Royal favourite Emilia Wickstead trades demure daywear for bold colour and balloon hems

Ex-Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour was among those to take her seat at Emilia Wickstead’s spring/summer 2026 show, her presence a sign of the designer’s increasingly assured place in the British fashion calendar.

Known for dressing the Princess of Wales in pared back but striking designs – this season marked a shift for Wickstead: still recognisably her, but exploring more daring cuts and colours.

Inspired by celebrity photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s muses, Wickstead used the idea of subtle power and controlled exposure as a thread through the collection.

One dress, in saturated cobalt blue, had a soft balloon hem and a high gathered neckline: styles that will continue to trend next season. It moved easily but retained its shape, an example of Wickstead’s interest in balancing fluidity with structure.

A few looks later came a sharp contrast in neon yellow: a dress with a drop-peplum skirt that skimmed as opposed to cling.

The effect across these pieces was of clothes designed to be worn, not simply looked at – Wickstead’s hallmark formality reframed for women who want confidence as well as refinement.

The same theme carried through separates. A grey tank top and loose pleated trousers, stripped of decoration, acted as a palette cleanser between the bright dresses.

A pink V-neck sweater tucked into a yellow lattice-print skirt was unexpectedly strong; the print could have been whimsical but felt deliberate thanks to the clean cut and solid fabric.

A denim-blue corseted dress with a flaring skirt nodded to workwear but stopped short of costume. Square necklines, visible seams and bare shoulders appeared repeatedly, drawing the eye without relying on overtly sexualised shapes.

Print and pattern were handled with expected restraint. The windowpane check in yellow and red reappeared in several looks – a scarf tied as a head wrap, a bias-cut skirt, a full dress – giving the collection a solid anchor without becoming a gimmick.

Black dresses scattered with small florals evoked Mapplethorpe’s flower studies but kept their distance from literal reference. Even the most revealing look, a lime bustier with a black balloon-hem skirt, was held together by a simple ribbon at the shoulder, a small sign of Wickstead’s instinct for balance and symmetry.

What stood out was a new kind of boldness in Wickstead’s work.

Shoulders and backs are exposed but framed; skirts have volume but not weight; colours are intense but used sparingly.

Like her contemporaries, it seems this season, Wickstead is leaning into maximalism.

You could trace a line from Wickstead’s early made-to-measure dresses to these more sculptural, more confident pieces.

The workmanship was obvious in the clean joins of chiffon to seam, in the neat darting, in the way the fabric moved with the models rather than against them.

The setting helped – a marble-tiled room in the designer’s Chelsea showroom with daylight streaming in let the clothes speak for themselves.

The muted sound of shoes on stone underscored the collection’s focus on wearability.

When Anna Wintour rose to leave at the end, the collection had already made its point.

Wickstead is still refining rather than revolutionising, but this was a clear sign she’s ready to step beyond the niche of “ladylike” and into something more relevant.