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Stream/Area:
-
Subject:
-
Paper ID:
IJSREM66110
Volume:
10 |
7 |
Jul 2026
Pages:
1-7
Publication Frequency:
Monthly (12 issues per year)
License:International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management follows the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) License, allowing free use and distribution with proper attribution.
Fashion Designing
Multani Mal Modi College, Patiala
Assistant Professor ,Department of Fashion Designing
Multani Mal Modi College, Patiala.
The global fashion industry entered 2026 amid three converging pressures: an accelerating cycle of aesthetic experimentation, a structural shift toward sustainability and circularity, and the rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) across design and retail. This paper synthesises secondary evidence from twenty-five fashion-trend publications, runway reports, and market-analytics sources published between January and June 2026 to identify the dominant trends shaping apparel, accessories, and consumer behaviour during the year. Using a qualitative content-analysis approach followed by descriptive quantitative synthesis of market data, seven recurring themes were coded: sustainable and circular design, AI-enabled personalisation, silhouette and proportion experimentation, nostalgia-driven revivalism, craft-based textures, colour and print statements, and maximalist accessorising. Findings indicate that sustainability and AI are no longer peripheral concerns but structural forces reshaping production and consumption, with the global sustainable fashion market and the AI-in-fashion market both projected to grow at compound annual rates exceeding 19 percent through the early 2030s. Concurrently, runway and street-style evidence point to a return of early-2000s and 2010s silhouettes, asymmetric hemlines, and craft techniques such as lace and crochet. The paper concludes that 2026 represents a transitional year in which aesthetic nostalgia, ethical accountability, and algorithmic personalisation are converging into a single, more data-driven fashion paradigm.
KEYWORDS
This paper synthesised twenty-five 2026 fashion-trend and market-analytics sources to identify the aesthetic, sustainable, and technological trends shaping the global apparel industry. The analysis found that while runway and street-style trends in 2026 continued fashion's cyclical logic — recycling early-2000s and 2010s silhouettes, embracing craft textures such as lace and crochet, and oscillating between maximalist proportion and quiet-luxury minimalism — two structural forces distinguished the year from its immediate predecessors: a sustainable-fashion market growing at a double-digit compound annual rate across every vendor estimate reviewed, and an AI-in-fashion market expanding even faster from a smaller base, reshaping design, forecasting, and retail personalisation. Brands and retailers navigating 2026 therefore face a dual mandate: remaining aesthetically responsive to fast-cycling nostalgia and proportion trends while simultaneously building the circular-production and AI-enabled infrastructure that industry data suggest will define competitive advantage over the remainder of the decade. Future research should complement this secondary-source synthesis with primary consumer surveys and retailer sell-through data to test whether coded media themes translate into actual purchasing behaviour.
Coherent Market Insights. (2026). Sustainable fashion market YoY growth rate, 2026–2033. https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/industry-reports/global-sustainable-fashion-market Custom Market Insights. (2026). Global sustainable fashion market size, share, forecast 2033. https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/sustainable-fashion-market/ FashionINSTA. (2026). AI fashion design revolution: How brands accelerate development 70% in 2026. https://fashioninsta.ai/blog/ai-fashion-design-revolution-brands-accelerate-development-2026 FashionINSTA. (2026). Artificial intelligence in fashion 2026. https://fashioninsta.ai/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-fashion-2026 Gitnux. (2026). Sustainable fashion industry statistics: Market data report 2026. https://gitnux.org/sustainable-fashion-industry-statistics/ Global Market Insights. (2026). Sustainable clothing market size, growth outlook 2026–2035. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/sustainable-clothing-market Hammond, N. (2026, May 28). Capri pants, bleached denim and summer suiting: 7 luxury trends that will define summer 2026 style. Who What Wear. https://www.whowhatwear.com/fashion/trends/luxury-fashion-trends-summer-2026 Heuritech. (2026). Top 10 spring/summer 2026 fashion trend forecast. https://heuritech.com/fashion-trends-2026/ Huber, E. (2026, May 10). 7 trends already defining summer style in 2026. Who What Wear. https://www.whowhatwear.com/fashion/summer/summer-fashion-trends-2026 Masterofcode. (2026). Generative AI in fashion [2026 insights]. https://masterofcode.com/blog/generative-ai-in-fashion
Publication Date
7/17/2026
Peer Review Type
Double-Blind Peer Review
Review Rounds: 2
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The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this research work.
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