Fashion has a reputation for being a little too distant. Most collections keep you at arm’s length, all cool detachment and spectacle. But every now and then, something with a heartbeat comes along and rewires the narrative. That’s what I found in Masha Popova’s Autumn / Winter ‘26 collection. There’s a sense of real intimacy, like slipping backstage at a runway and catching the models laughing in their slips. It’s an electric moment that reminds you why you fell for fashion in the first place.
This is grit and softness: clothes designed to be lived in, remembered, maybe even missed when you’re not wearing them. That’s why I wanted to listen before the house even started talking.
Now, let’s see how the house spins its own tale.
“Sleep dresses, dressing gowns and florals sit against traditionally masculine codes: bomber, riding and aviator jackets, not quoted directly, but softened and reimagined into silhouettes that feel lived-in and emotionally weighted. Florals blur and diffuse; embroidery dissolves into lace-like surfaces, as if seen through a dream. Denim, leather and outerwear are manipulated to feel less rigid and more intimate, with surfaces that suggest history.
Denim remains central, reworked through hand-finished treatments that soften, wear and transform the surface. Treated denim is built into sculpted eveningwear forms, tactile surfaces and layered volumes. Leather returns in layered, hand-applied colour and coatings, rubbed back to reveal flashes of underlying artwork; floral imagery is embedded within the surface, emerging gradually through wear.
Embroidery is treated as material rather than decoration, from lace-like constructions to fully engineered garments built entirely from embroidery without base fabric. Hand-brushed techniques create soft, mohair-like surfaces that feel tactile, almost fragile. Silk, wool and cellulose-based fabrics run through the collection, printed and treated to achieve softened, worn effects. Outerwear that reads as technical is developed entirely from cellulose-based fibres, even down to the trims, subverting expectations of utility.
Jersey is pushed into ultra-lightweight territory, burnout-treated into paper-thin, mesh-like layers. Knitwear enters Popova’s vocabulary for the first time, reinterpreted through embossed and three-dimensional treatments.
Intimate Hours lingers in the slow light before morning, when identity feels fluid, form is still undecided, and the outside world has yet to intervene.”
CREATIVE DIRECTION & DESIGN
MASHA POPOVA
STYLING
CELESTINE COONEY
CASTING
CAROLA MONTELEONE
COMMUNICATIONS
RAVEN
PRODUCTION
FARAGO PROJECTS
MAKE-UP
LAUREN REYNOLDS
HAIR
SARAH JO PALMER
HAIR BY SAM MCKNIGHT
NAILS
LIIA ZOTOVA
MUSIC
IVO PACHECO
JEWELLERY
FLORENCE TÉTIER
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO
JAKE PEARCE, MARTHA MOSSE, ROLY WAMSLEY, ROMAN LATA AT DESIGUAL, RAVEN, SLYVIA FARAGO, PAULINA GARZA, ANASTASIIA HALUSHKO, SOYEON HAN, FINLAY WHITE-NEWTON, KRISTIE LAI, MELANIE STEWART-JONES, JERROD KOUTROS, ANNA MARIA SOMMA, ALI ZILANOVA, ROBYN THOMPSON, WILLOW ASHBY AND RAFAEL KESSISIS