The Vibe :
⊹ Anok Yai, Dara Gueye, and Liu Wen front Robin Galiegue’s shadow-heavy studio portraits.
⊹ “Clair-obscur” turns dramatic shifts between darkness and color into the campaign’s visual language.
⊹ Leather, shearling, wool, and paillette-embroidered satin give outerwear plenty of physical presence.
⊹ Hourglass Avenue and Le 7 Bowling bags get close-ups alongside Bloom pumps and Midnight City mules.
Balenciaga Fall 2026 turns the lights down and lets the clothes come forward. Anok Yai, Dara Gueye, and Liu Wen star in Robin Galiegue’s studio-shot campaign for Pierpaolo Piccioli’s “Clair-obscur” collection, where hard shadows cut across the models and flashes of brighter color interrupt a mostly dark palette. The title references the dramatic relationship between light and darkness in art and photography, which Galiegue translates directly into the images.
Outerwear takes up serious space. Hooded jackets, peacoats, and blousons arrive with high collars and rounded shoulders, worked in leather, shearling, wool, and paillette-embroidered satin silk. Some shapes frame the face; others build volume through the back, giving the shadows even more to exaggerate. The contrast between heavy coats and exposed skin keeps the studio portraits from feeling static, especially when acid-bright color cuts through the darker looks.
Balenciaga gives the accessories their own close-ups, too, with the Hourglass Avenue and Le 7 Bowling bags photographed beside Bloom pumps and Midnight City mules. Piccioli describes clair-obscur as an emotion as much as a visual technique, and the campaign keeps returning to that push and pull: covered versus exposed, darkness against sudden color, and oversized outerwear against the body underneath.
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Brand DNA
Founded in Spain in 1917 by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Balenciaga is known for radical proportions, cocoon coats, sharp tailoring, and fashion that challenges convention. Today, Pierpaolo Piccioli leads the house with a renewed focus on its couture heritage.
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