“Who the fuck is Madeline?” asks Lily Allen on her new album “West End Girl” – the result of sixteen days spent in the studio dissecting and analyzing her unhappy marriage to David Harbour. The album – released without promo or a meticulous marketing ploy – has unofficially claimed the title of AOTY, and Allen seems to be living her best life, dressed as the Madeline for Halloween.

Her latest work plays with different tropes: the busy housewife, the single mother, the other woman. Interestingly, I see a full-circle correlation with the heroine of Abraham Ortuño Pérez’s spring–summer 2026 collection. Abra – the brainchild of one of the industry’s most renowned footwear designers – has always been “for the girls.” The woman Ortuño Pérez envisions this season certainly has a past: a good girl gone bad for her own sanity’s sake.

The line-up features hyper-girly pink satin skirts, flirty mini dresses finished with rosettes, and princessy frou-frou gowns made from translucent materials – yet all that saccharine sweetness is grounded by the grittiness of fringed suede boots, tough leather bombers, and very good-looking cut chino shorts. If “West End Girl” were a fashion collection, it would be this one from Abra.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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