After taking the Carolina Herrera resort collections to Rio de Janeiro and Mexico Metropolis, Wes Gordon determined to deliver spring 2026 assortment to Madrid. He took over the Plaza Mayor, which dates again to the sixteenth century, erecting a 450-meter runway in Carolina Herrera’s signature shade of pink. Gordon went all-in, searching for inspiration in his host nation’s historical past. “It’s a mix of the Golden Age of Spain, which is the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the Movida which was within the ’80s,” he defined the day earlier than the present at a makeshift atelier in a lodge ballroom.
The Móvida, refers to a cultural motion that emerged within the Nineteen Eighties following the autumn of Francisco Franco, that mirrored younger individuals’s newfound freedom and manifested itself via the humanities, particularly music and movie. (The director Pedro Almodóvar, carefully related to the motion in his early years, was current on the present, and a throughout our preview Gordon referred to many appears as “very Penelope” as in Cruz.)
The present opened with a grandiose black ballgown that gave the impression to be made out of as many meters of taffeta because the runway was lengthy “proper out of the Prado,” as Gordon described it. It was a sweeping assertion that the designer was good sufficient to know solely wanted to be made as soon as.
With this assortment, it appears Gordon has hit his stride; among the many 77 appears there prevailed a contemporary and youthful spirit, particularly along with his alternative of an ankle-length silhouette which felt contemporary on his “Meninas” voluminous skirts. Toreador-inspired black pedal pusher pants, just like the all-over beaded variations worn with a structured corset and accessorized with a easy fringed wire, had been additionally clear winners.
Gordon typically includes native artists and artisans in his vacation spot collections—capes from heritage maker Casa Seseña, glass equipment from Levens, and ceramic flowers from Andres Gallardo; however this season he additionally collaborated with two up to date designers. The Madrid-based Sybilla created a collection of shift clothes with floating panels in shades of Herrera pink and black, and Palomo Spain’s Alejandro Gómez Palomo took on the basic white shirt; his tunic and ankle-length types with a popped collar and voluminous sleeve had been actually a spotlight.
And oh, the florals! “Herrera is a home of flowers,” Gordon mentioned matter-of-factly, and for spring he zeroed-in on three very Spanish ones: the rose, the carnation, and the violet. A white cotton corseted gown layered over a white button-down shirt, all embroidered with pink carnations was one of many appears that greatest captured the designer’s temper for the season, one other was the opulently embellished gold items that nearer the present. “All the things was pushed, from textile growth to embroideries; simply to actually reside as much as the vocation,” Gordon mentioned at our preview. “I’m most happy with this assortment at present.” On the runway, it confirmed.
