It’s A Dance. Tom Ford Resort 2026

November 16, 2025November 16, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Haider Ackermann likes to compare his creative endeavor at Tom Ford to a dance. In his hands, it can be slow and sensual in one moment, then electric and seductive in the next. His sesort 2026 collection – an effortless bridge between his brilliant debut and an even stronger sophomore offering – shows just how fluently Ackermann speaks Ford’s design vocabulary.

In his press notes, the designer described the “unremitting verticality” of his vision for Tom Ford’s “beautiful creatures,” a concept rendered sublimely through masterfully elongated silhouettes, punctuated by bold color accents (green! blue! pink!) and razor-sharp shoulders. The collection – now arriving in stores – also introduces Ackermann’s take on day-ready pajama suits, for both him and her, that feel almost too good to be true.

If this collection were a dance, it would land somewhere between Ralph Fiennes’s unpredictable moves in “A Bigger Splash” and the magnetic elegance of Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in the “Broadway Melody Ballet” sequence. Delightful.

ED’s SELECTION:

TOM FORD Double-breasted Cotton And Silk-blend Hammered-satin Blazer

TOM FORD Eva D’orsay Satin Pumps

TOM FORD Belted Draped Silk-satin Maxi Skirt

TOM FORD Stretch-silk Georgette Gown

TOM FORD Leather Shirt – Blue

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Heritage. Institution by Galib Gassanoff SS26

November 14, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

I love looking back at the season in hindsight and highlighting some of the off-the-radar, attention-worthy moments. One of them is Galib Gassanoff’s Institution, a small, craftsmanship-focused brand that has emerged in Milan with great bravado. Gassanoff, who is of Georgian and Azerbaijani heritage, channels those roots in his breakthrough spring–summer 2026 collection. With curving lines inspired by the traditional Georgian chokha and rush skirts crafted using techniques typically employed in rug-making, this line-up stuns with its artisanal sensitivity – and makes some of Milan’s major players look pale by comparison. The backless peplum tops made from tightly loomed shoelaces? Incredible. As are the seemingly levitating panniered dresses and the brutally beautiful leather outerwear. Gassanoff wants the voices of his ancestors to be heard, and he succeeds with great poignancy and elegance.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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West End Girl. Abra SS26

November 2, 2025November 2, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

“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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Devastatingly Beautiful. Ponte SS26

October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

“Devastatingly beautiful” is perhaps the only way to describe Ponte, Harry Pontefract’s brainchild that relentlessly pushes the boundaries of the body and proportion. His lookbooks – photographed by Mark Kean – read like portraits of characters: often oneiric, sometimes distant, at times even unsettling.

What makes Ponte one of the most exciting projects today – or, as Pontefract himself puts it, neither fashion nor art, but “its own kind of beast” – is the staggering range of techniques he employs, defying easy classification. His work exists somewhere between the orbits of haute couture and arte povera – painstaking yet brutal, innovative yet honest. One of the spring–summer 2026 suits, for instance, was colored in pencil for hours on end, then hand-burnished with a spoon to blend the layers into one another. Another look features a dress made of wire filaments – “finer than hair,” according to the designer – cut by a hairdresser and brushed with magnets. The “second-skin” bodysuits, composed of diamond-shaped pieces of hosiery, have an eerily chilling effect. I have goose-bumps.

There are also the striking, Sarah Lucas–like experiments: worm-like tubes wrapping the body, or a felted wool dress sculpted to resemble organs erupting from within. And then there’s the mini-dress that, upon closer inspection, is constructed from all kinds of debris – leftover textiles, wires, paper bags, even a tiny putto figurine poking out of its sleeve. It’s stunning – and devastating at the same time.

In an age oversaturated with collections, looks, and clothes, it’s increasingly rare for a brand to truly capture one’s attention. Ponte makes you not only surprised – even shocked! – but also encourages you to pause – and contemplate.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Stars Aligned. Rick Owens SS26

October 20, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Quite naturally, Rick Owens’s spring–summer 2026 collection – presented, as usual, in the courtyard of the Palais de Tokyo, just steps away from the Palais Galliera where his retrospective is now on – gave you chills and a sense of otherworldly euphoria, as if straight out of his Temple. The lineup of models, their eyes obscured by black contacts that covered not only the irises and pupils but also the whites, embodied all the hallmarks of the designer’s alien-esque uniform, honed over three decades: muted, bleached tones; 1930s-inflected silhouettes evoking Old Hollywood; sharply exaggerated shoulders; sculptural draping; and towering platforms that stretched the silhouette to near-impossible proportions. The spiky, fringed leather capes were the work of young London-based designer Straytukay, while the print – a rarity at an Owens show – appeared on the long dresses in the finale and was a reproduction of the designer’s own star chart, originally drawn for him by his father. Whatever the astral prophecy was, the stars truly did align.