In a fashion landscape addicted to spectacle, Jacquemus staged something far more disruptive: humility.

Why Jacquemus’ Embrace of Humble Codes Feels Like Fashion’s Boldest Move

Jacquemus presented their Spring 2026 ready-to-wear collection on June 30th, within the winding golden halls of Versailles. If you ask me how I would describe it in one phrase, I would tell you: you can take someone out of the village, but you can’t take the village out of them. And the reason I use this expression is none other than the fact that Simon Porte Jacquemus will always return, like any other designer and artist in general, whether he seeks it or not, to Mother Earth, to his homeland, to his home. In a fashion landscape addicted to spectacle, Jacquemus staged something far more disruptive: humility.

His Spring 2026 collection, “Le Paysan,” turned away from theatrics and instead embraced the codes of countryside life; aprons, smocks, headscarves, and silhouettes drawn from workwear. It was not nostalgia for its own sake, nor a cynical play on quiet luxury, but a reclamation of origins. In that choice, Jacquemus made the most radical statement of all: that authenticity, not spectacle, is the true avant-garde. In the four months since its debut, the artistry of the collection continues to play heavily on the minds of fashion creative,s which set a strong tone for the fall fashion season. Jacquemus’ return to tradition serves as more than simply an appreciation of the brand’s personal history; it is a call for the celebration of the unglamorous within a culture that has been conditioned to demonize normality.

Jacquemus once described himself as “happy, excited and impatient” and this time he confirmed these qualities with this impressive appearance. Known as a storyteller in the fashion world, he chose, through his clothes, to tell his autobiography, or rather the story of his family and his origins, with style, point of view, and aesthetics.

Redefining Luxury in the Era of Excess

And maybe at this point, you might ask me what was so different that it deserves such praise. My answer is simple and concise: originality. In this era of excess, of bold elements, emotions, and politics, in other words, in an era that is itself an extravaganza, where fashion becomes increasingly louder and flashy, this designer chooses the opposite trajectory, that is, a centrifugal removal from the centre of excess.

From Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2026 elaborate planetary set design, to Thom Browne’s bedazzled alien masks in his Spring 2026 show, it is safe to say that the world of fashion is drawn to the “loud”. Honestly? It is a logical choice. In an era where creativity is monetized and art is heavily saturated by an influx of constantly produced content, the default path to being heard is by metaphorically raising one’s voice. The louder one screams, the better chance they have at being heard within a sea of chattering voices. And whilst such collections as those of Chanel or Browne are nonetheless coded with their own cultural intricacies, they differ immensely from those which Jacquemus has targeted. With quiet, “organic,” almost humble clothes, he seems to reverse the direction: a movement opposite to the centripetal pull of spectacle. A bold act, precisely because he is original. And some more prone to the mainstream spectacle and current might scream that this is giving quite luxury, which in no case is true. This quietness doesn’t just resist spectacle; it dialogues with the era’s obsessions, in other words, quiet luxury, nostalgia dressing, even post-hype fatigue, yet feels more authentic because it is rooted in lived memory rather than marketing trends.

In a culture of acceleration, fast fashion, endless content, the scroll that never stops, Jacquemus’ collection felt like a pause. The silhouettes breathed, the fabrics carried space, and the mood was one of quiet slowness. More than a runway, it was a reminder that fashion can also be a deep breath, an invitation to step outside the cycle of urgency and return to rhythm, to patience, to time itself.

A Taste of Nostalgia

And yes, unlike other designers who erased, or rather tried to erase, their past and build their own legend from scratch, Jacquemus goes back to the sunny and free childhood years and proposes aprons, petticoats, frill collars, plus fours trousers and headscarves. And he achieves this in the most playful and elegant way one could imagine. Influenced and surrounded by hardworking characters who follow him to this day and pose in the field holding crates and wearing clothes specially designed for strenuous manual labor, he gives the impression that this is a ritual, a celebration, a process, and creates a collection that will transform the label. More encouraging, more authentic, more revealing, and more connected to the aesthetic and reality of the place.

By turning aprons and headscarves into runway statements, Jacquemus elevated workwear into symbols of resilience and belonging, rather than costumes of nostalgia. The authenticity of said pieces is what truly ties the collection together. The symbolism of the working class is not presented as a costume, nor as a superficial shield against the mainstream. It is, rather, an embrace of the genuine. Jacquemus simultaneously honors his own ubrinings whilst emphasizing that the working class is not an “aesthetic” which can be tried on for views.

