Last season, Kiko Kostadinov explored the art of fictional island living, creating a space of liminality and unconventionality. In another shapeshifting endeavour, this season saw the Bulgarian designer “return to the primary language of construction and material,” cleansing the palette for a FW26 refresh. Opting to avoid imagining an “end user or framing narrative,” this season saw Kostadinov turn to the work of Dutch Benedictine monk and architect, Dom Hans van der Laan. A key figure in the traditionalist Bossche School, who developed a practice focused on the precision of numerical relationships, this methodical approach was seemingly adopted by Kostadinov when building his streamlined silhouettes.

Keeping on theme, the showspace was populated with three sculptures by American artist Oscar Tuazon, models weaving between the minimal structures as they hit the runway. Garments arrived in geometric forms, with jackets accented by origami folds or blousons built with curving shoulders. Fluidity remained a constant throughout, pieces draped, wrapped, and tied together to create the illusion of free-flowing silhouettes, with indecipherable pieces blurring the lines between trousers and skirts. A muted colour palette of blacks, blues, greys and creams was interrupted by vibrant reds and yellows, appearing not just on garments but on models’ hair as wig bands by Tomihiro Kono billowed over their eyes.