Erdem presents Autumn Winter 2026 as a twentieth anniversary collection for the independent London house. Titled The Imaginary Conversation, the season reflects on two decades of dialogue through fashion. The collection honors the voices and stories that shaped Erdem across twenty years and frames them within a renewed exchange between past and present.
FALL WINTER 2026 WOMENSWEAR
Erdem revisits characters who defined earlier chapters of the house. Gowns and coats associated with figures such as Debo, Maria Callas, Madame Yvonde, and Radclyffe Hall return in altered form. Adele Astaire and Marianne North reappear within the cast. References extend to a piece of music Duke Ellington wrote for a Queen and to the ceremonial presence of the Velazquez infanta. Each figure enters the collection through garments that carry earlier codes while adopting revised cut, silhouette, material, or motif.
The collection gathers looks from the archive and subjects them to transformation. Erdem reworks familiar shapes and recombines fabrics. Designers drape and layer garments, patchwork pieces together, and hold forms in visible dialogue. Tropes from previous seasons appear inverted or undone, as if drawn from a wardrobe emptied and reconsidered. The process suggests evolution within continuity, where garments absorb new meaning through reinterpretation.
Erdem describes the collection as an imaginary conversation that began twenty years ago. He frames it as an exchange between memory and imagination, past and present. Writers lean toward dancers. Botanists listen to actresses. Outsiders interrupt icons. The conversation resists neat definition and welcomes disagreement. Letters, underlined books, paintings, photographs, memories, and silences inform this exchange. Fashion serves as the medium through which these voices find expression.
The designer emphasizes continuity over nostalgia. He rejects the idea of a single voice and insists on plurality. The dialogue links earlier work to current practice and projects it forward. Through this framework, Autumn Winter 2026 functions as both reflection and projection, drawing from the archive while shaping what follows.
A bridal dress from Erdem’s first show in 2006 returns for this anniversary season. The gown features a voluminous gathering of skirts that conveys defiance and uplift. Its reappearance bridges origin and present, anchoring the collection in the house’s founding moment while acknowledging twenty years of growth. Erdem dedicates the collection to his studio team and thanks those who supported the house across its history. The Imaginary Conversation continues, sustained by the exchange between past lives and present form.
Styling Marie-Amélie Sauvé
Casting Ben Grimes
Hair Eugene Souleiman for Kevin Murphy
Makeup Fara Homidi for Fara Homidi Beauty
Nails Joely Frain for Glossify
Skincare SkinCeuticals
Millinery Noel Stewart
Production OBO
Music Lukas Heerich
Photography Jason Lloyd Evans
Video InDigital
