More Pieces, More Possibilities: How to Merchandise Maximalism

This season, even quiet luxury all-timer The Row showed gorgeous, beaded, colorful tops, while the stark whites and creams that still dominated the collection were paired with chunky beaded necklaces and lace and crochet detailing.

It’s a signal of the balance fashion brands now need to strike between the minimalism of the past five years and the maximalism this season was heralded for bringing back. Almost every buyer’s takeaway this season was that the collections offered looks that were deconstructable; pieces that are easy to wear and pair together (or apart), without being overly prescribed. Looks are buildable, pieces interchangeable — and the best ones had an edge.

Sure, in a sense, that’s just getting dressed. But in an era where doing so has become increasingly formulaic, guided by pre-packaged aesthetics like quiet luxury and prescriptive micro-trends, consumers have grown fatigued. Now, they want clothes they can build an easy wardrobe out of while showcasing a level of idiosyncrasy. And brands delivered, integrating funky, off-kilter — yet wearable — clothing into the mix for Spring/Summer 2027, which emerged as a pushback against the algorithm-driven sameness that fashion has bristled against in recent seasons. In her SS27 trend report, Vogue Runway’s Laird Borrelli-Persson wrote that “offness, which feels anti-AI, is the turn-on”.

“While the SS27 runway featured an eclectic mix of aesthetics, wearability and self-expression ran throughout almost every collection, with designers reimagining narratives through layered, buildable styling,” says Venetia Rothwell, senior retail analyst at retail intelligence platform EDITED. “Maximalist layering and clashing prints dominated collections, a departure from the overly polished and refined looks of recent seasons.”

This in-between is also commercially smart, at a moment where brands are ever-cognisant of their need to sell. Buyers applauded SS27 collections’ balance of commerciality (positive) and creative nuance, as designers expressed awareness of the need to speak to a broader clientele. “You have to speak to a much broader clientele than Martin [Margiela, the brand’s founder] used to have,” Glenn Martens said in regards to his SS27 Margiela collection. “We have to speak to the world, so it’s a bit difficult to go as hard on concepts.” In this vein, brands amped up the accessories, styling their layerable, buildable looks with belts and scarves galore, injecting more entry-level options for shoppers keen to tap in without breaking the bank.

It was a season that cemented what a product strategy should be in 2026: buildable and layerable, approachable but nuanced enough that it’s an offering shoppers feel they can’t get elsewhere, and with in-roads at entry-level price points beyond the usual wallet and sunglasses. Both the 6397 team and namesake designer Julie Kegels spoke about the women in their lives when discussing what goes into their product mix, and how they teeter between wearability and creativity. “I always try the clothes on myself and the women around me,” Kegels says. “A piece can be very exciting in your imagination, but once you put it on, do you actually want to leave the house in it?”

This balance of pieces that toe the line between minimalist and maximalist is reflective of a product strategy that’s been building over recent seasons, as designers find ways to work smarter, not harder, and devise product strategies that build on one season to the next, designed to layer across collections. (Recall the mixing and matching of last season’s “small plates-ification” of American sportswear.) Designers like Celine’s Michael Rider and Dries Van Noten’s Julian Klausner have nailed this approach. A string of independent brands including TWP, Julie Kegels and 6397 are adopting a similar strategy.

It may sound like a no-brainer, but hitting the sweet spot is no small feat, and when many customers are more cash-strapped than ever, getting it right can make or break sales.

Buildable pieces

The smartest product offerings in 2026 are buildable: both within collections via accessories and layers, and across seasons. There’s a desire for imperfection and artfully undone styling, EDITED’s Rothwell says, noting that retailers bought into this aesthetic early on; arrivals of 2-in-1 layered tops — like the aqua and teal tanks in 6397’s Look 5 — rose 244% year-on-year in early SS26.

Tal Waksal, founder and designer of New York ready-to-wear brand All Three, has taken this approach since starting the brand less than two years ago. “I call it the All Three Lego system,” she says. “I’m never just thinking about the collection in front of me. I’m thinking about the one before it, the one after it, and the woman who’s been collecting pieces along the way.” When she designed SS27, she already had a blue leather jacket from All Three’s FW26 in mind, she says. “I introduced new shades of blue and different textures that would work with it.”

