A New Fashion Era Is Upon Us, But What Is It Exactly?

Analyzing four debut collections at Milan Fashion Week, and what the data can tell us about where the fashion industry might be headed next.

The fashion industry is currently going through some growing pains. With so many creative directors swapping spots across brands earlier this year, the time has finally come for their debut Spring/Summer 2026 collections to hit the runway. And so, this current fashion month is certainly a big time of change for the industry.

What the debut collections look like will largely set the tone for where fashion chooses to go from here. Are we going to face another wave of logo-less quiet luxury style? Will minimalism endure? Will fashion, instead, become more loud and bold and maximalist? What about somewhere in between? After seeing so many quick changes between fashion trends and cycles in 2025 so far, the industry is desperate for a landing pad on which to situate itself moving forward.

So, while we wait for creative directors to make their debuts at big-name brands in Paris this upcoming week—Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, Loewe—let’s review some of the debut collections we saw last week in Milan. Using data analytics, of course.

AND THE MILAN FASHION WEEK WINNER IS…

We saw four major debut collections in Milan—Demna at Gucci, Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander, Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, and Dario Vitale at Versace. And similarly to how I analyzed the winners of haute couture week back in July, let’s view each collection’s performance against three key metrics: reach, sentiment, and engagement.