Observation 004
Fashion Week 2026: Apparently Your Earrings Aren’t Big Enough
After years of tasteful little hoops, fashion has remembered that earrings are supposed to be fun.
THE REFASHION JOURNAL · OBSERVATION 004
After years of tasteful little hoops, fashion has remembered that earrings are supposed to be fun.
BY KATE SLOANE
There was a period when an earring’s highest aspiration was to be described as delicate. A tiny gold hoop. A tasteful little huggie. Something so discreet it suggested you had transcended the vulgar human desire to decorate yourself.
Thank God that appears to be over.
Fashion Week 2026 has arrived at a fairly unanimous conclusion: your earrings aren’t big enough.
This week, Vogue’s Julia Hobbs published “I Re-Pierced My Ears for Celine” after Michael Rider’s Winter 2026 earrings sent her back to the piercing chair. The punchline is perfect: the Celine pair she wanted were clip-ons anyway. If that is not a trend report, what is?
SAINT LAURENT
The tiny hoop has been served its eviction notice. Saint Laurent’s Women’s Winter 26 collection puts serious jewelry next to serious tailoring, which is exactly how enormous earrings should behave: not as an apology, not as a finishing touch, but as part of the argument.
See Saint Laurent Women’s Winter 26 →
CELINE
Michael Rider’s Celine earrings have the sort of scale that makes a huggie look faintly embarrassed. Big buttons, bold shapes, clip-ons, actual presence. The clean-girl earring recession appears to have ended.
SCHIAPARELLI
Daniel Roseberry, naturally, treats an earring as an object with a plot. Schiaparelli’s Fall-Winter 2026/27 collection includes cabochons, rhinestones, hammered gold feet and bird claws because apparently an earlobe can also have a backstory.
See Schiaparelli Fall-Winter 2026/27 →
VALENTINO
Valentino got the memo too. Interferenze is full of crystal jewelry and runway earrings that refuse to perform the increasingly strange job of being invisible.
See Valentino Interferenze Fall-Winter 2026/27 →
THE PART WE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT
Maybe statement earrings are not back. Maybe fashion just stopped pretending that small was a personality.
We already owned the big earrings. We just needed everyone else to catch up.
SHOP THE EDIT
SCHIAPARELLI Statements Eyes Earrings - Pre-Owned →
$233.00 · MA6037
Goossens Paris Poppy Pendant Earrings →
$139.00 · MK6412
Celine Silver Rhinestone Hoop Earrings →
$144.00 · MJ6383
CHANEL CC Gold Tone Ball Shaped Earrings - Pre-Owned →
$249.99 · MC6138
VERSACE Gold & Silver Medusa Safety Pin Earrings - Pre-Owned →
$143.00 · MG6282
YSL YVES SAINT LAURENT Marrakech Clip On Earrings - Pre-Owned →
$143.00 · KQ4573