With the spring/summer 2027 shows complete and the fall/winter 2027 buying season about to open, the industry’s read on the season has settled on one word: maximalism. A turn towards prints, charms, embellishment and colour. The demand is real, and the runway reflects it.

Based on The Data Fashion Brief’s analysis of Paris Fashion Week SS27, decoration appeared in all 16 houses analysed, colour arrived as an accent in most, and accessories carried the loudest part of the look. The question for buyers is not whether maximalism is here, since the data says it is, but how big it actually got, which version of it is selling, and whether it holds into next season.

Maximalism is bigger, and it is on the runway

Across the 997 Paris looks analysed on the top 16 shows, 31 percent carried ruffles, fringe, sequins, beading, embroidery, three-dimensional flowers, feathers or appliqué, and that reached every one of the 16 houses, with Dior, Chloé or Isabel Marant showing it at over 60 percent of its collections. Textured fabrics appeared in 18 percent of looks and metallic finishes reached 14 houses.

Methodology: The Data Fashion Brief built an AI-assisted tool that scans every look from the Paris Fashion Week SS27 collections and tags it by garment type, fit, fabric, finish, colour and detail. Each trend is measured two ways: how dominant it is within a single designer's own collection, and how present it is across the whole season. Colour shares split every look across up to three colours by how much of the outfit each one covers, so each palette adds up to 100 percent, and neutral means black, white and cream, grey, and brown and beige. The houses covered: Balenciaga, Balmain, Celine, Chanel, Chloé, Dior, Dries Van Noten, Isabel Marant, Lacoste, Lanvin, Loewe, Maison Margiela, Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, Tom Ford and Valentino, 997 looks in total.

One of the clearest statements came also from Milan, where the Roberto Cavalli collection was reviewed as a burst of fireworks on the runway. The Data Fashion Brief's decode of that show puts numbers on it: animal print made up 28 percent of the Cavalli palette, pink 16 percent, red 14 percent, and gold 12 percent, and black fell to 6 percent. In Paris, the houses closest to that register are the ones that opted out of a neutral base: Dries Van Noten at 22 percent with graphic and floral print as its two biggest trends, or Balmain at 34 percent with animal print as its single largest slice.

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Accessories carry the loudest part, starting with sunglasses

Buyers surveyed by WWD after the spring shows named the belt the season’s key statement piece, oversized at Celine and worn three at a time at Gucci, with chunky jewellery and maxi sunglasses close behind. Celine showed its signature oversized oval frames without rims, alongside bright yellow lenses and very large bug-eye shapes; Miu Miu sent out bug-eye frames crossed with a cat-eye in a parade of colours; and Balmain put sunglasses on most of its models. Shoppers have followed: worldwide searches for Celine’s round sunglasses are up 190 percent on a year earlier.

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Why maximalism is working now

The customer has changed what luxury is for. A survey of more than 2,000 luxury clients in the United States and China, published in June 2026 by Business of Fashion and McKinsey, found the appeal of luxury shifting from status and visibility towards identity and self-expression, and the same report series finds that 81 percent of luxury customers under 35 buy first for design and creativity.

Search data agree: sequins are up 40 percent and fringe up 34 percent year on year, and the same analysis from The Data Fashion Brief of Google Trends shows worldwide searches for “chunky belt” up 93 percent on a year earlier and “80s luxury,” shorthand for bigger shoulders and chunkier gold jewellery, up more than 400 percent.

What carries into Fall/Winter 2027

Decoration carries, but bright colour does not. Première Vision Paris, the fabric fair for FW 27/28 held in September, built the season on texture and visible craft, with metallic-thread tweeds, sequin-embroidered laces and a palette of deep purples, bordeaux and mineral neutrals in place of this summer’s brights.

The data agrees: embellishment, fringe and sequins among it, was already on a third of the SS27 Paris looks, with searches for both up year over year as well.

So the bright colours, embellished, bug-eyed Spring/Summer 2027 version hands over to a heavier one with fringe, fur-effect volume, sequins worked into tweed and lace, and a darker palette, with accessories still doing the work.

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The mood behind it is not only aesthetic. Maximalism has a habit of returning when the world feels unstable, and this cycle fits the pattern. In uncertain economic and geopolitical times, people look for pleasures within their control, and dressing up is one of them, which is why the return of bolder fashion reads as a demand for escapism.

The customer is changing with this new mood: the luxury clients surveyed by BoF and McKinsey now buy to express themselves rather than to signal status, and when money is spent more carefully, it goes on pieces that justify the spend. Decorated, coloured, textured and crafted clothes do that in a way the plain uniform of the minimalist aesthetic no longer can, which is where the fatigue with minimalism comes from, and why the season is full of them.

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The takeaway for Fall/Winter 2027

This is not a trend for every brand. The Paris houses split three ways: a few went all in on maximalism, led by Dries Van Noten and Balmain; a few stayed almost entirely plain, led by Lanvin; and the majority put decoration on a plain base, like Celine with bold accessories. That middle route is the realistic one for most: a plain core with a decorated layer and statement accessories on top.

The pieces to back are the ones the fairs, the forecasters and the search data agree on: fringe, sequins, tweed, knit and lace, oversized belts, chunky gold jewellery and bug-eye sunglasses, in bordeaux, purple and deep neutrals rather than this summer’s brights. One season of runway data is a signal, but it is consistent across the runway, search, and the fabric fairs, and the first test comes at the January trade fairs.

Sources:
- WWD: Top accessories from the spring 2027 shows, according to 15 buyers, by Sandra Salibian, 13 October 2026.
- FashionUnited: Première Vision Paris: What fabrics reveal about AW27/28 trends, by Florence Julienne, 4 September 2026.
- Première Vision: Season Report Autumn-Winter 27-28.
- BOF report Face to Face With Luxury Clients, by Imran Amed, Gemma D'Auria, BoF Insights, McKinsey & Company, 29 June 2026.