Fashion! Fun! F*ck! Vaquera AW26

March 4, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

Fun! F*ck! Fashion!

Vaquera’s Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio’s autumn-winter 2026 collection is a reckless, badass love letter to fashion history. The opening looks echoed Rudi Gernreich and his eternally scandalous 1964 monokini. From there, the designers turned their scruffy lens toward Balenciaga’s 2006 collection by Nicolas Ghesquiere, in which he reinterpreted the great Cristobal Balenciaga’s radical experiments with shape. (Interestingly, about a year ago another Paris-based designer, De Pino, referenced the same collection – proof of just how seismic Ghesquière’s work once was.)

Amid this wild clash of worlds and styles, the Vaquera duo slipped in 1950s-inspired satin sack dresses—cut with risqué slits, so not quite so prim after all – alongside baby-doll peplum tops. “Interview“’s Dara Allen was obsessed; expect to see the looks on Addison Rae soon.

I’m on the fence about whether this already idea-saturated collection really needed the leather squares and triangles that covered the models’ bodies near the finale. Taubensee and DiCaprio excel at tweaking what’s stereotypically “pretty” or “classic,” and these avant-garde, Pierre Cardin-esque experiments felt somewhat disconnected from the rest. Still, they bring a welcome sense of humor to Paris, which can at times feel overly petulant.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Double. Julie Kegels AW26

March 4, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

Julie Kegels has a sharp instinct for the way women manage an entrance. Her latest collection, “Face Value“, is less about revelation than about calibration – how much to show, how long to hold back. She’s examining the gap between self and projection – and suggesting that the gap is where the real power sits. In a culture that mistakes exposure for honesty, she proposes that mystery still has value. That’s why the collection’s best idea is the double. Shadows are printed, mirrored, refracted in sequins. One model’s silhouette reappears on another look’s dress. Chandelier scraps cast real light; faux-crystal shadows lie flat on silk. The effect isn’t decorative so much as pointed: the image precedes the person. The zigzag leather masks land somewhere between superhero and fetish. They conceal – but theatrically. Control on the surface, vulnerability underneath. As in case of Kegels’ work, proportion does most of the work. Boiled-wool sweaters are shrunken and tense; collars climb the neck. Circular sleeves push the arms outward, nudging the body into a faintly defiant stance – a subtle piece of behavioral tailoring. Other sleeves are cut far back, pitching the torso forward, as if the wearer is slightly ahead of herself. She’s there, but the moment you blink – she’s already somewhere else.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Home. Hodakova AW26

March 3, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

I haven’t been this struck by fashion in a long time. What Ellen Hodakova Larsson did on the opening day of Paris Fashion Week was so profound, heart-wrenching, and purely beautiful that I almost wonder whether the term “fashion” even applies.

For autumn–winter 2026, Hodakova returned to the idea of home – a theme she has explored for some time, but which here felt more substantial and powerful than ever. True to her practice, she transformed everyday objects into garments: an itty-bitty bra fashioned from teacups; a rug crafted into a capelet; pieces incorporating parts of chairs. The effect was as subversive as when Meret Oppenheim covered a teacup in fur: feminine decorum gone rogue, yet also wildly sensual.

But the distortions and subtle provocations did not end there. Mirrors appeared as accessories – an ode to vanity, but also to introspection. Silken strands that snaked up the body and fastened at the neck (where zippers might once have been) were not samples of blonde hair, but horsehair violin strings. She imagined a musician impeccably dressed for a performance, only to lose herself entirely in the music. And the fur coats that seemed to levitate, hovering like oneiric corpses above the models’ bodies? A literal “home for the body”, staged in a manner reminiscent of an Olivier Saillard and Tilda Swinton performance.

Hodakova’s work is at once literal and strangely elusive: like a dream that floods you with feeling, only to dissolve the moment you awaken. That is not to say her clothes are ephemeral. On the contrary, she is a designer who, like few others, champions a return to meaty, tactile, hyper-real materiality. Her latest collection marks a striking plunge into the sartorial world, with deconstructed Harris Tweed jackets and coats anchoring the vision.

A very, very good start to Paris.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Mischievous. Saint Laurent AW26

January 30, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

Mischievous, horny, kinky – and chic – this is the ultimate Saint Laurent man as seen by Anthony Vaccarello. He’s the kind of guy Yves would have fallen in love with on a night out at Le Sept. He also makes women go crazy – in the same charged, homoerotic way “Heated Rivalry” does. Inspired by James Baldwin’s seminal novel “Giovanni’s Room“, Vaccarello was intrigued by the inner tension experienced by its protagonist. “I like the idea of being in contraction between something very conventional and something very sensual.” That tension was omnipresent in his autumn–winter 2026 collection, from printed silk ascots peeking out from the collars of crisp shirts to semi-sheer vinyl trench coats appearing in the latter half of the lineup. Stretch patent boots extending up the thighs? Corrado De Biase, Saint Laurent’s design director of shoes, knows exactly what he’s doing – and how to get the boys talking.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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La Grande Bellezza. Valentino SS26 Couture

January 29, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

Alessandro Michele’s second haute couture collection for Valentino is galaxies away from what he showed last year. Out with the heavy; in with the elevating. It’s purely Michele, yet it finally feels like Valentino – meaning la grande bellezza. It was clear the designer felt an added duty to deliver, and to make Garavani smile from fashion heaven. Viewed through the peepholes – or glory holes! – of circular Kaiserpanoramas, the collection became a voyeur’s dream. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.