As Carolina Herrera Heads to Spain for Spring 2026, Creative Director Wes Gordon Opens Up About Storytelling, Obsession, and Why Beauty Still Matters
Carolina Herrera has always been a New York house. For four decades, its seasonal collections unfolded like clockwork in the city that never sleeps. But this Spring 2026, for the first time in its 43-year history, the house is stepping off the New York Fashion Week schedule. And into Madrid.
“This is the first time we’ve ever not shown our main runway collection in New York. So it had to be for a very special reason,” Wes Gordon says with a grin. The designer has helmed Carolina Herrera since 2018, when Mrs. Herrera herself handed over the reins. Since then, Gordon has quietly reinvented the house with an unapologetic embrace of color, joy, and femininity. Now, with a show staged in Spain’s capital just two days after New York Fashion Week ends—and hours before London’s begins—he’s making one of his boldest moves yet.
Gordon never frames the Madrid show as a disruption—it’s a natural evolution. Calmly energetic and visibly excited, he speaks of it not as a gamble, but as a love letter. “Madrid is certainly one of—if not my favorite—cities globally. It just feels handsome, sophisticated, and full of life.”
It’s not the house’s first destination runway (Rio and Mexico City preceded), but this is the first time a main seasonal collection has crossed the Atlantic. It’s a nod to the brand’s Latin DNA and its Spanish parent company Puig—a layered gesture that blends narrative with business strategy. Gordon puts it another way: “In a lot of ways, it’s a homecoming.”
The storybook setting has also shaped the collection itself. “I know from the beginning that we’re doing a destination show, and it serves as this incredible inspiration to me as I’m designing,” he explains. “Rather than picking a venue a couple weeks before Fashion Week, I get to imagine the set, the music, the hair months in advance. And I love that.”
We’re not trying to replicate a New York fashion show somewhere else—we’re celebrating the people and the place we’re in.
Every element of the production is tied to Madrid. The models, crew, music, even the hairstylists are all local. That same philosophy extended to Rio and Mexico City, where Gordon localized each show as a tribute to its setting. “It becomes a celebration, not just a presentation.”
Beyond the runway, the event functions as a family reunion. “We’re a big company—beauty, fragrance, CH licenses, eyewear, ready-to-wear. These shows bring us all together. They’re like pep rallies for Herrera.”
Born in Chicago and raised in Atlanta, Gordon trained at Central Saint Martins in London and interned for Oscar de la Renta and Tom Ford. After launching his namesake label in 2009 during the aftermath of the financial crisis, he quickly became a darling of retailers from Bergdorf Goodman to Harrods. That crash course in entrepreneurship, he says, prepared him for the complex demands of running a major house.
To be successful today, a designer needs to be obsessed with every component of the brand—not just the sketch.
He credits the eight years running his own line with giving him an obsessive appreciation for logistics. “I was dropping off fabric, doing the production fittings, the trunk shows, the styling. So now I’m just as excited sitting in construction meetings for new stores as I am sketching looks.”
The designer lights up when talking about customer interaction. “I still do a lot of trunk shows. I always say those early years were my master’s and doctorate degree. You can learn so much by standing in front of a customer.”
Gordon is also refreshingly clear-eyed about fashion’s evolving ecosystem. “What’s exciting about the world of fashion right now is the opportunity for individuality amongst the different brands. We’re not in an era where all the brands are trying to adhere to the same aesthetic.”
Each house can now be the best version of itself—we’re not trying to all chase the same aesthetic anymore.
For Carolina Herrera, that means delivering exuberance without irony. “We treat beauty and joy not as trivial, but as high praise,” Gordon says. “We want to put on shows that just make a woman dream of beautiful clothes and feel beautiful wearing them.”
At Herrera, we treat beauty and joy not as trivial, but as high praise.
Because when you’re in love with a city, a house, and the act of creation itself, there’s no such thing as off schedule. Just on point.
What excites him most at this moment isn’t the churn of what’s next—it’s the emotional resonance of beauty. “It’s about optimism and color and print—and not being afraid of that.”
In choosing Madrid, Wes Gordon hasn’t broken tradition—he’s expanded it. It isn’t a departure; it’s a destination with purpose. And the road ahead for Carolina Herrera looks luminous.