At Julie Kegels Spring 2027, the strangest hair moment was easy to miss at first. The models wore sleek, low ponytails. Clean, controlled, almost severe. Then the eye travelled down the back of the look and found… another ponytail. Except it was not sewn onto the garment. The second hair piece appeared to hang from an extremely fine strand of hair, making it look almost suspended in mid-air behind the clothes. And suddenly the whole thing became much more interesting.
Wait, Where Is That Ponytail Coming From?
From a distance, the illusion is brilliant.
There is the real ponytail sitting at the nape. Then, lower down, another section of dark hair appears behind the body, tied into its own neat tail. The barely visible strand connecting it almost disappears, leaving the second ponytail seemingly floating against the garment.
For a moment, your brain tries to connect the two.
Is the hair impossibly long? Is it attached to the top? Is it some kind of tassel?
That little moment of confusion seems to be exactly where the fun lies.
Hair With Its Own Shadow
The placement makes the second ponytail feel less like a traditional hair extension and more like a duplicate of the hairstyle.
Almost a hair shadow.
The real ponytail moves with the head, while its strange second version hangs further down the body. Same colour, similar shape, but separated by empty space.
It turns something completely ordinary into a visual trick.
That idea would sit comfortably within Kegels’s existing interest in doubles, altered appearances and the gap between what we see and what is actually there. Her Fall 2026 collection, for example, explored aura, shadow and garments that changed how the wearer’s silhouette was perceived.
And because the attachment is so discreet, the effect is much more surreal than simply sewing hair onto a garment would have been.
Is This Hair Styling or Fashion Styling?
That is where things get blurry.
We normally think of runway hair as something that completes the clothes. Here, the hair begins to occupy the same space as the clothes themselves.
It hangs over the body like fringe. It moves like a tassel. Visually, it almost becomes an accessory.
Yet technically, it still belongs to the hairstyle.
That makes the idea surprisingly clever. Instead of adding another necklace, ribbon or decorative object, the styling uses hair itself to alter the silhouette.
Could Floating Ponytails Become a Trend?
Now, are we all about to start walking around with a second ponytail dangling somewhere near our shoulder blades?
Probably not.
But runway trends rarely arrive on the street exactly as they first appear.
The more interesting takeaway could be the idea of detached hair elements: extensions suspended away from the natural hair, ponytails treated like jewellery, or strands positioned across clothing rather than simply falling over it.
Hair accessories have already become bigger and more sculptural. This takes the thought one step further.
Maybe the next statement accessory is not something you put in your hair.
Maybe it is the hair.
And Julie Kegels has certainly given us one ponytail too many to think about.
