New York Fashion Week kicked off with Collina Strada, the brand that has cemented itself as a cultural heartbeat of the city’s fashion scene. Designer Hillary Taymour doesn’t just create clothes—she creates worlds, and this season, that world is the Fempire.
As the Doomsday Clock ticks closer to midnight, the show imagines a radical reconfiguration of power—where care is currency and femininity refuses to be contained. Taymour takes what has been discarded—literally and figuratively—and reclaims it, from heirloom wedding dresses reworked into couture to men’s wool coats stripped down and reshaped with a softer sensibility.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about The Upcycle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart and their idea that sustainability isn’t about restriction or doing less harm—it’s about abundance. True sustainability, as they describe it, is about designing systems that give more than they take, where waste doesn’t exist because everything is continuously regenerated. Collina Strada embodies this philosophy in a way that few fashion brands do. This collection doesn’t frame sustainability as sacrifice—it turns it into excess, play, and transformation.
It’s a vision of the future that embraces queerness, excess, and contradiction, where fashion functions as both protection and protest. As Taymour says in the show notes, “Femininity is not a set of instructions. It’s a mess of beautiful contradictions—fierce and soft, dark and illuminating, private and protective, unapologetically visible and glam.”
The collection speaks through texture and transformation, playing with oversized silhouettes, deadstock fabrics, and layered contrasts. Below, we break down some of our favorite looks from the collection.
Look 5: Little Black Riding Hood
photo ©Charlie Engman
Pillow Coat – Black Floral Jacquard
Cypress Dress – Black Painted Daisy Satin
Lawn Cargo Pant – Navy Plaid Flannel
Factry x Collina Strada Ruffle Boots – Black
The first look in the show was a printed Pillow Coat, but my fave is this one in black floral jacquard. It’s a piece that feels protective but also gives drama –for those introverts who still like to be noticed.
Paired with the fluid drape of the Cypress Dress, the look captures the collection’s balance of softness and strength. The layering of the Lawn Cargo Pant underneath adds a casual irreverence, grounding the look in Collina Strada’s signature clash of textures and prints.
This outfit is for the feminine futurist, the one who knows that sometimes survival looks like wrapping yourself in layers and moving forward anyway.
Look 8: Girl Dinner, But Make It Fashion
photo ©Charlie Engman
Girl Dinner Tee – Organic Cotton Jersey
Iris Top – Leopard Peony Rose Sylk
Tap Shorts – Deadstock Yarns Black Knit Lace
Mist Belt – Black Deadstock Lace and Tulle
Puma x Collina Strada – Mostro Plaid Sneakers
Taymour’s ability to satirize internet culture while making it wearable is one of the many reasons Collina Strada remains essential. The ‘Girl Dinner’ Tee is an example of this—a nod to the viral TikTok trend, transformed into a layered, textural look that feels both playful and defiant.
Here, hyper-feminine elements—lace tap shorts, floral prints, and tulle layers—are given an edge by the Mist Belt, which cinches the waist like a Victorian corset meets post-apocalyptic survival gear. The Puma x Collina Strada sneakers ground the look, making it clear that this isn’t about passive femininity—it’s about movement, adaptability, and refusing to be confined.
Look 18: Romantic Chaos Meets Functionality
photo ©Charlie Engman
Celosia Top – Washed Watercolor Floral Chiffon
Catchfly Pant – Sunflower Plaid
Cloud Bag – Leopard Peony Chiffon
Factry x Collina Strada Ruffle Boots – Beaded Beige
Look 18 is a collision of softness and structure, pairing the delicate, flowing Celosia Top in watercolor floral chiffon with the Catchfly Pant in Sunflower Plaid, a bold contrast of textures and patterns that feels quintessentially Collina.
The Muff Bag made from TomTex
The use of TomTex plastic-free vegan leather like material in accessories adds another layer to the brand’s ongoing commitment to materials innovation, without sacrificing the surrealist humor that makes Collina Strada Collina Strada. The muff-as-bear, is a playful but radical gesture toward a future where fashion is alive with possibility.
Runway images ©Umberto Fratini
Collina Strada AW25
Creative director: Hillary Taymour @_collina
Art Director: Charlie Engman @charlieengman
Stylist: Jorden Bickham @jordenbickham
Hair: Mustafa Yanaz for Bumble and Bumble
Makeup: Dick Page for Ilia
Casting: Morgan Senesi, Ignacio Murillo, and Kathryn Costigan
Bags: Made with Tomtex
Shoes: Collina Strada x Puma and Collina Strada made with Fctry
Socks: Happy Socks
Knitwear: Guilia Bortoli @rimaglio
Music: Oyinda and Low Noon
PR: Karla Otto
Production: SIrat
Lighting: The House of Jax
–Katya Moorman
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