A troubling game of appearances at Julie Kegels

Julie Kegels, a distinctive fashion language

All eyes were on Julie Kegels last September. Her Spring/Summer 2026 runway show opened Fashion Week and welcomed superstar Rosalía among other guests. This season, the Belgian designer is once again making headlines. Named among the semi-finalists of the prestigious LVMH Prize, she captured the attention of the fashion world, drawing a large crowd to Boulevard des Invalides to discover her Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection.

As an invitation, guests received a small leather mask tied around a card that read “Face value.” That expression encapsulates Julie Kegels’s inspirations. This season, the designer explores the notion of appearance. For a long time, she has enjoyed blurring the lines between intimate and public spaces by turning furniture into clothing or mixing eveningwear with office looks. Now, Julie Kegels continues to sharpen her fashion language, balancing imperfect details with masterfully controlled silhouettes.

The art of taking care of one’s appearance

“The Julie Kegels woman will always want to control something, but it is always imperfect,” she writes in her show notes. She even quotes Andy Warhol from The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975): “When you just see somebody on the street, they can really have an aura. But then when they open their mouths, there goes the aura.” Oscillating between restraint and mystery, this Fall/Winter 2026-2027 show plays on the power of appearance and transformation…

Through her sweaters made of boiled and shrunken wool, Julie Kegels unveils constricted silhouettes, where appearance clearly takes precedence over comfort. Some models conceal their faces behind small leather masks or bonnets pulled down over their heads. Meanwhile, their clothes entirely reveal their torso and the length of their legs thanks to sheer effects or the short cuts.

“An object becomes a garment, then becomes an object again…”

For here, illusion is everything. Confident and prancing postures are emphasized by sleeves cut in circles that subtly lift the silhouette, or by sleeves slit toward the back, slightly shifting the upper body forward. The diamond adornments catching the runway spotlights are in fact upcycled jewels made from chandeliers. Fake crystals are also printed as silk stickers, worn around the neck in a trompe-l’œil effect. One detail recalls the faux lace bras glimpsed in her Spring/Summer 2026 collection.

Julie Kegels pushes this exploration of appearance to its peak. On the backs of the models, a shadow is projected onto the far wall of the show space from a pre-recorded video shot in Antwerp, where the designer lives and works. At times, the silhouette matches the clothes being worn, or the gestures fall out of sync… Subtle inconsistencies that echo the book about Andy Warhol cited in her show notes.

As the final silhouettes of this Fall/Winter 2026–2027 show unfold, three looks dive deeper into the exploration of shadows and appearances. The first model appears, carrying three bags in her outstretched arms. In her wake, the next wears a dress that echoes the same outline. This time, however, the bags blend into the look through protrusions integrated into the garment’s cut. A third follows, dressed in a shirt and skirt printed with the contours of the second model’s shadow… “A shadow becomes a garment, then becomes a shadow again,” Julie Kegels writes about her endless game.

All the looks from the Julie Kegels Fall/Winter 2026-2027 show