The little boy from Salon de Provence proves, therefore, that fashion is everywhere and is revealed in every detail, in every possible way, in every corner of the world, in every layer of society, even in the field. And at this point, the words of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada to Andrea come completely true. Fashion concerns everyone and connects everyone. Fashion is not only haute couture or runway models, but exists, inspires, and is inspired from everywhere, especially from some villagers who, of course, did not know when they posed that they would become the face of an entire era, an iconic image. And I am sure that this authentic aura it emits will be the unique proposal we will have in the fashion universe for a long time.

A Historical Affair

“Le Paysan,” therefore, is placed in the centre of Versailles, where the show opened with a little boy running happily on the runway and, in a way, foreshadowing the aesthetic that would follow. A multitude of sack-like dresses and smock-type blouses, overly wide circle skirts with dense pleats at the front that essentially offer the idea of the apron. All of them, of course, add and refer to summer, the countryside, cultivation, practicality with the addition of personality. A completely different and completely personal affair, strange geometric volumes, reinterpreted and inspired by the past. Layered dresses, of chiffon, tulle weave, that gave an airy space and a completely Mediterranean volume, completely different. Do not expect to see anything already projected, theatrical, deconstructed designs, and avant-garde aesthetic, nothing 90s, nothing that reminds of the iconic Versace or Alexander McQueen shows (1991,2001), but only pure countryside, love, and connection with nature. I, being somewhat excessive, will immortalise it as vegan style, but with extra flavour that recalls refined, true, straw-like in a period of recession. So, instead of chasing theatricality or deconstruction, Jacquemus offered silhouettes rooted in workwear and countryside codes, an intentional contrast to the spectacle-driven fashion of today. Therefore, in a time of uncertainty, economic instability, climate anxiety, and the exhaustion of constant digital noise, there is something profoundly reassuring about Jacquemus’s turn to simplicity.

The collection is reminiscent of the cultural juxtaposition that is tied so deeply to the palace which the show calls home. The halls of Versailles were once walked by the heels of royals like Marie Antoinette, Louis XIV, and Louis XV of France. The grounds were swarmed by their thousands of servants, along with French citizens who wished to observe the monarchs in a more personal manner. In a sense, Versailles was the first form of reality television: privacy was nonexistent in the mirrored corridors of the Grand Palais. Everything from daily breakfast to childbirth was on display, a constant reminder of the extreme wealth which the French monarchy held, and a powerful foreshadowing to the impending revolution in the years to follow the palace’s prime. The impoverished people of France were taunted by the prosperous existence of the royals; it was their stories that transformed the once glorious palace into a reminder of historic social injustice, as well as a cautionary tale for the neglect of the masses.

The Loudest Whispers

On this late June evening, the phantom scent of the powdered wigs and perfume baths that once lived in these very walls wafts through the runway.

Jacqumus’s collection does not dazzle with excess but grounds us in the familiar, in garments that speak of continuity and care. So, in choosing fields over fantasy, Jacquemus did more than tell his own story; he exposed the cracks in an industry chasing louder and louder highs. His work is evocative of the history that is painted into every sconce and portrait that is hung in the Grand Palais: a tribute to the concept that simplicity is powerful, and sometimes, silence is louder than anyone’s noise. In a time when fashion risks exhausting itself with spectacle, he reminded us that the future might lie in the humble codes of the past.

The message that Jacquemus has stitched into each piece of this collection continues to ring true as the fall fashion season comes to a close. And all these thoughts we must absolutely examine alongside the background of this brand, and specifically the designer. He is so outside the circle that he ended up bringing the new. As he himself states, every day is a battle for independence in Paris. This independence, therefore, which perhaps refers to the financial aspect for Jacquemus, for the writer is also translated as independence in terms of ideas, artistic direction, an independence that leads to unexplored roots and proposes the new to the sometimes spectator of art, sometimes simply a consumer. Jacquemus aims for a higher target than simply attention. The brand looks to redefine society’s understanding of luxury into one that celebrates the reason why fashion exists in the first place: to be used.

And in a fashion landscape controlled by the relentless pursuit of extravagance, simplicity and functionality are the most radical statements of all.

Why Jacquemus’ Embrace of Humble Codes Feels Like Fashion’s Boldest Move