The Spring/Summer 2026 Fashion Week saw a continuation of the trend where the soundtrack to a show is considered as crucial and communicative as the collection itself. Increasingly, major fashion houses enlisted specialized sound producers and artists to create custom, immersive scores that move beyond simple background music. This focus elevates the runway experience into a multisensory event, using sound to underscore a collection’s themes, dictate its pace, and anchor its emotional impact. Key highlights included the deployment of cinematic, custom soundtracks, the revival and reinterpretation of classic musical compositions, and the careful selection of artists to provide live or exclusive audio experiences that reinforce the brand’s narrative and design philosophy.
Custom Scores and Artistic Collaborations
The most sophisticated presentations of the SS26 season relied on scores custom-made by notable artists and sound designers, effectively transforming the runway into a theatrical, site-specific performance.
At least one prominent Milan show, which featured celebrities and art installations, utilized a custom soundtrack by the renowned artist Steve McQueen. This collaboration highlights the growing prestige of the runway score, positioning it as an art form created by high-profile cultural figures. Other designers opted for composers and sound producers who could translate complex themes into an auditory experience. For example, Jennifer Rouse was credited with creating original music for several major shows, including CHANEL and Hermès, emphasizing the shift toward original, exclusive compositions tailored to the specific collection and its mood.
Reinterpreting Classics and Establishing Pace
Beyond custom creation, sound producers worked to reinterpret existing musical works, using them to provide a recognizable yet distorted layer of context that enhanced the collections’ narrative themes.
The music for the CHANEL Spring/Summer 2026 show, crafted by Jennifer Rouse, featured a mix utilizing Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.” This use of a recognizable classical score suggests a thematic conversation with history and tradition—a concept central to the CHANEL collection, which revisited Gabrielle Chanel’s personal style and fundamental fabrics. The music, along with the casting and staging, played a significant role in establishing the desired pace and rhythm of the models’ walk, dictating the energy and emotional intensity of the garments as they moved across the floor.
Sound as a Thematic Anchor
The runway soundtrack served to reinforce the collection’s central theme, providing an auditory anchor that solidified the emotional and conceptual world of the designers.
For a collection like Altuzarra Spring/Summer 2026, which explored surrealism and the tension between recognition and distortion, the music would have been crucial in creating an “uncanny expression” of the wardrobe. Similarly, at the Vaillant show, the staging in the auditorium of the Opéra Bastille involved a performance that stood at the crossroads between dance and fashion. The opening was marked by a live piano performance, culminating in a moving dance duet. In this case, the sound (music and live performance) was not merely a backdrop, but an integrated, poetic finale that defined the show’s artistic ambition and thematic depth.
Technology and the Multilayered Soundscape
The deployment of sound also showcased technological sophistication, moving beyond simple stereo playback to create truly immersive soundscapes that wrapped around the audience.
Fashion shows utilize advanced audio systems that can project sound from multiple points, creating a rich, three-dimensional environment. This technical detail is what allows a custom score to feel like more than just music; it becomes an all-encompassing soundscape that contributes to the venue’s overall atmosphere, as noted in the mention of Steve McQueen’s work. Whether it was the deliberate acoustic environment surrounding the artwork, or the way musical themes developed in sequence, the sound production for SS26 demonstrated a commitment to using cutting-edge audio technology to fully realize the designers’ narrative vision.
