Tailored Expositions: vivienne Westwood SS26 Is so cool

Prince used to dance in laces, ruffles, heels, and makeup in flowing clothing and traditionally feminine silhouettes. In doing so, he did not abandon his masculinity; he expanded it. Something similar was proposed in Vivienne Westwood’s Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection. Much like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, the runway at Café Rivoli, an authentic Italian café, during Milan Fashion Week brought forth the idea that gender is a performance. Brilliant. It was as exciting as David Bowie, as elegant as a dandy in an Oscar Wilde play, and as flamboyant as the Chevalier d’Eon.

Creative director Andreas Kronthaler presented an aesthetic mired in subversive gender and sensitive silhouettes, in a near-theatrical atmosphere that included platform high heels, dresses, floral motifs, and skirts. Amazingly, all these traditionally feminine sartorial resources did not tarnish the masculine figure; they just reimagined it through the unconventional exaggerations of male proportions. It was explosive and as revolutionary as Garibaldi, who appeared on one of the red shirts on the runway.

The outfits were a lesson in walking in someone else’s shoes. That is perhaps the reason for the use of so many rescued materials for the collection, true to the house’s focus on sustainability. Still, amid the upcycled textiles, luxury cloths and rich fabrics were not amiss. Aesthetically gorgeous, sartorially masterful, and philosophically impeccable, the collection is to be suited and booted.