Forever Avant-Garde: Backstage at Maison Mihara Yasuhiro Fall/Winter '26

On a Friday afternoon, as the gray Parisian sky settled over the streets of the 17th arrondissement, the vaulted ceiling of Salle Wagram—with its wooden detailing and deep wine-red tones—imbued a warm, almost decadent presence. The grand space, located near Place Charles de Gaulle, stands like a memory of ephemeral opulence: lustrous chandeliers and marble columns are tempered by earthy wood and muted hues. Here, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro presents “Eternal Now”—a forward-thinking retrospective captured in dreamlike moments for Paris Fashion Week.

 

Mihara Yasuhiro has long been a mainstay of avant-garde menswear. Since the early 2000s, his signature has been a blend of streetwear sensibilities with conceptual deconstruction. While Mihara has a well-established voice in fashion—one that is thoughtful, experimental, and subtly subversive, his Fall/Winter ’26 collection marks an evolution of his vision. “’Eternal Now’ is about perception, memory, and the fleeting moments that define our experience,” he explains.

A sharp, hypnotic beat accompanied the first silhouettes as they emerged from behind the white, flowing curtains that divide the venue. The garments gradually shift from classic forms to playful deconstruction: rounded, generously cut jackets open the collection, followed by single-button blazers closed asymmetrically. Traditional shirts gain double or even triple layered collars, a jacket slips off the shoulder, a button sits slightly askew, then patchwork constructions and worn denim appear.

After the show, TEETH caught up with Yasuhiro during the bustle of the show’s backstage. When asked about inspiration for this season and what references shaped his collection, he replied laughingly: “In recent years, simpler, luxurious garments have become a trend. I wanted to create something like that and get on the trend, but I failed. This collection is still avant-garde.”

 

Yasuhiro’s decades of experimentation in avant-garde menswear are apparent in how the sobriety of the textiles is interrupted by a splash of poetic dissonance. The collection itself is rooted in a disarrayed, hazy moment of Yasuhiro falling asleep on a train and missing his stop.

Scribbled on a note on the train souvenir that inspired the collection, he says, “Lately, my sight had been getting blurry. I knew it was because of my age. The world lost its contours and was softly melting away.” This sense of softening boundaries and shifting forms translates directly into the design language of the collection, as silhouettes became whole with the marriage of fragmented elements.

 

Trousers combine denim with tailored wool or textured knits, and often feature asymmetrical cuts, layered panels, or patchwork inserts that disrupt conventional proportions. Skirts appear alongside the trousers in layered or hybrid forms as well, and push this sense of movement and fluidity a notch. Across the collection, garments slide and drape unpredictably, and textures shift gradually from precise to worn, like the fleeting and mutable quality of lived experiences.

 

“Eternal Now” gives memory a tangible shape, and captures time in a tactile and visual experience—and in Yasuhiro’s wardrobe, each garment keeps the score of time. The deliberate misalignments and dissonances render silhouettes at once familiar and surreal; and one by one, they transform the runway into a living archive, to remind us that beauty is in the transience and vulnerability.