are belgian designers taking over paris fashion week?

Because a fashion collection should not be judged in the heat of the moment, but with the distance that allows for criticism, we went back over the spring-summer 2027 Paris Fashion Week. True to form, it gave us its share of memorable moments and controversies. Our attention, however, was caught by three designers of Belgian origin, who dominated the Paris fashion scene: Ester Manas, Julie Kegels and Marie Adam-Leenaerdt.

As creative directors of their eponymous labels, all founded less than ten years ago, they belong to a new wave of designers who are rethinking and questioning fashion. All three share a young, light (which does not mean unserious) and refreshing vision of clothing. Above all, they come together around a tribute to femininity, through collections made by and for women, starting with themselves. And that is precisely where their strength lies.

Marie Adam-Leenaerdt

It was only in 2023 that Marie Adam-Leenaerdt launched her ready-to-wear label, positioned in luxury. Yet it radiates an immediate and contagious confidence, which notably won her the prestigious, and most recent, Andam grand prize. Determined to make 2026 her year, she has made the BOF 500, the ranking of the industry’s most influential figures. The publication applauds the Belgian designer, who has established herself as one of the most talked-about young names on the Paris scene, known for subverting wardrobe basics and giving them a modular dimension.

Still no front row for Marie Adam-Leenaerdt. Guests are all seated on the same level, so that they take in the show the same way. The show opens on an everyday sound, so familiar that we no longer pay it any attention: that of scanners running over our shopping. Then comes an indie pop soundtrack with rock accents, the kind of music you imagine playing in the aisles of American supermarkets in the 1970s. The demand for detail carries on into the set design, where rows of fridges display fresh vegetables.

Fashion-wise, it is hard to picture wearing these clothes to do the shopping, despite the trolleys. There is nonetheless a coherence to the argument: revealing what we no longer take the trouble to show, or to see. Satin garments with a thousand reflections and a thousand folds, suspender belts, those intimate accessories brought out into the open, fully quilted coats where the lining takes the lead role. Marie Adam-Leenaerdt presents a collection marked by contrast: flip-flops and light sandals meet evening shoes, while silhouettes almost folded in on themselves, by a boat neck, an XXL bow or a hood, sit alongside looks more liberated than ever, through plays of transparency, asymmetry and wide openings, revealing parts of the body kept hidden until now. The high priestess of chic proves to us that chic is plural: it can be insolent, almost flashy; elegant or even stiff; nonchalant and spontaneous.

Ester Manas

Launched in 2019, a few months before the pandemic, the label stands for inclusive, bold and highly desirable fashion. Here there is no question of pushing women aside: on the contrary, the work is to celebrate those who have long been excluded by the fashion industry. A vision widely applauded at the time, and perhaps even more so today, as extreme thinness seems to be back in favour. It has earned the brand several prominent distinctions: the H&M Design Award, the Festival d’Hyères, the LVMH Prize and the ANDAM Prize.

Behind this success is a creative duo, Ester Manas and Balthazar Delepierre, who have never been afraid to take breaks, to rethink their model and refocus on their values in 2023, then to welcome their first child and fully enjoy parenthood. Because a joyful brand is carried by people who are just as joyful. But here they are: after two years away, which can feel like six given how fast fashion moves, they are making their big return with a new collection called Somehow I manage. A nod to the cult series The Office, but also to a feeling of pride and satisfaction that most of us probably know when we finally manage to juggle everything.

What strikes you first is of course (and as always at Ester Manas) the diversity of the models, the ones the little girls we used to be would have loved to identify with. They embody not only the women of a society, but those of a community, so powerful is the sense of sisterhood: they seem to belong to the same group of friends, a chosen family, where each has her full place. Women who are not afraid to take up space, through their bodies as much as their personalities: they open the show with a confident, proud step, then give in to bursts of laughter during the grand finale, proof that the two are not incompatible.

The art direction mirrors the label: volume and body-hugging shapes (one or the other, sometimes both at once), lace and transparency, pleating, crumpling, gathering, silhouettes that are too much for some, lavish and generous for us. Above all, these are models who wear the clothes and are never trapped by them. So when Ester Manas writes on Instagram: Thank you for welcoming us Paris, we’ve missed you, we want to reply: we’ve missed you more.

Julie Kegels

In early September she won the 2026 LVMH Prize. At the end of the same month she unveiled her collection, probably one of the most anticipated of Paris Fashion Week. High expectations therefore rested on Julie Kegels. She met them, and went further.

Since it was founded in 2024, Julie Kegels has accustomed us to particularly sharp, poetic and intelligent fashion proposals. She is probably the most gen-z coded designer of the moment. A keen observer of social media, both creative and curator, she cultivates an assertive style and a rare attention to the small things we fail to notice. And her latest show is no exception.

Attached to creative concepts, the collection is themed Apple of the Day. A subtle nod to the fruit, but above all an imagined rereading of gravity: Newton’s, whose theory is said to have been born from an apple falling on his head. More than gravity, it is also the norms and rules around fashion that seem to be questioned here: how are we supposed to wear clothes? Or rather, how were we taught to wear them?

Julie Kegels offers bold, surprising and disconcerting combinations, so much do they seem to go against our dress habits: tights caught between the legs, shoulders that slump, skirts following the natural bone structure of the hips, unbuttoned jeans. And yet it all holds, as if by a thread. Nothing is too loose, the silhouettes are coherent, structured but differently. Of course, she continues to imagine the uniform we all dream of adopting for work. Here, though, beyond the clothes, it is a state of mind she seems to defend: reasserting your identity, even in the work sphere, which can often constrain and confine us.

But her great strength lies in seeing both big and small at once. Her overall vision deserves applause: the show is conceived from end to end, from the garment to the accessory, from the beauty look to the choreography, right through to the set design, where the models seemed to float on a sea of moving sand. There is also her infinite sense of detail, the kind that gets people talking and stays with you: coloured sequins slipped inside bags, sheer dresses and skirts, ponytails split in two, not without recalling the whole world of play.

While attention is so often turned exclusively towards the historic houses and the sensational shows, we were won over by what these three houses proposed. They answer perfectly to the very essence of ready-to-wear, collections designed for everyday life. Ester Manas takes the concept further with a see now, buy now system that lets you buy the pieces just a few days after the show.