Issey Miyake, Caroline Hù, Junya Watanabe: Paris Fashion Week in collabs

Ending with Matthieu Blazy’s inaugural Chanel collection yesterday, Paris Fashion Week’s Spring 2026 season delivered a highly anticipated showcase of creative director debuts. While brand collaborations did not define the season — marking a pivot away from previous shock-factor pairings centered on internet virality — East Asian designers presented a few standout partnerships. From Issey Miyake’s latest Camper footwear to Caroline Hú and Clot’s “balletcore” Adidas Taekwondo sneakers, here’s our guide to Spring 2026 collaborations. Camper x Issey Miyake Details: Karst Finch footwear Social context: Camper posted about the collaboration on its Instagram account, generating more than 2,400 likes so far. The brand also dressed internet personality Lara Violetti, who has 240,000 followers, for the show. Verdict: Karst Finch, the latest Issey Miyake x Camper collaboration, continues to bring the Japanese designer’s avant-garde design to Camper’s playful Mediterranean sensibility. Following the success of Peu Form, which launched in July 2025, the new design reinterprets Camper’s signature Karst model, named after rocky geological formations, by mounting a stretch, featherlight upper onto its sculptural sole. The result is a sneaker that marries architectural minimalism with playful freedom, a theme echoed in the finch-inspired color palette and mix-and-match sock sets. The launch coincides with Camper’s growing global footprint — now spanning 40 countries with a reported annual turnover exceeding 200 million euros ($233 million) — and the March 2025 opening of its flagship in Paris’ Marais district. Meanwhile, Issey Miyake’s parent company, Shiseido (資生堂), has seen declining net sales and operating profit since 2021, suggesting that collaborations like this serve dual purposes: revitalizing brand perceptions and signaling resilience through creative innovation. Adidas Originals x Clot x Caroline Hú Details: Taekwondo footwear, Spring 2026 Social context: On Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), #ClotTaekwondobyCarolineHu has amassed 54,500 views so far, with Clot publishing five posts about the collaboration to its 139,700 followers. Verdict: At Paris Fashion Week, the Clot x Adidas Originals x Caroline Hú collaboration felt like the designer’s strongest yet with the German sports brand. Reworking Adidas Originals into the trending Taekwondo silhouette, Hú injected her signature romantic minimalism into a best-selling design. Built on the shoe’s original slim-profile sole, the new version features functional foot straps and a delicately debossed upper, quietly referencing Adidas’ heritage while elevating Chinese streetwear brand Clot into couture territory. Available in triple black, powder pink, and soft ivory, the three colorways were quickly dropped on October 4 for $150 each. As Clot founder Edison Chen put it, the collaboration “embodies our core philosophy of East meets West,” and through Hú’s lens, that combination has a high-fashion streetwear edge that has captivated Chinese Gen Z. Yohji Yamamoto x Giorgio Armani Details: Tribute to the late designer, Spring 2026 Social context: The official Xiaohongshu hashtag referencing Spring 2026 has 16,900 views, while #YohjiYamamoto has 74.5 million. Verdict: At his Spring/Summer 2026 show in Paris, Yohji Yamamoto offered a moving tribute to the late Giorgio Armani. Following Armani’s death on September 4, Yamamoto honored his friend through two standout looks that captured the friendship between the two designers: one featuring calligraphy overlaying images from an Armani campaign by Shalom Harlow, the other incorporating an invitation to what would have been Armani’s 50th-anniversary celebration alongside archival campaign imagery of models in sharply cut suiting. The remainder of the collection stayed true to Yamamoto’s vocabulary of undone tailoring and poetic imperfection — black silhouettes brushed with white paint, punctuated by flashes of red. Beyond visual homage, the tribute reflected a deeper bond: a shared discipline, mutual respect, and lifelong defiance of fleeting trends. As Yamamoto recalled, their friendship began decades ago at the opening of Armani’s first Emporio store in Paris. Junya Watanabe x Stüssy Details: Look in Spring 2026 collection Social context: On Xiaohongshu, #junyawatanabe has 2.2 million views, while #stussy has 227.2 million. Verdict: Two years after their first partnership made waves in 2023, Junya Watanabe and Stüssy reunited for Spring 2026, reaffirming the unlikely synergy between avant-garde tailoring and streetwear. What began with a sleeveless hoodie, made famous by Timothée Chalamet last year, has evolved into a more deliberate dialogue between subculture and couture. In the new collection, Stüssy lends its streetwise credibility and youthful pulse, while Watanabe elevates the collaboration to the rarefied realm of Paris Fashion Week, where craftsmanship and concept intertwine. The partnership epitomizes Watanabe’s ongoing mission to blur fashion hierarchies; his Spring 2024 menswear show featured 18 collaborations (from Palace to Carhartt). This renewed alliance stands out as both commercially sharp and culturally fluent with the look more reminiscent of an art piece than the usual offerings of skate brand Stüssy.

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Issey Miyake, Caroline Hù, Junya Watanabe: Paris Fashion Week in collabs