Chloé’s Glamorous Ease
Anders Christian Madsen reviews the Chloé Spring/Summer 2026 collection by Chemena Kamali.
Claudia Schiffer graced the front row at Chloé, which, if you went around the curved show space in the UNESCO building, also included a glamorous crew of young, posh socialites. Chemena Kamali has fine-tuned the house’s halo — a feat that for some years seemed hard to crack — and after re-establishing its floaty 1970s glory days by way of London’s early-2000s boho chic, she is ready to expand her repertoire. On Sunday evening, she did so in a collection that adapted Gaby Aghion’s post–mid-century dresses — a different territory to the bohemian glam — into draped and wrapped floral silhouettes that opened the show.
“I wanted to explore what the idea of couture could mean in the Chloé context. A paradox for a house founded on the principles of democratic freedom and ease; something that is not part of its core DNA. I wanted to push the boundaries of what defines Chloé, expanding its language, taking it into new and unexplored territory and looking at why and how Gaby Aghion founded Chloé,” Kamali wrote in her self-penned show notes. “I liked the idea of going back to what Gaby Aghion rejected without betraying the original DNA of the house.”
She took out the lining and construction of the original dresses and created something more in tune with Chloé’s free-flowing identity in 2025. Then, Kamali expanded the silhouette into broad-shouldered 1980s blouses and coats and ballooning dresses, everything draped and tiered and ruched and ruffled. Across her references, from the 1950s to the ’70s and the ’80s, there was a glamorous ease to her expressions, which — worn by the socialites on the bench across the runway — seemed to resonate with a new, more dressy fashion climate that still requires the freedom of contemporary dressing.
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