Forgoing its spot on the London Fashion Week calendar this season, 16Arlington’s SS26 offering arrives as a lookbook documented by Charlotte Stouvenot. Marco Capaldo‘s vision of modern glamour has shape-shifted since the brand’s inception in 2019, reimagining 80s power dressing, transforming the oeuvre of David Lynch into sleek sexiness and taking inspiration from the floral sculptures of British artist Jesse Pollock across previous collections. This season, the designer’s vision of modern glamour is informed by decades of the past, traversing the lingerie of the 1920s, the angular shirting of the 1970s and the razor-sharp pencil skirts of the 1990s.

Capaldo’s woman exudes an air of eccentricity, mirrored in silhouettes built from spliced and tiered skirts layered over trousers, robes fashioned into cocooning trenches and denim embellished with crystals. Feathers and petals sprout from seams of slip dresses and delicate leather scarves, and trapeze totes and skirt hems are pierced with punkish caribeners. Textures and prints clash and harmonise in equal measure as a muted colour palette of dusty pinks, chocolate browns and butter yellows is punctuated by flashes of zebra, while intricate lace and delicate organza meet heavy beading and supple leather. In a return to the glitz and shimmer for which the brand is best known, Capaldo continues to crystallise his evolving portrait of the modern woman, kitting her out in a killer party dress and an attitude to match.