Women designers ‘not getting the breaks’ despite recent global luxury fashion shake-up

PARIS - In fashion at the moment, as seen on catwalks: frills, corsets, big shoulder pads and “naked dresses". Out of fashion: employing women as chief designers.

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Designer Louise Trotter at the Bottega Veneta Spring/Summer 2026 collection show during Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, on Sept 27.

(PHOTO: REUTERS)

In the most recent SpringSummer 2026 womenswear fashion weeks in Paris and Milan, the effects of a huge reshuffle at the top of the European luxury clothing industry were plain to see.

From Chanel and Dior to Celine and Balenciaga to Loewe and Jean Paul Gaultier, around 10 leading labels unveiled debut collections from new artistic directors.

In Milan, heavy hitters Gucci, Versace and Bottega Veneta spotlighted freshly appointed designers too.

On only one occasion, the new face taking the bow and applause at the end was a woman - Britain's Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta - while Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Jonathan Anderson at Dior both replaced high-profile female predecessors.

"It seemed that there was a bit of an opening (for women) just before Covid," said Karen Van Godtsenhoven, a fashion academic at the University of Ghent in Belgium and guest curator for the 2023 exhibition, Women Dressing Women, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.