Abra

“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.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Abra – the brand name, but also Abraham Ortuño Perez‘s widely-known nick among industry insiders – grew from an accessory label to a ready-to-wear obsession. The designer, who did some of the biggest footwear hits for the likes of JW Anderson, Loewe and Jacquemus, is on a roll with his (very) personal endeavor. The autumn-winter 2025 collection is dedicated to the very pleasurable feeling of wanting to dress and look like those mythical, sophisticated city folk do in big fashion capitals, that he and his mother used to dream up in “fashion boutiques” when he was a child. “It’s this whole feeling of being from a small town and buying something imported, something from Paris!”, he mused. A nostalgic spark ignited Ortuño Perez’s whimsical yet sincere collection – a cheeky ode to peripheral boutique “hits” reimagined for the woman who dreams in fashion, not trends. His muse? Storefront mannequins of the late ’80s and early ’90s, dolled up in glitzy metallic lamés and over-the-top wigs. Perez gave us all that – and more. The show kicked off with faux-fur coats sculpted into giant roses. Only Perez’s playful lens could render them so fantastically offbeat. Then came hybrid coats – fur, gabardine, and suiting – riffing on “Working Girl” power dressing, now with rounded shoulders and leggings replacing pencil skirts. Closing the show was a trio of lamé dream dresses: one unraveling in fluid drapes, another with an off-kilter crinoline, and a third bursting with ruffled tiers. These were certainly THE boutique showstoppers.