Not your usual runway show. ..... :) Y-3 presented their new
Spring/Summer '26 collection at the Palais Brongiart
during Paris Mens Fashionweek, with a 30 minutes powerful
dance that told deep, emotional stories and kept us
completely hooked. The performance not only presented the
new collection but also showed how tough and wearable the
clothes really are. Yohji Yamamoto, who started the Y-3
brand with Adidas over 20 years ago, was there too,
nodding along to the intense music, showing that he's
still very much in tune with today’s world.
Big credit to choreographer Kianà del Valle, whose
energetic dance team used every part of the space in the
Palais Brongniart, pouring their hearts into a performance
about being left out, finding connection, showing
kindness, staying strong, sticking together, and loving
against the odds, a message that felt especially moving
since it happened on Pride Day in Paris.
Inspired by adidas' equipment line from the 1990s, Y-3
introduced new materials and techniques to boost both
performance and function. The dancers moved in an
perfectly timed flow, with lightweight summer fabrics and
crinkled viscose that allowed total freedom of movement.
The dip-dyed outfits, raw edges, and Yamamoto's signature
uneven shapes gave the performers a ghostly, zombie-like
look as strobe lights cut through the dark venue.
There was a spotlight on footwear, mixing performance with
heritage. The performance splitted into three parts,
featured the RC6 speed runner with off-center laces and
rough-edged details, the classic Stan Smith was redesigned
as a slim ballerina-style shoe to match the show's dance
theme and the Field shoe honored Y-3's football
background, inspired by vintage spike shoes made for both
Collection notes:
Y-3 is a collaboration between Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto. In Y-3, contrast
becomes duality, opposition becomes coalescence, two entities come together to
form a whole. For over twenty years, the renegade label has articulated its distinct point
of view through a philosophy of the threshold, an exploration of the tipping
point at which transformation occurs, the frontier where newness takes root.
Informed by this spirit, Y-3 presents its vision for Spring/Summer '26; a
defiant treatise on the inherent humanity sport, bridging the gap between
sartorial and athletic codes, through a visceral display of human movement,
and an allegory of human transformation.
Descending upon, and then
transforming the Palais Brongniart the label's seasonal presentation took on a
quintessentially transgressive form; an extended format, an immersive
Soaked in dramaturgical allegories, movement artists from the pioneering KianÃ
del Valle Performance Group narrated a story without words, emphasising
physicality and expression, breaking through liminality with purposeful
motion. The collective, led by Show Dramaturg, Choreographer, and Movement
Director Kiani del Valle, embarked on an exploration of the collective gaze,
centering on a study of human relationships. Act I A singular performer
initiates a ripple effect of motion, as the troupe turns to face the audience.
Act II A series of duets: the duality inherent to Y-3. Act III A shift from
the collective to the individual. Act IV A renaissance tableau reaching toward
the horizon, as expressed through Three Stripes of light in the sand.
The ensuing offer comprises striking silhouettes, brought to life through
Y-3's distinct lens. With sport as a foundational principle, adidas' iconic
‘"Equipment" range originating in the early 1990's is reinterpreted as
subversive expressions of the line's original ethos, athleticism stripped back
to its essential essence, a guiding philosophy for the collection.
The new seasonal materializations make their debut; summer viscose and crinkle
viscose, worn by professional movers in an artistic display of live
wear-testing, pushing each garment to its functional limit, showcasing the
precision and performance pedigree of Y-3's duality. Luxe fabrications are
roughened with raw edges; artisanal imperfection meets the precision of sport
engineering, a physical embodiment of the ongoing conversation between adidas
and Yohji Yamamoto. A consistent motif of artistic experimentation, a series
of pieces are dip dyed with each resulting gradient being rendered completely
unique to the next, all the while, raw cut stripes bring new meaning to
adidas' signature three stripe iconography.
In footwear: adidas' performance-tested speed runner, the RC6, is cut to
feature an asymmetric eyestay and raw-cut finishing. The Stan Smith
low-profile in the style of a ballerina's slipper, true to the collection's
presentation the dance. The Field honors adidas' roots in football,
reconnecting to adidas' archival walkable football cleat.
Unveiled during the final act, a five piece capsule paid tribute to Y-3's
enduring connection to sport. With each honoring a different adidas athlete
associated with the number 5, Zinedine Zidane, Jude Bellingham, Garrett
Wilson, Anthony Edwards, the hypothetically assembled team was completed with
a baseball jersey adorned with the name of the legendary designer himself.
Punctuated by pinstripe details, borrowed from both the aesthetic language of
baseball and men’s suiting, the aptly named 5 for 5 collection channels the
A story of dualities and metamorphoses, Y-3 Spring/Summer '26 is the
pioneering label at its most immediate and essential.
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