Airbrushing is BACK! From Boardwalk to Runway - Is it CHIC now?

For years now, 'craft' has been the undeniable buzzword in fashion. Designers are peeling back the layers, revealing the human hands and unique techniques behind their creations, sometimes even prioritizing these over the latest silhouette or hottest hue. And if couture offered rubber as its unconventional choice, then the Spring 2027 collections are serving up something even more unexpected: airbrushing.

Yes, you read that right: airbrushing. Think less sophisticated art, more classic souvenir T-shirts from boardwalks and childhood family vacations. Yet, this famously DIY technique is making waves across major runways, from Margiela to Dries Van Noten and beyond.

It's a fascinating subversion, taking something once considered: let's be honest: a bit chintzy, and giving it the high-fashion treatment.

Fashion cycles through stages of nostalgia like clockwork, often revisiting the brashness of the '80s or the sleek tech of the '90s. Airbrushing feels less about a specific era and more about a universally 'fun' familiarity. There's a definite guilty pleasure in turning a cheesy tourist tee into runway gold.

At Torishéju, for example, the technique gave a simple twist to classic trompe l'oeil.

Consider Liana Satenstein of Neverworns, who embodied this DIY spirit when partnering with Tory Burch. She recounts wearing a vintage Spring 1999 Stella McCartney-era Chloé tank with an airbrushed island scene. Inspired, the Tory Burch team encouraged her to create her own airbrushed merch.

She found an artist on Etsy and had a white tank with a hot pink Tory Burch logo whipped up. As Satenstein puts it,

I love airbrush so much because it's a very much hot girl hangout, let's go and do something fun, perpetual vacation vibes.

Even Stella McCartney herself returned to airbrushing this season, featuring similar vacation scenery on white jeans.

The trend also highlights the importance of the human touch in an increasingly digital world. At Margiela, airbrushing served as a potent reminder of handmade craft, especially when creations could so easily be digitally rendered or replaced by AI. This human-tech relationship is something Louis Vuitton's Nicolas Ghesquière explored a decade ago with airbrushed leather jackets in his Spring 2016 collection .

Margiela's collaboration with designer Gerrit Jacob, known for his airbrushed dragon and animal illustrations, perfectly encapsulates this. Jacob's process involves spraying illustrations directly onto fabric, embracing the natural spontaneity and trial-and-error of human handiwork. Where AI might produce a 'warped beak or extra foot,' human artists like Jacob inject a unique, often perfectly imperfect, soul into the design.

Fashion, it seems, is undeniably more fun with a human touch.