulent dress featuring a tartan motif that unfurled from the waist into a train of colourful feathers—a true tribute to the queer community.
That community made its support unmistakable when Friot took to the stage to bow, prompting a prolonged standing ovation for a show that opened Paris Fashion Week Men’s with a bang.
Études Studio and its elegant seekers of sound
On Tuesday, for its show in the impressive Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique, Études Studio staged a composition exploring the tonalities of tailoring. For this collection, christened “N°28 Résonances”, co-founders Aurélien Arbet and Jérémie Egry explained in their letter of intent that they drew inspiration from the origins of 1990s dance music and from the universe of American philosopher John Cage, who questioned the very concepts of music and silence.
To pace their mixed show in soundproofed underground spaces, the French opted for powerful music, teaming with British artist Actress, who composed the soundtrack for a show charting new horizons for Études Studio.
Of course, the brand retained its velvet jackets, hefty canvas blousons with carefully worked washes and a few hoodies (with its logo in a circle of stars on the back), faithful to its utilitarian roots. But the label introduced a compelling, reimagined tailoring proposition, with no fewer than a dozen far more formal looks—straight-cut jackets, fluid trousers and layered shirts, waistcoats and roll-neck jumpers—in black, grey or earthy tones.
Gold prospectors or sound seekers? Between Walkman headphones and cowboy hats, Études Studio refused to choose. Its earnest youths saw their wardrobe explore different material aspects—from worn-in finishes to contrasts between nylon and velvet—and a few chromatic accents, such as an intense purple puffer, or camo riffs on substantial, fuzzy knitwear in shades of green or blue, paired with long, wide scarves in matching hues. This season, the brand presented pieces in collaboration with Berlin-based Canadian artist, Jeremy Shaw.
These silhouettes were accompanied, for the first time, by leather or canvas bags bearing the brand’s logo. This leather goods range, developed in two sizes, should provide a growth driver for the independent creative label.
Valette Studio pays tribute to the New Romantics
Once again this season, Valette Studio’s fashion looked to the past. As the first day of Paris Fashion Week drew to a close, the French brand took over the Institut du Monde Arabe. In a basement room supported by large, thick stone columns, Pierre-François Valette unveiled his Autumn/Winter collection entitled “Les Nouveaux Romantiques”, born of a contemporary melancholy caused by the displacement of creation by image.
Accompanied by a rock soundtrack with wild percussion, later joined by a violin, the models wore a herringbone denim trench with matching skinny jeans, a short cream dress with a shirt collar and frills that cinched the waist and framed the chest, a black leather ensemble and Louboutins, in collaboration with Louboutin on this collection.
Another dress appeared heavy yet almost bounced, covered in frills and cut from a material that looks, to the eye, like balloon rubber. Perhaps the most striking pieces were two white skirts bearing a made-up face, a watercolour rendered alternately in blue and in orange, created by Teintures de France and inspired in particular by the legendary make-up of David Bowie, the pre-eminent figure of the New Romantics. The models were sometimes adorned with silver make-up swept along the outer corners of the eyes, another nod to the stars of this early-1980s movement. At the end of the show, Pierre-François Valette was warmly applauded by the many guests as he crossed the long room to take his bows.
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