Story by Editor-at-Large CAROLINA OGLIARO
Roksanda Ilincic, with her Spring/Summer 2026 show, was unfolding two decades of identity. Commemorating 20 years, Roksanda’s SS26 acted as both celebration and evolution, each piece folding history into fresh aspiration. Inspired by Barbara Hepworth, the collection summons sculptural form, negative space, and emotional resonance, craft not as decoration but as architecture of shape and color.
Silhouettes alternated between strong and soft. Her signature bell sleeves, cocoon-like jackets and gowns modulated into pieces that curved and cut into the body with intent. The Margot dress (from SS12), Anya (SS16), and Cataline (AW22) returned, reimagined in new fabrics and vibrant tones.
These revivals were never retrospective indulgences but proof of a design language that has matured, shapes that once read volume now read precision, prints that once dazzled now whisper with hue and restraint. Textures played their part: raw raffia, fil coupé, organza layered over fluid silks, all manipulated to call attention to movement, air, and the gap between fabric and flesh.
Colour was emotion. Roksanda’s palette this season drifted from saturated royal blue and turquoise gowns to warm cinnamons and Venetian reds, balanced against soft neutrals and calming ivories. The contrast between the bold and the subdued created tension and, in tension, beauty. Tailoring remained important: modular trench coats, blade-sharp coats with exaggerated collars, fluid back vents that let fabric breathe. Even outerwear carried whisperings of femininity in its cut.
Roksanda has never been about fad or fleeting trends since her work has always been rooted in the study of form, art, and architecture. SS26 reinforces that enduring voice, the designer who understands that femininity is about the negative space, the pause, the sculptural silhouette. In this season and this milestone, Roksanda showed what consistency in vision looks like… bold, evolving, and deeply human.
