The 2026 Creative 100: Brand Innovators Profitable With Playful Moments

Thinking exterior the (shoe)field: Gomez additionally orchestrated a 31-day TikTok Shop livestream that drew 87,000 new followers and prospects, and led a collab with Lego to get folks to don “wonderfully unordinary” Crocs formed like outsized bricks. Crocs and blocks: vogue’s latest dynamic duo.

Elmar de Jong
Group Creative Director, Ray-Ban & Oakley

Eye spy: Blending tradition, expertise, and design, Elmar de Jong has helped steer a few of eyewear’s most iconic manufacturers into a brand new artistic period. Now, he’s driving the way forward for wearables with two main releases in 2025: the Oakley Meta AI Glasses for athletes and the second technology of Meta AI’s Ray-Ban glasses.

Super sellers: Both manufacturers had memorable Super Bowl campaigns: This 12 months’s Oakley advert was a high-octane showcase of its “athletic intelligence” in motion, and Ray-Ban’s 2025 marketing campaign was a send-up of the Chris Pratt/Chris Hemsworth confusion by throwing Kris Jenner within the combine. 

Matthieu Blazy
Creative Director, Chanel

Big footwear: Stepping into the boots famously worn by Karl Lagerfeld for 36 years isn’t any straightforward feat, however Matthieu Blazy has honed his personal strut since being appointed artistic director of Chanel in December 2024. 

With a twist: Blazy made his runway debut in 2025 with a galaxy-themed present that mirrored Lagerfeld’s love for spectacle, however with softer, extra subdued clothes that went barely off-script. Vogue known as it “respectful of the house’s heritage, while twisting its codes.” 

Previous life: The new function was a pure match for the French-Belgian designer, who beforehand breathed new life into Bottega Veneta.