A Trend Only Enters a Brand Once It Has Been Translated
In the report, it is called cocoon. On the showroom rail, Toteme, Ganni and Acne Studios seem to be talking about three different things.
Protective volume is one of the clearest signals in the Autumn/Winter 2026-27 collections. It appears in rounded sleeves, coats that wrap around the body, bubble skirts and softer shoulders. The shape is shared. Its meaning changes as soon as it enters a brand’s language.
Toteme works with relaxed coats, enveloping shearling, knitted dresses and supple nappa leather lined with cashmere. The volume protects without dominating the wearer. Even the hood added to a coat already recognised as part of the brand’s vocabulary feels like a natural evolution, designed for a customer who is not looking for special effects.
Ganni takes the same signal towards tweed, heavy knits and blanket-like layers. Then come white cottons, flounces and lace that recalls doilies. Taken on their own, those details could easily become twee. The weight of the materials grounds them in a Nordic wardrobe that is pragmatic and deliberately imperfect.
Acne Studios chooses friction. The aviator jacket looks almost too small, while trench coats and double-breasted coats are oversized. Pleated tweed skirts and domestic checks are paired with python, double-layered shirts and blazers worn around the neck. The proportion is shifted just far enough to look wrong. That controlled wrongness is what makes it Acne.
The report identified the signal. Creative direction decided what to do with it.
A trend can emerge from the runway, the street, music, film or a very practical change in the way people live. By the time it reaches a collection meeting, it already has a name, a folder of images, materials and reference colours. Recognising it is the easy part.
Before it becomes product, it has to stand up to the brand’s history, the customer’s body, the price point and the distribution. Commercial timing matters too. A category can attract enormous visibility and take up very little space in the order book. Another may receive less coverage while supporting a substantial part of the business. Moodboards tend to be rather optimistic about this.
Some codes need to be amplified, others cleaned up. Some should stay out. If a trend forces the brand to change its voice, customer and price at the same time, it is probably not the right direction.
The leather bomber offers another example. For Autumn/Winter 2026-27 it returns in brown, olive, tan and espresso, often with references to the aviator jacket. The customer knows the product and already knows how to wear it, which gives it immediate commercial potential. That same familiarity can fill the market with interchangeable jackets within weeks.
Isabel Marant brings it back into the brand’s vocabulary of denim, shearling and animal print. A reversible silk bomber with Chinese-inspired fastenings retains the label’s nonchalant attitude while offering two ways to wear it. Toteme builds the difference through supple nappa leather and a cashmere lining. Acne changes the fit, making it smaller and more eccentric. The customer is not simply buying a bomber. She is buying the way that product belongs to the rest of the collection.
Translation also changes from one market segment to another. In luxury, a silhouette can support its price through complex construction, an exclusive material or workmanship that becomes visible at close range. In premium, it still needs character, but it must also offer fit, versatility and a level of quality the customer can recognise without reading the label inside.
A code that originated in streetwear requires a different intervention. An oversized proportion, a technical zip or a logo can communicate belonging. To enter a premium womenswear brand, the same code may need a lighter weight, a cleaner shoulder, less sporty hardware or a less literal colour. Change everything and the reference disappears. Leave it untouched and it looks borrowed.
Timing creates another constraint. Months pass between research, design, sampling, the sales campaign and delivery. Meanwhile, the most obvious version of the trend is photographed, published and replicated. If the product relies only on the novelty of its shape, it can arrive in store already tired.
This is why editing cannot begin at the end, when the team decides what to remove from the collection. It has to happen while the directions are being built. A theme needs enough depth to move through different categories without producing a succession of variations on the same garment.
Protection, for example, can appear in the volume of a coat, the hand-feel of a knit, the lining of a jacket and the softness of a bag. The customer may never use the word cocoon, but she will sense the continuity between those products.
If the theme appears in a single coat because everyone showed one, it remains a quotation. The buyer will recognise it immediately. By the time the product reaches the shop floor, they will probably have seen it somewhere else already.
Romina Tosi
Disclaimer
The views expressed above represent my personal interpretation of publicly available information and, like any interpretation, may be shared, debated, or challenged.
The information referenced comes from public sources available at the time of publication, including official documents, union communications, press articles, and materials accessible to anyone. I do not disclose confidential information or facts learned through privileged access. I do not reveal protected information, nor do I attribute unlawful conduct to individuals or companies.
Any reference to specific cases is intended solely to provide context and analyze dynamics affecting the broader industry. It is not intended to target individuals or particular businesses.
Observations regarding industrial strategies, financial decisions, and production models fall within the right to express opinions and commentary on matters of public interest. They remain personal assessments, not definitive judgments.
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