The Tamesis
Chemena Kamali On the coffee table in the Chloé showroom are photography books by Bettina Rheims, Francesco Scavullo and Erica Lennard. The 1980s have been strong in Paris over the past few days as the menswear shows wind down and haute couture shows emerge. But equally, what inspires Kamali these days are the twenty-something creatives on the Chloé team and their eclectic approach to dressing. “They completely refused to comply,” she said. “It’s all about their personality, their self-expression. They also dress each other up and they have a lot of fun. I think that’s really refreshing and feels very Chloé, too.”
That natural feel was reflected in unexpected combinations in this Pre-Fall collection, like lace-trimmed slips peeking out from under furry cropped sweaters and shrunken bomber jackets, and ribbed tights tying the look together. A basic henley was paired with a draped pencil skirt and Basque leather belt (the game-changing accessory was used throughout the collection), while a ruffled blush Paloma shirt, modeled on the Chloé dress Karl Lagerfeld designed for the Paloma Piccaso wedding, was paired with bright tomato-red stretch velvet stirrup pants.
Kamali points out that for this season’s Cruise collection, a lot of criteria had to be met. That means it extends from the ruffled dresses of her early calling cards to high-waisted jeans with the perfect vintage fade. Fashionable denim is also in the mix: look at the pair at the beginning of the lookbook, perfectly fitted at the hip and dramatically amplified by the A-line silhouette at the leg.
In just over a month she will be showing her Pre-Fall 2026 and Fall 2026 collections at the Paris Fashion Show. What’s the connection? “It’s all interconnected,” Kamali said. “The feedback I get is that you can have a good mix of the collections, like pieces from the first show and pre-collections from last season.” It’s not just the young creatives in her office who can sign off on such an idea.
