Our extensive analyses of the spring 2027 season now contine into the broader realm of culture. This, on the heels of decoding the trends—both what to where and how, clocking the art influences, and highlighting trenchant quotes from the reviews. One way to fill in the six-month lag between the close of the season and the arrival of clothes in stores is to go deeper into designers’ inspirations.
The list below collects the books, movies, and tracks that inspired the spring 2027 collections. The French philosopher Michel Foucault, the Bloomsbury writer Virginia Woolf, and the photographer Bettina Rheims all make more than one appearance here, as does Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, a perennial fashion fave. You might want to take a listen to the 1972 Italian song written in gibberish that was the soundtrack to Fendi’s show or rewatch the romantic idyll that is Merchant Ivory’s 1985 film A Room With a View (based on E.
Forester’s novel), which was Simone Rocha’s touchstone for the men’s collection she presented at Pitti Uomo. And how fitting that Valentino’s show, presented in a library, should include a sheer tulle pullover, the equivalent of a glossy book cover. Alessandro Michele had been ruminating on a concept put forth in the book Black Swan.
Read: Nonfiction Alessandro Michele, Valentino The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2007 Antonin Tron, Balmain Foucault in California by Simon Wade, 2019 Natasha Zinko Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, 1975 Yooh Ahn, Ambush Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, 1992 Laura Gerte Feminist Manifesto by Mina Loy, 1914 Dushane Moble, Theory Status and Culture: How Our Desire For Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion And Constant Change by W. David Marx, 2022 Stine Goya 1913: The Year Before the Storm by Florian Illies, 2012 Serhat Isik and Benjamin Alexander Huseby, GMBH Modestadt Berlin by Dr. Gesa Kessemeier (2025) Daniella Kallmeyer, Kallmeyer How to Wrap Five Eggs by Hideyuki Ok, 1965 READ: Fiction Mario Keine, Marke Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, 1928 Marco Rambaldi A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, 1929 Nobutaka Kobayashi, Sen Kawahara, and Yuki Itakura, IM Men The Tale of Princess Kaguya, 10th century Yusho Kabayashi, Yushokabayashi The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, 1837 Ryota Murakami, Pillings Shiroi Boshi (The White Hat) by Kimiko Aman, 1968 Kunihiko Morinaga, Anrealage Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka, 1967 to 1988 Pauline Dujancourt Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 1971 Suan Fang M.
Butterfly by David Henry Hwang, 1988 Antonio Marras A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare, 1595–1596 Turn the Pages: Photobooks Joseph Altuzarra, Altuzarra Casa Susanna: The Story of the First Trans Network in the United States, 1959-1968 by Isabelle Bonnet and Sophie Hackett, 2024 Kim Bekker, Isabel Marant Cowboy Kaye & Other Stories by Sam Haskins, 1965 Matteo Tamburini, Tod’s (menswear) Viaggio in Italia by Luigi Ghirri, 1984 Arashi Yanagawa, John Lawrence Sullivan Modern Lovers by Bettina Rheims, 1990 Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault, KNWLS Chambre Close by Bettina Rheims, 1992 Movies Hillary Taymour, Collina Strada Brian Hegeland, A Knight’s Tale, 2001 Hung La, Lu’u Dan Takashi Miike, Ichi the Killer, 2001 Patrick McDowell Wong Kar-wai, In The Mood For Love, 2000 Emily Dawn Long Baz Luhrmann, Romeo + Juliet, 1996 Dan and Dean Caten, Dsquared2 Baz Luhrmann, Romeo + Juliet, 1996 Samuel Yang and Erik Litzén, Samuel Guì Yang Tsui Hark, Green Snake, 1993 Simone Rocha (menswear) Merchant Ivory, A Room With a View, 1985 Reid Baker and Inês Amorim, Ernest W Baker Susan Seidelman, Smithereens, 1982 Mike Amiri, Amiri Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, 1980 Stefano Gallici, Ann Demeulemeester Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard, 1950 Bror August Vestbø and Benjamin Barron, August Barron Bob Fosse, Cabaret, 1972 Yuka Kimura, Mukcyen Michelangelo Antonioni, Red Desert, 1964 Henri Alexander Levy, Enfants Riches Déprimés Pier Paolo Pasolini, Teorema, 1968 Leandro Cano Luis Buñuel, Un Chien Andalou, 1929 Francesco Murano Fritz Lang, Metropolis, 1927 Stephen Biga, Mel Usine Theodore Dryer, The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928 Thom Browne John Lasseter/Pixar, A Bug’s Life 1998 The Brothers Grimm, The Frog Prince, 1812 Abraham Ortuño Perez, Abra Studio Ghibli, The Secret World of Arrietty, 2010 Television Louis-Gabriel Nouchi, LGN Louis-Gabriel Nouchi David Lynch, Twin Peaks, 1990-1991 Josef Lazo and Andreas Schmidl, Lazoschmidl Golden Girls, 1985-1992 Listen Press play on the 1972 gibberish song by Italian artist Adriano Celentano that was featured at Fendi’s show. Be blown away by True Blue’s cover of “Cherry-coloured Funk” which she performed with her band, refashioned for Nicklas Skovgaard’s spring show as the Skovgardettes. Dance along to the tunes—by Chaka Khan and Michael Jackson—that delinitaed the two parts of Junka Watanabe’s spring collection.
Cue up Miles Davis’s soundtrack to the 1958 film Elevator to the Gallows that played at Anthony Vaccarello’s final collection for Saint Laurent. Try This at Home Scroll through Trevor Hughes’s photographs of bike-messenger in Toronto in the ’90s—@thebikemessengers—which inspired Isabel Wilkinson Schor’s Attersee collection. Watch the video about the Theory of Relativity that inspired Julie Kegels’s set.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
