In a season of debuts that reminded us how few women still sit at the helm of major fashion houses, Kiko Kostadinov co-creative directors Laura and Deanna Fanning explored femininity through a woman-centered lens. Their spring 2026 collection was a challenge to traditional shapes with the design duo’s signature architectural perspective.
They took cues from painter Christina Ramberg, whose works focused on anatomical and blocky drawings of female bodies and clothing, and asked how fashion might radicalize the female form.
The collection became “something that feels quite structural and almost armor-like, but at the same time super feminine,” Laura Fanning said backstage after the show.
That idea translated into rectangular, shelf-like bodices suspended over the breast, futuristic panniers, and plastrons that shielded the torso but revealed slivers of soft belly skin, paired with low-waisted draped skirts, gauzy knits and hand-dyed second-skin tops. The silhouettes suggested protection, and any sexiness was not overt but presented as being on one’s own terms.
Ramberg’s influence also surfaced in an abstract way on jagged, inky graphics that were hand-sketched, then developed into cotton prints by Italian mills. That collaborative textile work extended to pinstripes and jacquards, many made with menswear mills for a structural sharpness.
A second reference point came from Lina Wertmüller’s 1970s films, particularly “The Seduction of Mimi.” Shawl-collar suits, rounded drop-shoulder jackets that cocooned the body and oversize patch pockets brought a bit of retro femininity and color. That time was one of bright possibility for women, Fanning said, while this moment feels far more uncertain.
Beyond technique, the collection delivered on the designers’ point of view that women should be the ones defining their femininity, all while playing with the codes of the traditional hourglass curves and shape.
And for those ready to buy into their vision, the brand’s very first European boutique is slated to open in London in mid-November.