Fall/Winter 2025–26
On Sunday afternoon, under the pale stone arches of the Orangerie at Versailles, Jacquemus presented Le Paysan, a Fall/Winter 2025–26 collection that felt less like a fashion show and more like a devotional. A barefoot child opened the doors to the château’s winter garden, ushering in not just the models, but the ghosts of Simon Porte Jacquemus’s past — family, farmland, and France itself.
In a time when fashion teeters between chaos and commentary, Jacquemus offered something more radical: clarity.
The Clothes: Sincerity as Statement
There were no gimmicks. No logos. No over-styling. What walked was pure silhouette — lean, composed, and filled with quiet symbolism. Apron-like pinafores in buttercream cotton. Cropped wool coats worn with rigid mid-length skirts. Sheer blouses with cross-back ties. A vocabulary of restraint, but not without feeling.
The palette hovered in warm neutrals — chalk, barley, rosemary, storm grey — with sharp punctuation in poppy red and navy stripe. The cuts played with proportion in ways that felt rural but not rustic. Think: village schoolteacher meets Provençal heiress.
At moments, it felt bridal. Not because there were veils, but because there was devotion.
Runway at the Orangerie, Château de Versailles
A runway made of memory — and limestone.
Accessories: Domestic Surrealism
If you looked closely, the accessories whispered backstories. Garlic-braid clutches. Miniature satchels shaped like loaves of bread. Gold rosemary sprigs curled delicately around ears. These were not ironic. They were mythic.
Shoes were either hyper-practical — thick Mary Janes and square boots — or barely there, with satin ribbon sandals skimming the floor like a secret.
Detail of garlic-braid bag and oversized cuffs
Accessories as folklore.
Casting & Choreography: Stillness as Power
The models walked slowly. Purposefully. Sometimes stiffly — but perhaps that was the point. In a season of performative virality, Jacquemus returned to the power of stillness. The absence of chaos was itself a flex. There was no need to run. No need to impress.
It’s worth noting the casting — more inclusive than some past seasons, but still cautious. Jacquemus’s relationship to diversity has been evolving. This collection made progress, but left room for further sincerity.
Sculptural layering in muted tones
Utility reimagined as elegance.
A Final Look: The Bride, Reimagined
The closing look — a crisp white column with soft pleats and a lace-edged kerchief tied over the head — was not a wedding gown in the traditional sense. It was a memory. A girl in church. A grandmother’s linen drawer. An old photograph. It felt like an ending, but also a beginning.
Final look: veil, pleats, purity
Not a bride — a memory.
Why It Matters
In a season thick with AI-runway hybrids, dystopian metaphors, and digitally-forced relevance, Le Paysan was an act of cultural memory. Jacquemus didn’t offer innovation. He offered intention. The show didn’t try to go viral. It tried to be remembered.
And that’s the difference between fashion and style.
Tea Leaves: Final Notes
Jacquemus seems less interested in chasing the zeitgeist than in deepening his own narrative. Fall/Winter 2025–26 is less about what’s next and more about what lasts. A show that looked backward to move forward — one stitch, one memory, one hem at a time.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below:
Would you wear any of these pieces? What did you think of the rural styling — nostalgic or overdone? And how would you style a rosemary ear cuff?