MARTINE ROSE
*SS/26: Martine designs for family.
And this is what love looks like.
written TAGEN DONOVAN
Martine Rose’s Spring/Summer 2026 show didn’t just present a collection, she offered a living portrait of London as seen through her deeply personal lens of the city.
Staged inside a derelict Marylebone Jobcentre, the space opened up into an unexpected salon: cascading curtains, parquet floors, and soft silky frills transformed the formerly institutionalised space into something strangely romantic. The show was a "lust for the unseen"—and it delivered with uncanny precision.
RIMOWA Design Prize III Ceremony
seen by Marc Krause
There was a deep sense of mutual care, community not curated for optics but nurtured with sincerity. The atmosphere was unmistakably authentic and as a Londoner, it felt profoundly familiar: the chatter, the kids perched on laps, the casual flow of movement that didn’t obey the stiff codes of runway etiquette. Here, fashion didn’t preach from a pedestal, it mingled, nodded, and danced alongside the crowd. The pulsing soundtrack carried the same mood: with heads gently bobbing along in unison.
Rose’s tailoring has always walked a line between refinement and rebellion. This season, that language expanded. The cuts held their own character, sharp where needed, in-flux elsewhere. Graphics informed by juice-carton packaging and barbershop capes honoured the visual vernacular of the high street. Little aprons in lascivious fabrics nodded to the micro-economies running off-grid. And throughout, the thread of community held everything together.
“In the age of the obvious, we lust for the unseen.”
Martine Rose, Creative Director
Toying with archetypes, and for Spring/Summer 2026, Rose sharpened her subversion. The collection flirted with eroticism—albeit in her signature off-kilter way, a subtle seduction unfolded with each look. Inspired by “retro erotica” the garments exuded quiet provocation.
Poodle hair and powdery pastels dressed the space with a dreamlike intimacy against the thoughtful contradiction of the utilitarian backdrop, while the clothes themselves explored new textures of exposure. Archetypal menswear was remixed: puffa jackets, trench coats, tailoring and shirts rendered in stretch fabrics that “virtually vacuum-packed the physique.” Stretch jeans hugged the legs like a second skin; denim sets were embossed to mimic tooled leather souvenirs from Spanish markets - part kink, part kitsch. Elsewhere, tailoring was softened with accents of lace, dancing against the set’s ruffled edges.
Echoing this charm through to the accessories, handbags wore vintage T-shirts like veils. Even the footwear told stories: driving shoes mutated into square-toed kitten heels, while the cult-favourite Nike Shox MR4 mules reemerged into new colourways.
Kinship wove itself into every corner of the show. Downstairs, the show's prelude played out in a market of vendors. It was here that the heart of the collection beat loudest. Rose doesn’t simply reference the community - she builds with and for it. This wasn’t fashion as gentrification, but fashion as home. “Total participation” , as stamped across one of Rose’s SS26 tees—was less slogan, more manifesto. Every element of this world, from kids sitting front-row on laps to the sway of the soundtrack, echoed a philosophy of togetherness.
MARTINE ROSE
SS26 Show
For Spring/Summer 2026, Rose distills a lived reality into garments surged with a charming wit and love for community. Centering an embrace of the unobvious and a reaffirmation thatfashion can still feel homegrown, messy, sensual and above all, real. This wasn’t just a show, it was a gathering shaped by unity.
creative director MARTINE ROSE
stylist & art direction TAMARA ROTHSTEIN
hair GARY GILL
make up MARINA BELFON-ROSE
manicurist LAUREN MICHELLE PIRES
casting ISABEL BUSH
music + sound design SASA CRNOBRNJA
pr AGENCY ELEVEN
production CEBE STUDIO
show set design POLLY PHILP
market set design SIMON GRAY + JAMIE BULL
movement direction MJ HARPER
show notes ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN