The Best Looks From the Pre-Fall 2026 Collections

The fashion industry’s carousel of appointments and exits continues, leaving each season with more debuts than the recent Le Bal des Débutantes. And while it’s always exciting to see what a new voice will offer a brand, there’s something comforting about pre-fall. It’s an opportunity for designers to breathe a little and stretch their creative muscles outside the pressures of premieres and the usual fashion calendar.

Still, this pre-fall 2026 season has seen its fair share of second outings. After his introduction for Chanel in October, Matthieu Blazy brought his vision to New York, staging the 2026 Métiers d’Art show in an abandoned subway station. The city acted as the ultimate muse for Blazy, who explored the characters one encounters every day in the depths of public transit—the uptown princess, downtown cool girl, overworked businessman, and the woman in a gown who probably should have just called a cab. Some of the characters from Pierpaolo Piccioli’s latest Balenciaga collection also find themselves on the subway, or running around the city—all the better reason to don their Balenciaga x NBA garb. Quiter moments (perhaps those involving a driver) call for the second collaboration for the collection, this time with Manolo Blahnik.

Similarly, over at Gucci, Demna followed up his inaugural collection with pre-fall, though the Georgian designer opted to present his sophomore effort for the brand in the form of a look book. Anticipation continues to build for Demna’s first Gucci runway show—scheduled to take place in February at Milan Fashion Week—and the pre-fall photo spread is definitely whetting appetites. With a decidedly ’90s influence, Demna’s second collection harkens back to what is likely Gucci’s most famous period: the Tom Ford era.

But this is just the beginning. As the pre-fall collections continue to roll in, keep up here while we pick out the best looks from the bunch.