What if Pina Bausch and industrial designer Dieter Rams had a conversation?
He, the master of minimalism, restraint and clarity; she, the revolutionary choreographer who was all about the portraiture of raw emotions in movement.
The fictional sit-down talk between the two German legends informed the Boss spring 2026 collection — a study in contradictions, or paradoxes, as the show’s title suggested.
In a backstage scrum post-show, Marco Falcioni said that the team has been exploring the archives, “not from a garment point of view, but from the value point of view. All these associations with sport, but art were quite paradoxical to find. And then we went down deeper, and we found the same contrast in German culture.”
So tailoring was reconfigured via layering, its lived-in quality conveyed with unbuttoned shirt-on-shirts and flimsy ties and unorthodox proportions, as in the men’s culotte shorts worn with suspenders or the women’s exaggeratedly oversized pants paired with slouchy silky shirts featuring untied neck scarves. They evoked undressing in the after-hours rather than the suiting up for a business day in corporate-land.
Would Bausch and Rams ever talk about the office space? Probably not, but that’s Boss’ bread and butter.
The dichotomy between rigor and ease trickled down to unexpected details and alluring juxtapositions for out-of-office attire, such as the functional slit pockets and plunging back-baring V neckline on the sack-like, ankle-length dress sported by breakthrough model Amelia Grey, or the fluid bias-cut jersey top over lean and crisp sartorial pants. Supple leather was plied into shortened car coats with a glossy finish and sweeping tan trenches, the latter sported by K-pop sensation and Seventeen group member S.Coups to close the show.
David Beckham enjoyed the spectacle front row, donning a chocolate brown velvet suit and navy turtleneck. His outfit couldn’t differ more than the collection he had just witnessed. But Falcioni’s intent is primarily to explore new facets of Boss, beyond the white collar uniform.
A runway-long shimmering swath of fabric, hung on the ceiling via wires, hovered over the models, billowing in a scenographic choreography of controlled chaos, very much a reflection of the collection’s captivatingly dissonant ethos.
“It was all about evoking the German sturm und drang,” Falcioni said.