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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Dolls in Paris. Vaquera SS26

September 30, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

At the beginning of the month, I found myself thinking about how much Vaquera’s bravado and energy are missed in New York. Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee have now fully relocated their operations to Paris, and their affection for fun and fashion – both with capital “F’s” – has an intoxicating effect. You can’t help but smile when you see their fabulous hats swathed in netting, worn so nonchalantly with draped party frocks in clashing fabrics and over-the-top volumes. Keeping things lighthearted and doll-like, their mini-dresses (some in kitschy-chic prints) were really only half a dress, suspended from one side of a pointy cup bra and paired with track pants or a faux-fur skirt. The all-striped jersey look with a draped rosette on the shoulder? It’s a clear nod to Carrie Bradshaw in Paris, when she stepped out onto her Plaza Athénée hotel balcony to gaze at the Eiffel Tower. It’s safe to say that Paris now boasts two of New York’s finest – and utterly opposite – exports: The Row and Vaquera.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Bonkers Glam. Vaquera SS25

September 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Vaquera opened Paris Fashion Week with bonkers attitude – but one that is also commercially viable. “We’re still very punk in our roots,” said Bryn Taubensee, “but we’re asking ourselves, how can we also make it easy for people to understand and wear, and easy enough for us to survive?” Patric DiCaprio, the other half of Vaquera’s heart, put it more bluntly: “Shooting ourselves in the foot isn’t really where we see the future for our lives and this brand.” That’s why the spring-summer 2025 collection is all about Vaquera essentials – black bubble miniskirt with built-in bike shorts, bullet-bra tops and jersey tees with logos – with a provocateur twist. The XXL faux-fur coat is a joyous delight, just like the puffy ball-skirt in a kitschy, vintage-y chain print, styled with a monumental cloud-shaped. But there’s nothing whimsy about Vaquera, even their eveningwear as the New York-based duo styles it with over-sized rugby shirts and well-worn trainers.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Currency. Vaquera AW24

February 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s quite ironic that Vaquera, a formerly New York-based brand with the best humor in this industry, opens Paris Fashion Week. It’s like a pill for the overdose of snobbishness that will avalanche on us throughout these ten, long days. Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee are candid about the harsh reality of being designers in 2024. Through their clothes, they manage to communicate these oh-so-not-fashion, yet relatable on human level, dilemmas. The time crunch between seasons, lack of days off, their bank accounts. What really ticked them off this season, they said, is how much they found themselves caring about money. “Fashion these days is dominated by the crudest form of currency,” DiCaprio said. “We felt like in the past, artistic merit, a vision, and being punk was a bit more of a powerful currency.” And so, in a punk move, they developed an American currency print and graffiti’d Andrew Jackson’s eyes or painted over his face with hearts, and stamped the word FAKE over the White House. And then they used it for a matching button-down and tie, the cummerbund on a loose-fitting pair of trousers, and the three-dimensional rosette bodice on a cocktail dress. Toying with another currency – sex – there were cone bra tops and cone bra-printed t-shirts, titty twister tees à la their icon Vivienne Westwood. DiCaprio and Taubensee aren’t naive enough to think that (real) fashion is an artistic pursuit, but they aren’t cynical enough to believe that it’s all about dollars and cents, either. They would like a day off, but then again, they wouldn’t change it. “I’m grateful for where we are,” DiCaprio said.