Texture Is the New Black
Surprisingly, designers this past Fashion Month had a ball with color. Because despite showing their Fall/Winter 2026 collections, global tastemakers were everything but shy when it came to carrying hues we know from warmer weather palettes into the seasons typically associated with darker, muter shades.
Wherever bright, bold colors and the clash of them weren't made a central theme though, texture took over as a leading, tactile motif throughout the clothes presented. In working with leathers, wools, and even things as straightforward as crisp cotton, some of the industry's favorite brands really leaned into crafting pieces that are as interesting to look at as they are to feel.
Since we've already given a joint crash course on how to tastefully partake in this newly reinstated pigment mania, MR PORTER and ourselves considered it mandatory to give a run-through of this texture trend too. Below, find big and small instances of how to make materiality the season-spanning starring role of an outfit.
Seeing Is Believing, Sure. But Here, So Is Touching:
Sensory
Starting with the most obvious, texture's best appreciated by grazing the fabric of a product; of brushing against paper-y or waxed cottons, against frayed denim, or the softest of cashmeres. What meets the eye here is almost secondary to the physical sensation and functional property of a certain material on the skin. It's only smart, really, to incorporate these qualities into aesthetics.
Skins
Now, skins can take two different forms. Either, very traditionally, this refers to the use of different leathers, from supple grain to patent or manipulated to imitate an exotic animal, like a snake or crocodile's scaly patterns. On the vegan side, so to speak, this can also translate into something more multidimensional, such as this plaid-on-puffer, that distorts how the print lays with its fluffy, silky exterior.
Subtleties
And then there's the sort of texture that's more subtle, more hidden even, noticeable from certain angles, by a particular way the garment sits, falls, drapes around the wearer in action; by the pleats ironed into pant lags; by tinily embroidered markings of origin; by how the light hits a shirt and exposes the intricate and tight weave and direction of fibers. Textures can hide in plain sight, reveal itself only to the touch, or both.
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