Simon Porte Jacquemus has always understood that a fashion show begins long before the first look appears. There is the place, the invitation, the light and the image people will remember after the clothes have disappeared from their feeds. For Spring/Summer 2026, he took that instinct to Versailles and made one of his most personal stories feel monumental.

Le Paysan looks back to Jacquemus's childhood in the South of France and the farming family that raised him. Instead of hiding those memories beneath the language of luxury, he places them at the centre of the collection. The result feels intimate even when everything surrounding it is enormous.

VERSAILLES, BUT MAKE IT PERSONAL

Staging a collection at the Château de Versailles could easily become an exercise in spectacle for spectacle's sake. Jacquemus makes the scale useful. The grandeur surrounding the runway sits against a collection inspired by agriculture, family and the rural world Simon grew up around, creating a tension that feels much more personal than another beautiful fashion show in a beautiful location.

That contrast is what gives Le Paysan its emotional weight. Jacquemus isn't trying to escape where he came from by presenting the collection at Versailles. He is doing almost the opposite: taking the people, places and memories that existed before the brand and placing them somewhere fashion traditionally reserves for a very different idea of luxury.

THE CLOTHES DON'T FIGHT THE STORY

The collection is strongest when the references remain simple. Whites, workwear, aprons, headwear and clean tailoring carry traces of rural dressing without turning farmers into costume. Familiar garments are refined, exaggerated or stripped back until they belong naturally inside the Jacquemus universe.

There is still the tension that makes Simon's clothes immediately recognisable. Something can appear almost naïve before an unexpected proportion changes it completely. A simple silhouette becomes strange; something practical becomes sensual. The collection looks backwards without becoming nostalgic.

JACQUEMUS SELLS THE MEMORY

This is ultimately why Jacquemus remains so good at making fashion feel like an event. The spectacle usually leads somewhere. A lavender field, a beach, Casa Malaparte or Versailles becomes memorable because the location is attached to a larger story rather than simply being used as an expensive backdrop.

Le Paysan makes that strategy particularly clear. Beneath Versailles and the perfect fashion image is something surprisingly intimate: a designer looking back at the world that existed before anyone knew his name.

Plenty of luxury houses can stage a beautiful show. Jacquemus keeps finding ways to make people remember how his felt.