Erdem Fall/Winter 2026: “The Imaginary Conversation” — A Dialogue Twenty Years in the Making

On February 22, Erdem presented its Fall/Winter 2026 collection at London Fashion Week.

Titled The Imaginary Conversation, the collection marks the house’s 20th anniversary. The theme proposed for this milestone season is “dialogue” — one that unfolds between past and present, memory and imagination.

Erdem Moralıoğlu reflected: “Twenty years ago, I began an imaginary conversation. Not a monologue and never a single voice, but a continuous exchange between past and present, memory and imagination, with women whose lives and legacies resonate across time and beyond borders.”

He continued: “Their voices bring the past into the present, from which we build our future. The dialogue goes on. This is not a show about nostalgia, but about continuity.”

The collection stands as both a rereading of the women Erdem has envisioned over the past two decades and a renewal of them.

Inheritance and Transformation

The opening look, emerging within a classical architectural setting, featured a tailored floral jacquard jacket — emblematic of the brand — paired with an icy blue skirt scattered with delicate embroidery. A lace ruff peeked from the structured neckline, evoking a Victorian sensibility, while a cinched sash at the waist introduced fluid movement. Though the historical references were unmistakable, the silhouette remained resolutely modern.

Throughout the collection, what resonated most was not mere “quotation” but “recontextualization.” Figures such as Debo, Maria Callas, Madame Yvonde, and Radclyffe Hall were not depicted directly but reconstructed through form, embellishment, and texture.

A double-breasted grey tweed coat was boldly appliquéd with black florals — a coexistence of severity and romanticism. Elsewhere, a strapless floral corset paired with a denim-like skirt and adorned with a pink ribbon intersected 19th-century volume with a distinctly 1990s street sensibility.

Research rooted in books unfolded into draping, layering, and patchworking. Fragments of different eras overlapped and peeled back like torn wallpaper in an old mansion. That very process embodied the essence of The Imaginary Conversation.

The Poetics of Volume

Feathers became another defining motif this season. An off-white feathered dress enveloped the body while swaying lightly, creating the sensation of wearing air itself. A multicolored feather coat layered painterly hues that seemed to bleed into one another, presenting garments as canvases in motion.

Meanwhile, homage to the archive was unmistakable. A reinterpretation of a 2006 bridal gown reemerged as a dramatically gathered, voluminous skirt. Both defiant and uplifting, the silhouette spoke to the maturity of a brand shaped by twenty years of evolution.

The Dialogue Continues

In the final passage of the show, structured pleated dresses and asymmetrical gowns boldly combining contrasting materials appeared.

Embroidery, taffeta, tulle, knit — disparate vocabularies formed a single sentence, transforming clothing itself into a site of conversation.

This was not a show about longing for the past.
It was a key — one that moves between past and present in order to unlock the future.

See all looks from the Erdem Fall/Winter 2026 collection in the gallery below.

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