Chimi Puts Performance On Trial For Spring/Summer 2026

The latest campaign from eyewear brand Chimi arrives like a cross-examination. Directed by Shadrinsky, The Trial puts performative culture on the stand, creating a series of courtroom-style testimonies where the case is never named, but the atmosphere is unmistakably guilty.

 

Each film unfolds through a fixed camera and stripped-back setup, letting its witnesses speak in real time. The format is severe and tension intensifies: as each subject testifies, contradiction begins to surface. The campaign does not simply accuse a culture obsessed with polish, performance, and approval; it understands itself as part of that same machinery.

The cast is drawn from Europe’s fashion, music, and nightlife worlds, with American pianist Precious Renee Tucker, French rapper Jwles, Molly Fredriksson, Sophia Maria Alvarez, and others appearing as themselves. These are not characters so much as cultural witnesses—people fluent in the language of visibility, image, and the soft violence of being looked at.

 

At the center is CHIMI’s SS26 collection and optical eyewear, where the frame becomes more than an accessory. In The Trial, eyewear acts as a device for constructing identity: a shield, a signal, a prop, and, occasionally, a confession.

The verdict is left open, which is precisely the point. CHIMI is not offering absolution. It is asking what happens when the image stops performing long enough to implicate itself.

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Discover the full campaign and collection online, and keep up with what’s next from Chimi on Instagram.