August Barron – you might remember it as All-In – is a brand that makes you feel like a pop doll. Their vintage-inspired dresses are short and cute, often slashed in the most unexpected places and finished with a cartoonish twist. No wonder Addison Rae wears them on her tour.
I loved how Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø approached the theme of the housewife. Unlike Marc Jacobs, who explored that notion at Louis Vuitton back in 2010 in a Mad Men-ish way, the August Barron duo envisioned Grey Gardens’ Little Edie through a Lynchian lens. The result? High-octane drama mixed with 1950s floral skirts, heads wrapped in brooch-pinned cardigans, underpinnings peeking from beneath dresses in a chicly scandalous way, and an undercurrent of despair.
The collection – styled, of course, by Lotta Volkova – is filled with clothes that will be an absolute joy to wear all day and all night.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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Last season, everyone seemed to be asking the same question over and over again: “What do women want?” Whether designers provided the answers they needed remains unclear. This season, however, another crucial question arises for designers: are their clothes life-affirming? Does wearing this dress or that jacket offer the wearer an emotionally – or even spiritually – uplifting experience?
We’re living in a world where you can literally buy anything – and, amusingly, where anyone can call themselves a “designer.” That’s why those showing at Paris Fashion Week should truly consider: is this pairing essential? Am I contributing something meaningful, something with a genuine point of view, to an already overcrowded table? And perhaps most importantly: will this piece of clothing actually spark joy?
This brings us to the most anticipated debut of the season – among more than a dozen others: Chanel by Matthieu Blazy. This is a collection whose perception entirely depends on how you approach it. If you came expecting a pared-back, 1990s-inspired Chanel in the spirit of Karl Lagerfeld, then you were likely overwhelmed by the tactile exuberance of feathers, beading, and embroidery that Blazy – and the house’s métiers d’art – delivered. If you were hoping for a radical departure from Virginie Viard’s Parisian femininity, you might again be disappointed. That woman is still present – but she now looks far more contemporary, less of a cliché. And if you were a fan of Matthieu’s days at Bottega Veneta: bingo. His Chanel debut stayed within a familiar orbit (pun intended, given the space-inspired show setting), yet it was elevated by the unparalleled craftsmanship that only this house can offer a designer. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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After his triumphant debut in July, Michael Rider returns with his sophomore outing for Celine – easily one of the standout collections of the season. It’s astonishing how effortlessly he navigates the maison’s most prominent style codes: Phoebe Philo’s charismatic, quirk-inflected femininity and Hedi Slimane’s slinky bourgeois sensibility with a rock-and-roll twist. As a result, he delivers a cocktail of life-affirming clothes.
Having served as Philo’s right hand during the Old Céline years, Rider understands what the brand’s clientele loves – and delivers it without resorting to grand gestures or “new era” rhetoric. Yet that doesn’t mean his personal imprint is absent. On the contrary, the well-travelled eclecticism, playful takes on preppiness, menswear-inspired silhouettes with cinched waists and elongated sleeves (very Husbands Paris actually), and his indulgent approach to accessorizing (a tribal-inspired beaded necklace styled with a crisp white shirt is a personal favorite) all bear his unmistakable, joie de vivre signature.
His “smiley” reinterpretation of the Luggage bag has clearly struck a chord – as evidenced by the ever-growing pre-order queue in the Paris boutiques that I witnessed myself. When the clothes will hit the racks, the brand might become LVMH’s big beast.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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The moment Miu Miu released the teaser starring Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska – riding a forklift through a cargo container yard and drilling into concrete with a mechanical hammer – it was clear: the vibe was shifting. Gone were the playful notions of bourgeois ladylikeness; in came a femininity that was raw, rough… heroic.
Of course, some might raise an eyebrow when Miuccia Prada cites workers and factories as her inspiration while creating garments that cost thousands. The gesture could easily be read as tone-deaf. Yet Miuccia – and Lotta Volkova, the stylist behind Miu Miu’s golden era – handled those nuances with an intelligent, thought-provoking subtlety. In her teenage years, Signora Prada was a communist – but one dressed in Yves Saint Laurent. This collection perfectly captured that paradox, without mocking the working classes, and handing in a new brick to the vast definition of “chic“.
Seeing Soviet-inspired aprons, floral wrap-over housecoats (a little nightmare for any Eastern European!), and domestic smocks on the runway – styled as evening dresses or layered under no-nonsense, thick-canvas jackets – was an unexpected moment of power, a tribute to the tireless providers. It also made me think of Mrs. Bożena, who runs my local vegetable shop, wearing her blue housecoat every single day at work. I showed her the collection on my phone today. She smiled – and said she absolutely loves it.
Forget capes. Real heroes wear aprons.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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Magda Butrym‘s The Studio is a collection devoted to the intimate and sacred space where the creative process unfolds – the place where the designer feels at ease, fully in her element. It is here that she designs for her – the woman she has envisioned for over a decade. Within this sanctuary, dressing becomes a ritual of pure pleasure, self-expression, and daring beauty.
Magda’s spring–summer 2026 collection is defined by the idea of instinctive chic. It carries the deliberate sense of having just emerged from the studio — undone, spontaneous, and unconstrained. Reimagined in hyper-sensual forms and defined by abbreviated lengths, the collection exudes a palpable taste for the risqué.
Something slightly askew in an otherwise perfect look – that is where chic emerges. Hence, see-through stockings turned into pants are paired with buoyant peplum blouses; broad-shouldered, waist-cinched leather jackets are worn nonchalantly as dresses; and lingerie-inspired, lace-trimmed ensembles reveal satin underpinnings that peek seductively from beneath. Layers of lace separates create a look that is at once undone and frivolous — liberating, self-pleasing, and unapologetic. A duo of full-skirted silhouettes contrasts – yet harmonizes – like white and black swans: one paired with a silk camisole, the other with a masculine leather coat.
The cloud-like draped hats, created in collaboration with Noel Stewart, accompany most looks like cherries atop a cake, underscoring the collection’s cheeky, light-hearted redefinition of ladylikeness.
The collection’s title is not only an ode to Magda’s creative sanctuary in the heart of Warsaw but also a reference to Paulina Ołowska’s painting The Studio, which depicts a woman painter inspired not only by another woman’s body but also by her character. The warmth, vulnerability, and understanding conveyed through the female gaze – so poignantly captured by the Polish painter who sat front row at the show – set the tone for the collection’s outlook on femininity, reveling in all its unexpected twists and turns.
Drawing equally from fine art traditions and pop culture, Ołowska’s vision of women fuels Butrym’s own. The glamorous, full-skirted heroines of the artist are iconified through a lens that fuses Slavic motifs and sylvan settings with fashion-forward sharpness and cinematic allure. In her practice, Ołowska tells not only her own stories but also those of other women — a perspective that intrigues Magda, encouraging her to draw cross-generational inspiration from figures as diverse as Leonor Fini (with her surrealist visions), Deborah Turbeville (and her mysterious dames), and Sarah Lucas (and her leg-centric silhouettes). Femininity here is not constant; it is a spectrum in flux. She is many.
After the fashion show came a theatrical shift in setting – from runway to studio. For this occasion, I had the utmost pleasure of creating six large-format moodboards offering a rare glimpse into the creative process behind the collection, while simultaneously paying homage to Ołowska’s practice. In her extensive oeuvre, the artist often exhibited personal boards of inspiration as a form of self-retrospection – an act mirrored in Magda’s tribute.
Design & Culture by Ed 