When Mario Arena joined Joseph as creative director in 2024, he was tasked with a turnaround, redefining the brand codes and making them relatable to a new generation of customers. This season, he got so into the process that he stumbled upon a Joseph deep-cut entirely by accident. “I was moving some books around at home and I came across one by the interior designer Christian Liaigre from when he converted an old chocolate warehouse in Australia in the early 2000s,” he says. “It spoke the language of Joseph through homeware and interiors—he does masculine with a feminine edge, and we do feminine with a masculine edge. It turns out, Liaigre actually designed [brand founder] Joseph Ettedgui’s house in the 1980s.”
That’s where the spring 2027 collection found its groove. Easygoing, neutral basics were punctuated with pops of earthy green and pink. Meanwhile, the brand’s signature python print was peppered throughout, including on a clutch bag inspired by the sharp folds of a love letter Queen Victoria wrote to Prince Albert, which Arena found at an antiques auction. Flowing dresses with tight pleats were reminiscent of Halston, while the organic bean-shaped gold and lapis jewelry could be inspired by the late designer’s close friend Elsa Peretti. Arena is particularly excited about the mud silk shirts—buried in the mud for weeks, the crinkle pattern sun-faded into the fabric and sealed with yam juice. “It’s an ancient technique I came across on a trip to China,” he says. “People don’t really do it anymore, but we had to!”
Fall is really Joseph’s season, but after a summer of heatwaves, it’s no surprise that Arena was experimenting with lighter fabrics, mixing pure virgin wool with wool-linen blends on the ’70s-inspired suiting, and expanding Joseph’s range of crisp cotton poplin options. Even the suede and leather pieces were redesigned to be paper-thin, the underside polished smooth to do away with bulky linings. “There’s no excess baggage,” he said.
