SS26

La Grande Bellezza. Valentino SS26 Couture

| 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.

ED’s SELECTION:


Valentino Garavani Bow-embellished Shearling-trimmed Leopard-print Wool Coat



Valentino Garavani Belted Ruffled Embellished Silk-georgette Gown



Valentino Garavani Rockoco Embellished Taffeta-trimmed Suede Pumps



Valentino Garavani Bow-detailed Ruched Wool-crepe Wrap Jacket



Valentino Garavani Velvet-trimmed Satin-crepe Maxi Skirt



Valentino Garavani Fringed Beaded Satin Shoulder Bag

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Lightness. Chanel SS26 Couture

| Design & Culture by Ed

Matthieu Blazy’s debut Chanel couture collection was yet another triumph of beauty during these utterly mind-blowing days in Paris. The sense of haute lightness he managed to carry into this line-up – something one so often longed for during Virginie Viard’s tenure, and even at times during Karl Lagerfeld’s – is nothing short of unbelievable. Near-transparent organza trousers played trompe-l’œil with denim. Flapper dresses were so airy they seemed like mist. “Ghost” 2.55 bags floated like medusas suspended in air.

Blazy did not lean heavily on Coco Chanel’s biography; instead, he returned to her attitude toward “clothes for women to go to work, to go to a play, the cinema, whatever,” as he put it. The oversized mushroom setting at the Grand Palais? I loved Tilda Swinton’s interpretation: symbols of ideas that magically grow after the rain. And you could see just how deeply obsessed she was with the collection – her eyes truly went starry at the sight of the dégradé velvet pyjama in shades of royal blue.

Can we also take a moment to appreciate the black suits, finished with quartz buttons and striking brooches? Just incredible. So Chanel, 100%. This was an elaborate take on contemporary couture – one that makes you daydream.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Untamed Beauty! Schiaparelli SS26 COuture

| Design & Culture by Ed

This really is a delightful couture season, with a renewed emphasis on the haute. Daniel Roseberry presented one of his strongest Schiaparelli collections to date – peacock-y enough to dazzle without tipping into gimmickry. “The idea,” he said, “was to keep the rigor of the last few seasons but make it far more expressive.”

Among the beautiful creatures stalking his runway were “Isabella Blowfish“, a rigorously cut tailleur bristling with spiny spikes and named after the late couture collector Isabella Blow, and a pair of “Infanta Terribles“: one a bustier top, the other a fitted jacket, both adorned with almost menacing scorpion tails that curved outward and upward from the small of the back. “Alien” meets the Sistine Chapel? Hell yes.

There was something extraterrestrial and otherworldly about the collection, yet also animalistic in the most untamed sense. Roseberry pushed that energy into new realms with a wing sprouting from the back of a strapless black dress, and with claws erupting from the breasts and shoulder blades of feathered jackets. Yes, there were unmistakable echoes of Alexander McQueen – but Roseberry is an A-plus student of fashion history, and he understands Schiaparelli as the ultimate sanctuary for fashion obsessions and passions, a place where they can freely collide, mingle, and fuse.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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All Is Full Of Love. Dior SS26 Couture

| Design & Culture by Ed

This haute couture season isn’t legendary only because of two debut collections at two major maisons. It will be remembered as the fashion week when couture finally leaped into a new era. It is relevant again.

Jonathan Anderson’s Dior collection had been in the making for over six months, and it shows in every single detail. Everything is imbued with passionate love for craft, art, and… FASHION. John Galliano not only blessed the project, but in a way initiated its birth with a cyclamen bouquet he gifted Anderson at the very beginning of his tenure at the house. The fragile purple flowers – symbols of lasting feelings, sincere affection, and tender love – were not only present in the show’s scenography, but were eternalized by Jean-Pierre Ollier’s atelier, which created thousands of handmade, hand-painted silk flowers. These blooms adorned the collection’s hero accessories: oversized brooches, bomb-shaped earrings, and more.

Above all, this was a couture show that exercised surrealism in the most extraordinary way, turning to the beauty of Mother Nature for inspiration. Dresses were airy like dandelions; skirts could easily be mistaken for hydrangea bushes; 18th-century-inspired portrait brooches were framed with orchids. One silk skirt in a subtle chinoiserie print appeared to explode with tiny green cones. The opening look’s bag referenced a couture hanger, yet it was entirely covered in hand-dyed, extra-long grass.

In the hands of another designer with the same haute couture possibilities, such effects might have veered into saccharine sweetness, or worse, princess-y costume. In Anderson’s, however, the collection struck with delightful eccentricity – and, above all, modernity. This was conveyed effortlessly through cool pink bangs (Sandy Hullett’s work), cocoon-like coats, and astonishing knitted dresses that quite literally flowed down the body. Jonathan Anderson has insisted that, for him, haute couture is something you collect. This enchanting, breathtaking collection could easily stand as the sole subject of a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition. Yet it also feels confident enough for a beautiful, bold life beyond the museum walls.

Yes – this is exactly what haute couture should be in 2026.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Super Nature. Paolo Carzana SS26

| Design & Culture by Ed

And just like that, this is my last review of 2025 – one that sat on the shelf a moment too long. But perhaps the untamed beauty, intimacy of scale, and contemplative energy of this London presentation make it a perfectly fitting year-end conclusion.

Paolo Carzana is a wizard: what he does with plant dyes and fabric is beyond mortal comprehension. Practice makes perfect, and years of mastering his craft have led the designer to his most accomplished collection yet. Inspired by Mother Earth and her super-nature – supernatural colours that defy belief, and the textures of plants and worlds in the making – Carzana sent ethereal, air- and earth-born messengers down the Reading Room of the British Library for his spring-summer 2026 fashion show.

Fragile, fragmentary garments in a myriad of tones – from aquatic to earthy, from translucent to sun-burnt – drape the body like air or liquid, leaving behind an ephemeral, haute-poetic impression impossible to counterfeit. The alchemy of Carzana’s looks was completed by Nasir Mazhar, whose equally transfixing headwear heightened their spell. Asymmetrical fabric drapes – abstract, shell-like bonnets and paper scrolls evoking feathers – deepened the organic potency of the collection.

The London-based designer moves slowly, refusing to abide by the fashion industry’s relentless logic of more, more, more. Let 2026 be the year we rethink old ways of operating – and make space for a new generation of designers to truly capture hearts, just like Galliano and Gigli did back in the day.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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