Collina Strada SS26: Shade — A Study in Light and Darkness
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By PAGE Editor
On Thursday, September 11, 2025, Hillary Taymour unveiled Shade, Collina Strada’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, at New York’s 6 East River Piers. The runway was a meditation on duality, pairing light with shadow, innocence with rebellion, and playfulness with severity. Guests including Taylor Momsen, Bella Poarch, Amaya Elizabeth, Ella Emhoff, Meg Donnelly, Maggie Lindemann, Mickey Sumner, Whitney Port, Beka Gvishiani, and Luke Meagher gathered for one of fashion week’s most conceptually daring presentations.
Anchored in Carl Jung’s words — “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious” — the collection explored the “shadow self.” Taymour translated this philosophy into paired looks: each vibrant ensemble appeared with its darker twin, reframing the same silhouettes through a lens of black satin, organza, lace, and velvet. A butter-yellow Lily Dress became a jet-black satin slip; picnic plaids gave way to crushed velvets and floral jacquards; playful cargo shorts found their alter egos in stark monochrome.
The message was both aesthetic and political. For Taymour, embracing shadow is not only about personal reckoning but also about confronting today’s collective crises: climate collapse, assaults on rights, inequality, and displacement. Shade asks us to see clearly, to embrace solidarity, and to recognize that even the darkness has a form of beauty.
Styling by Jorden Bickham, art direction by Charlie Engman, hair by Mustafa Yanaz for Bumble and Bumble, and makeup by Isamaya Ffrench for Lashify amplified the drama. Converse and KEEN co-created footwear that blurred utility and subversion, while Awe Inspired jewelry lent mythic resonance.
As always, Collina Strada fused activism with spectacle. Known for tackling social issues on the runway, Taymour positioned Shade as more than fashion—it was a call to acknowledge both our brightest and darkest instincts. If light casts shadow, Collina Strada showed us how to inhabit both with radical honesty and, yes, chic defiance.
See full runway:
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