“Repetition is more the norm than innovation,” wrote Ross Douthat in The Decadent Society, and the 2026 resort collections seem to bear out this assertion. A survey of about 120 collections finds the wheel of fashion turning at a moderate, perhaps more realistic, pace. Wearing a garment just once is a kind of sartorial debauchery that the industry and the earth can no longer sustain.

Also: absolutism in fashion seems to be a thing of the past. Among the 11 trends identified here, four—sports, utility, tailoring, and pajama dressing—build on tendencies that have been around for a season or two. The return to a skinny pants silhouette is newsworthy, but it should be noted that designers haven’t abandoned trousers with more generous mall-rat proportions. Similarly, while the Roman Holiday-style circle skirt looks fresh to the eye, pencil skirts are also on offer.

Chaos is a word that came up more than once in the season’s reviews and some of the trends read as reactions to that feeling of unrest. You could hide under the covers in chic street-ready pajamas, but instead why don’t you look… like you mean business in a dandified three-piece suit, run circles around your adversaries in sports-inflected looks, stun the crowds in wet-look sequins, don leather like soft armor, and act the superhero in a cape?

Prettily taking the edge of things are Impressionistic colors and prints, while back details offer a 360° perspective. Overall, the 2026 resort season as a whole feels both well-rounded and even keeled, so that you can best navigate the extremes of the world.

Round and Round: Take a Circle Skirt for a Whirl

Designers summoned the charm of the 1950s—and Roman Holiday—with circle skirts, which fall in soft drapes when not flaring in movement.