Pick-and-mix clothing is also reflective of the way people shop today. Typically, they’re not buying the head-to-toe look, says Substack writer and brand consultant Zara Wong — “they’re buying the piece that slots into what they already own”. Even when people are buying full looks — which, Waksal says, her customers often do, before coming back for the same items in new colors — they’re styling them with their own spin. This is something 6397 founder Stella Ishii has noticed as more celebrities have worn her label of late. “Greta Lee, Alexa Chung, Gracie Abrams, Amy Sherald and Jack Innanen have each injected their own attitude to 6397,” she says. “All have worn full looks, but not how we showed them, which is the coolest thing. It can be dull for things to be repeated in the real world.”

This ‘with a twist’ logic also applies to accessories, which offer a way in at a price point typically lower than a top or pant — even if you’re not buying the full look. For TWP’s Trish Wescoat Pound, belts — which she says are flying off the shelves — were a logical next step. “We saw our customer needed finishing pieces with the same attention to detail as our clothing, adding both edge and refinement,” she says.

All Three’s Waksal thinks of belts in a similar fashion; the brand refers to them as the “third piece”. “Belts are the basics of accessories — I’ve collected them forever,” Waksal says. “I love how something so simple can change an entire proportion.” Kegels agrees: “A belt can be a small detail, but it can give the whole silhouette a particular attitude.”

For Kegels, accessories are a fun way to play with coordination — and a way to stretch a material further. “I love choosing one leather and seeing it become a shoe, a bag and a belt — red shoes, red bag, red belt,” she says. “It reminds me of opening a Polly Pocket box and finding a whole little world, with everything belonging together.” Shoppers can then, of course, choose to pull one out, or buy all three.

This influx of accessories like belts and scarves reminds Wong of the ’90s and early aughts magazine ‘tips and tricks’ pages. “I’m seeing this sort of ‘service journalism’ — fashion tips and tricks — on social media and platforms like Substack, where people can share how they use belts and accessories to do something different with their outfits,” she says. Scarves paved the way, with the scarf skirt (a scarf tied around the waist) emerging as one of summer 2025’s biggest trends. This has since graduated to actual scarf skirts, which sold out at Dries Van Noten, Wong notes. This season, waist accents developed further with the rise of the cummerbund on and off the runway.

“Accessories have become an easy way for shoppers to add personality to looks without overcommitting to maximalism,” Rothwell says, noting that statement buckle belts were one of the strongest runway trends of the season, with cult styles like the Celine Maison 13mm and the Dior Médaillon dominating street style outside the shows. “Mass-market brands are already capitalizing on the popularity of the oval buckle trend in fall 2026 assortments, with entry price points up to 95% above the category baseline,” which refers to the entry price point for a standard belt at mass-market brands, she adds.

The in-between

Experts wouldn’t go so far as to say minimalism is over — even if we’re tired of hearing about quiet luxury — but this buildable logic is reflective of the shift away from the ultra-pared-back look. “Designers have had to be very creative in how they express minimalism. They can’t just dial it in anymore,” Wong says, putting this partly down to how easy it is for mall brands to mimic the aesthetic. Brands need to inject an extra something into their clothing to differentiate. “Minimalism hasn’t gone anywhere, but it’s more expressive than it was,” Rothwell agrees, highlighting how designers are giving pared-back looks individuality through tactile fabrics and an injection of color.

The Row presented a twist on the minimalism the brand is known for — which, Wong argues, resulted in more humanized and wearable pieces of clothing. “This season, they introduced even more craft and touchable elements — it’s closer to how the [founding] Olsen twins actually dress, which I am far more excited about,” she says.

TWP’s Wescoat Pound feels that the maximalist element of her line is becoming more important for the brand. She invested in more technical and colorful fabrics in SS27, for a “sense of edge”. But this doesn’t take away from the minimalist themes on which the brand was built, she adds. “I’ve always liked playing with highs and lows and that mix — adding color and texture along the way without compromising wearability.”

This has long informed 6397’s Ishii and her design partner Lizzie Owens’s approach to design. “We’re all working women on our team and need wearable clothes, but without them being boring or predictable,” Ishii says. “We want the things we make to trigger an emotional response and excite people, while remaining relatable and adaptable. In our collections, there is always a color, finish, or fabric that feels slightly strange in a satisfying way, balanced with pieces that feel essential.”

At a moment where shoppers are being extra careful with their dollars, this essentialness is key. “The purpose of fashion is to provide newness and excitement, but the consumer nowadays has access to so much they’re getting increasingly skeptical; they don’t want to feel like they’ve been taken for a ride,” Wong says. “So it needs to be new, but also be wearable, and feel like there’s value in it.”

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