Anteprima’s Spring/Summer 2026 show was a visual meditation on impermanence, memory, and the quiet strength found in the everyday. Staged during Milan Fashion Week, the brand’s latest collection, led by creative director Izumi Ogino, marked a rare and thoughtful collaboration with Japanese sculptor Takahiro Iwasaki, whose delicate miniature installations inspired the core philosophy behind the designs.
Titled “Echoes of Transience,” the show explored the poetic idea of building beauty from fragility. The runway was reimagined as a reflective construction site, complete with a still pond that mirrored the models’ movements and the intricate textures of their garments. The space evoked both decay and rebirth — a subtle nod to Iwasaki’s hometown of Hiroshima, a city that embodies both destruction and regeneration.
Ogino drew directly from Iwasaki’s use of unconventional materials like hair, dust, and thread — elements that, in his art, are used to construct impossibly intricate towers and suspended temples. That delicate architectural spirit translated beautifully into the collection.
Lightweight knits, translucent layers, and soft, flowing silhouettes conveyed a sense of weightlessness. Yet beneath that ethereal quality lay strong, structured shapes — echoing Iwasaki’s balance of fragility and form.
The garments didn’t shy away from texture. Metallic yarns shimmered under the lights, while recycled threads and sheer fabrics played with depth and transparency.
These tactile contrasts emphasized the duality at the heart of the show: the tension between the temporary and the eternal, between material breakdown and creative renewal.
Color played a powerful supporting role. Vivid blues, greens, and yellows mingled with soft pastels like ivory, mint, and peach. Shades of lilac and wisteria gave the palette a dreamlike quality, while striking hits of orange appeared on sculptural accessories — a symbol of intervention, construction, and humanity’s imprint on the world.
Several looks directly referenced Iwasaki’s work. One featured a print lifted from one of his installations, translated onto breathable mesh knitwear.
A model, fashion detail, walks the runway at the Anteprima fashion show Spring/Summer 2026 during the Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2026 at Scuola Militare Teulié on September 25, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photos by Pietro S. D’Aprano/Getty Images for Anteprima)
Elsewhere, cotton polo tops and skirts mimicked industrial nets, turning utilitarian design into high fashion. Outerwear was reimagined too — with short trenches and coats bearing trompe-l’œil detailing that blurred the line between reality and illusion.
But what made the collection resonate was its sincerity. Ogino didn’t just borrow visual cues from Iwasaki’s art — she embedded his worldview into the garments themselves.
The collection was a quiet celebration of transformation: of using what’s discarded or overlooked to create something lasting, meaningful, and unexpectedly beautiful.
Anteprima SS26 was a timely reminder that fashion can be contemplative as well as expressive — that in a world of fast consumption, there is still room for reflection, for slowness, for the subtle power of reimagining the ordinary.
