Key takeaways
- Across Milan and Paris Fashion Week, Zara launched two of its most high-profile Zara collaborations to date: a 140-piece home and fashion universe with Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Baisi, and Re{form}, a 35-look collection by John Galliano.
- The Zara Home range puts a sofa st $18,400; Re{form} runs to $999.99. Both are cheaper than luxury, but well above what Zara customers have historically been asked to spend, marking a deliberate departure from the brand’s usual retail model.
- The new Zara brand strategy is deliberate. But the supply chain, production model and customer expectations do not change on intention alone. Could Zara reinvent itself?
On September 26, Zara launched its most expansive Zara Home collections to date: furniture, homeware and fashion created by filmmaker Luca Guadagnino — yes, the one of Call Me by Your Name fame — and production designer Stefano Baisi, with a campaign shot by David Sims and a short film starring Jamie Bell and Patricia Arquette. A few days later, during Paris Fashion Week, the brand unveiled Re{form}; 35 looks by John Galliano, photographed by Steven Meisel, presented inside a private hôtel particulier at 70 Rue des Archives in the Marais, open by appointment only.
Two fashion weeks. Two of the most significant names in modern culture. These Zara collaborations — one for the home, one for fashion — mark the most coordinated brand statement Inditex has made below the luxury tier. Galliano gave each of his 35 looks a French title, wrote detailed show notes describing his techniques and materials, and staged the collection inside a deconstructed couture salon with beveled walls and exposed structures. Guadagnino designed furniture that Zara Home’s managing director Lorena Mosquera describes as “a complete universe where furniture, lighting, accessories and fashion exist in dialogue.”
The play for legitimacy
Both Zara collaborations are doing the same thing: borrowing cultural authority. Guadagnino is one of the most talked-about filmmaker of the last decade. Galliano remains one of the most storied names in the history of fashion, albeit controversial. The choice of David Sims and Steven Meisel — photographers who shoot for Prada, Versace and Saint Laurent — extends that logic into the visual language of the campaigns.
The Galliano decision deserves particular attention. Fashion had largely accepted his rehabilitation a long time ago: a decade at Maison Margiela, where he produced some of the most interesting work of his career, had seen to that. In fact, the Met Gala had planned a major Costume Institute retrospective for 2027 in his honor before cancelling it under pressure from Jewish community leaders, politicians and institutional donors, citing his 2011 antisemitic outburst and subsequent conviction. Zara proceeded regardless. Galliano is a designer the industry has chosen to keep, and signing him is both a savvy creative decision and a provocation that Zara is entirely comfortable making. The cancelled retrospective only added more hype. Zara will take that too.
Between aspiration and access
The Baisi Guadagnino range opens at around $15 for a piece of cutlery and reaches $18,400 for the “Uncollected” sofa. Re{form} runs from $29.99 to $999.99. Both sit below comparable luxury or haute couture, but well above what Zara customers have ever been asked to spend.
Re{form} launched in Zara’s flagship stores in London and Madrid, and on its online platform — though not globally. In fact, a customer in Warsaw, Riyadh or São Paulo may find the collection out of reach in more ways than one. The Paris presentation at a private townhouse in the Marais, open by appointment with a personalized welcome, was a luxury brand event and had nothing to do with fast fashion imagery.
On the other hand, the homeware line is available across Zara Home’s full retail network, which raises a different question. At $609 for a wooden stool, Zara Home is entering territory where B&B Italia and Cassina already operate, with decades of design credibility behind them. Sο, who is the collection designed for?
The target is not the existing Zara Home customer, but the aspirational consumer, the one who will stretch to $529 for a Galliano cotton coat or $2,100 for a chair because the name attached to it, or the design intention, makes it feel worth it. It is also for the fashion students and all those queuing outside Zara’s London flagship on launch day, asking about financing options and maxing their cards in the process.
Can Zara change?
H&M spent a decade doing something similar; Karl Lagerfeld in 2004, Lanvin in 2010, Versace in 2011, Balmain in 2015, and dozens since. The cultural conversation each time was considerable. The brand positioning, when the dust settled, was not meaningfully different. H&M did not become a different kind of company. The collaborations were events, not actual transformations, and the clothes were bought, worn briefly and discarded just like another fast fashion purchase, but at a more elevated price point.
Zara’s play feels more sustained. A two-year partnership with Galliano means more than a single capsule drop. A 140-piece universe conceived by Guadagnino and Baisi is a serious collection. The Zara brand strategy here is deliberate and long-term, but the supply chain, production model and store environment do not change because a collection is presented in a Marais townhouse or shot by Steven Meisel. Nor does what the customer expects to find and buy at Zara or Zara Home.
What Zara is building does not yet have a name. It sits somewhere between fast fashion and accessible luxury, a position no major retailer has convincingly occupied. Marta Ortega, who chairs Inditex and whose personal relationships with both Guadagnino and Galliano initiated these partnerships, is running a €39.9 billion business that grew 3.2% in FY2025. Those Zara collaborations are a deliberate choice. Whether that choice reshapes how the industry and, most importantly, the consumer thinks about Zara remains to be seen.
