It’s the couture collaboration worth waiting for.
Manolo Blahnik and Pierpaolo Piccioli unite for Balenciaga’s Autumn ’26 collection, creating three shoe styles that honour Spanish heritage, artisanal mastery, and the enduring legacy of Cristóbal Balenciaga.
A Meeting of Spanish Legends
Some partnerships feel destined. The collaboration between Balenciaga and Manolo Blahnik, announced for Autumn 2026, is one of them. This marks the first time these two pillars of Spanish elegance have worked together, creating three shoe styles that honour both heritage and modernity.
The collection stems from a creative dialogue between Manolo Blahnik, Pierpaolo Piccioli, and the spirit of Cristóbal Balenciaga himself. Additionally, it celebrates the shared Spanish roots of both Blahnik and the House of Balenciaga. What emerges is a natural synergy: precision meets elegance, beauty meets delicacy.
Archive Designs Reimagined
Piccioli selected archive designs from Manolo Blahnik, then fused them together to create hybrid silhouettes. The resulting trio includes a low-heeled mule and a slingback available in both 105mm and 50mm heights. Each style features a low-cut décolleté that reveals skin, aligning with Piccioli’s methodology of placing the human form at the centre of his creative process at Balenciaga.
Crafted in silk-satin and lined in Balenciaga grey, these shoes come in various colours. However, the defining detail is the crystal embroidery across the low-cut vamp. This embellishment serves dual purposes. Firstly, it echoes Blahnik’s renowned flair for creating shoes that resemble jewels. Secondly, it references the bijoux Cristóbal Balenciaga created in the 1960s. The result feels both historically informed and thoroughly contemporary.
A Lifelong Dream Realised
Kristina Blahnik & Manolo Blahnik (Ben Marlow Photography)
These aren’t simply decorative objects. Each style embodies specialist savoir-faire and artisanal mastery. Furthermore, they represent what Manolo Blahnik calls a lifelong dream realised. His admiration for Cristóbal Balenciaga runs deep, rooted in a shared Mediterranean sensibility and Spanish culture. “Pierpaolo’s direction for Balenciaga resonates profoundly with my own ideas of how the modern woman should dress in 2026,” Blahnik explains. For him, this vision centres on timeless elegance rooted in craftsmanship and enduring beauty.
Kristina Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik, describes the collaboration as incredibly special. “This speaks to the artistry of shoemaking and the power of creative exchange,” she notes. Heritage becomes the foundation for innovation, producing results that feel both timeless and modern.
For fashion-savvy women who value function alongside style, this collection offers something genuinely exciting. These are shoes designed for movement (check out the lookbook images), for life, for the woman who understands that true luxury lies in the details. The Balenciaga I Manolo Blahnik collection arrives as part of the Balenciaga Autumn ’26 offering, representing a moment where two legends of Spanish craftsmanship meet on equal ground.
