Story by Editor-at-Chief Carolina Ogliaro
Joseph Altuzarra’s Fall/Winter 2026/27 collection at New York Fashion Week was less a seasonal statement on how to reconcile utility with allure, restraint with flourish, and the ordinary with the expressive. The book placed on every seat, “How to Be Both” by Ali Smith, was an early clue to this season’s logic. Altuzarra is interested not in binaries but in coexistence: the way a wardrobe can serve many modes and the way a woman’s life demands garments that function as much as they provoke. It is a conceptual ambition that plays out physically on the body, not as a costume, but as clothing that carries its own contradictions with ease.
The collection pivoted around well‑worn archetypes like turtlenecks, trousers, and tailored outerwear, but injected them with gestures that complicated simplicity. Turtlenecks acquired elongated, almost cloaked backs; carpenter pants, in opulent textiles like suede and canvas, felt essential rather than decorative; skirts in chiffon and georgette, light and rhythmic, were paired with peacoats or leather jackets whose collars were exaggerated just enough to disrupt expectation without overwhelming it.
There was, in other words, drama, but the kind that comes from making familiar things feel vitality unfamiliar. Flamenco‑like movement in skirts spoke to gesture and rhythm freed from literal reference, while embellishment, whether tubular fringe or sparing beadwork, was employed as punctuation. Even lace, often a shorthand for romance, was used here as texture in a broader conversation about surface and depth.
Altuzarra’s palette was consonant with his intent: deep neutrals grounded the collection while strategic touches of color suggested warmth without sentimentality. The result was a series of clothes that felt lived in before they felt looked at, garments designed for someone whose wardrobe is an extension of her presence.
Altuzarra’s approach feels calibrated. He did not simplify; he focused. He did not shock, he revealed. The collection was totally about mastering it so thoroughly that it begins to feel effortless.
Viewed this way, his show was a manifesto of the intelligence of inhabiting a life. It is a rare ambition in fashion to make commonplace clothes feel consequential, and Altuzarra’s work this season point a focus that subtlety, when executed with precision, can quieten spectacle and sharpen meaning.
