style

Innocence. Chloé Pre-Fall 2026

| Design & Culture by Ed

There’s just something about Chemena Kamali’s Chloé girl that never grows tiresome. Yes, she has a fixation on the past – but it’s a charming one. For pre-fall 2026 – shot by Mark Kean, who has an incredible way of capturing blown-out hair and a certain innocence in his subjects – Kamali proposes a strikingly chic formula: a basic henley elevated by a draped pencil skirt and a leather basque belt. Easy, flirty, fun. Elsewhere, a ruffled blouse – modeled after the Chloé dress Karl Lagerfeld designed for Paloma Picasso’s wedding – is dressed down with stretch-velvet stirrup pants, creating a look that feels Parisian in a postcard way, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Kamali is only approaching her third year at Chloé, yet it feels as though she’s been thriving there for an era (she did, after all, work at the house under Phoebe Philo’s helm in the early 2000s, so this tracks). She has rebuilt the brand into a sanctuary of unpretentious, witty femininity, with each collection reading as a natural continuation of the last. Kamali herself notes, “what I get as feedback is that you can mix the collections quite well – pieces from the first show with last season’s pre-collection, say.” This isn’t a PR line; it’s a fact easily observed on the streets of Paris.

ED’s SELECTION:


Chloé Tiered Organic Silk-mousseline Maxi Skirt



Chloé Eve Suede Over-the-knee Boots



Chloé Embellished Cotton-velvet Jacket



Chloé Gathered Tie-detailed Lace-trimmed Silk-satin Mini Dress



Chloé Wool-crepe Straight-leg Pants



Chloé Jeanette Studded Platform Clogs

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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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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Debonair Cool. Magda Butrym Pre-Fall 2026

| Design & Culture by Ed

Introducing Magda Butrym’s pre-fall 2026 lookbook: an updated wardrobe imbued with a modern sense of urgency.

In this latest pre-collection, Magda reflects on the meaning of elegance – something fragile and subtle, expressed as much through attitude as through form. For the Warsaw-based designer, elegance is refined yet spontaneous, sophisticated but never complicated. It is about impeccably constructed garments in which a woman can move and feel at ease, never constrained. They carry an unmistakable, debonair cool. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.

Credits:

Creative Director: Magda Butrym
Photographer: Robin Galiegue
Video: Tatiana + Karol
Stylist: Jacob Kjeldgaard
Talents: Karyna Maziar, Athiec Geng, Kris Krystal
Styling Assistant: Ioana Ivan
Make-Up: Lucy J. Bridge
Hair: Damien Boissinot
Nails: Marzena Kanclerska
Set Design: Anna Szczęsny
Art Coordinator: Edward Kanarecki
Casting: Piergiorgio at DM Casting

ED’s SELECTION:


Magda Butrym Crocheted Cotton Hat



Magda Butrym Embroidered Cotton-blend Jacket



Magda Butrym Ruched Floral-print Stretch-silk Mock-neck Top



Magda Butrym Studded Snake-effect Leather Wedge Mules



Magda Butrym Brigitte Embellished Suede Tote



Magda Butrym Crocheted Cotton Mini Skirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Defiance. Yohji Yamamoto AW26

| Design & Culture by Ed

Yohji Yamamoto, a designer so often – and so productively – faithful to black, detonated expectations this season. Guests entering the show space were met by two suspended speed bags, hovering between the ceiling and the runway. When the models emerged, some punched the bags, others barely brushed them; one kissed one, while a few simply stared. It was a telling prelude to a collection about confrontation and restraint, aggression and dignity – about how clothing can act as a kind of moral armor.

On the runway, that armor took tangible form. Yamamoto delivered one of his most colorful collections in years, though “colorful” here still meant disciplined, weighted, serious. The opening looks carried militaristic undertones: camouflage patterns coated double-breasted jackets and padded boilersuits, establishing a mood of readiness. Voluminous overcoats were paired with trousers cut from meaty corduroy and utilitarian jumpsuits in thick cotton, many printed with paint-like marks that looked less decorative than combative.

Elsewhere, padded coats arrived in stony beige; hair was teased into frizzy, defiant bouffants; and crushed beer cans were reassembled into a waistcoat and headgear – wry, César Baldaccini–inspired gestures that felt like survivalist poetry. In a fashion system obsessed with novelty and noise, Yamamoto continues to propose something rarer: clothes as stance, as shield, as a way of moving through the world with controlled defiance. It is precisely this posture – sharp, slightly arrogant, unyielding – that makes him not just relevant, but essential, one of the last designers of his generation for whom dressing remains an ethical act.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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