Fashion’s collaboration calendar rarely slows down, but this particular week has produced four announcements different enough to make the whole exercise feel fresh again: a K-pop icon turned co-designer, a Gen Z pop star reviving ’90s Calvin Klein energy, and a Beirut-born couturier landing on the high street for the first time. (Plus an honourable “celebrity” mention). Here’s what’s actually happening.
Adidas Originals by Jennie Puts Ballet on the Track
Jennie has spent years as an adidas Originals ambassador. This week she stepped fully into the design chair. Adidas Originals by Jennie (available on The Iconic), unveiled at a takeover of the brand’s Melrose Avenue flagship, marks her first credited turn as co-designer rather than campaign face, and the shift shows in the concept itself: “Functional Grace,” a collection that treats ballet not as a mood board reference but as an actual design language.
Sheer bodysuits meet thigh-high knit leg warmers. Trackwear gets reworked into wrap skirts. The hero piece, the Superstar SQ Ballet, takes adidas’ most recognisable silhouette and rebuilds it around pointe-shoe proportions: a squared toe, ribbon detailing, a decorative bow, lambskin lining and removable laces for anyone who wants to restyle it entirely. It’s a genuinely strange, genuinely interesting thing to do to a sneaker that’s been culturally static for decades.
Jennie has described the collection as a way of channelling ballet’s discipline alongside its softness, filtered through her own instincts rather than a straightforward homage. The FW26 collection launches globally on September 1 through adidas.com, the adidas app, Originals stores, the CONFIRMED app and select retailers, availability varying by market.
Calvin Klein Bets on Tate McRae’s ’90s Instincts
Calvin Klein’s denim campaigns have always leaned on a specific kind of star power – someone whose off-duty energy already looks like the brand’s ad archive come to life. This season, that’s Tate McRae, fronting a new campaign directed by Carlijn Jacobs that’s less about posing in jeans than moving in them.
Set across a series of everyday scenes, the campaign follows McRae as she transforms each moment through dance, her performance style doing the work that a static ad usually leaves to lighting and cropping. The soundtrack, Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is In The Heart,” is a deliberate needle-drop toward the label’s ’90s campaign era, an aesthetic Calvin Klein keeps returning to precisely because it never quite goes out of style.
McRae, for her part, frames the appeal in fairly simple terms: “Every style has its own personality, but they all give you that same undeniable confidence,” she said of the brand, adding that the shoot was about “that moment when you put on your favourite pair of jeans and everything just clicks.” It’s a low-key pitch for a campaign that otherwise leans hard into spectacle, and that contrast is probably the point.
Elie Saab Brings Red-Carpet Glamour to H&M
If the first two collaborations are about reinterpreting sportswear codes, this one is about relocating them entirely. H&M has named Elie Saab (celeb favourite and a star in his own right) as its next designer collaborator, bringing one of couture’s most red-carpet-fluent houses into a price bracket that starts at under $40.
The Beirut-founded label built its reputation on bridalwear before becoming shorthand for the kind of embellished eveningwear that photographs perfectly under a flashbulb, and the H&M collection leans directly into that identity rather than softening it. Expect embellished gowns, shimmering separates, sharply cut tailoring, fine lace, gradient sequins and the house’s signature monogram detailing, alongside accessories and footwear. Menswear is part of the offering too, a first for the label.
H&M’s Ann-Sofie Johansson has called the collection “magical, ornate and glamorous,” and pointed to the collaboration as a chance to bring Saab’s journey from Beirut to the centre of Paris fashion to a global audience. The roughly 55-piece collection, priced between €29.99 and €399, launches globally on October 22, timed neatly ahead of party season – which, for a designer built on occasionwear, is precisely the moment his codes are built for.
Honourable Mention: Crocs and the Loafer Walk Into a Bar
Crocs has arguably become a celebrity all its own at this point – recognisable enough to headline a partnership without borrowing anyone else’s logo. And its newest release, the Loaferette Clog, plays out like an unofficial team-up with the loafer itself.
The silhouette takes Crocs’ signature clog and dresses it in loafer’s clothing: a subtle platform heel, three adjustable straps for a more tailored fit, and a shape polished enough to pass for smart-casual rather than strictly poolside. It arrives in three fittingly restrained colourways: Black, Tac Green and Cocoa Creme, each RRP $124.99.
The pitch is versatility – a clog built to move between errands and evenings without asking anyone to sacrifice the foam-clog comfort that made the brand a phenomenon in the first place. Whether the loafer crowd is ready to share space with a Croc remains genuinely up for debate, but as far as odd-couple footwear pairings go, this one at least has a sense of humour about itself.
