Collina Strada Wants Us to Embrace Our Darkest Selves for Spring 2026

While you’re looking through the photos of Collina Strada’s Spring 2026 show, designer Hillary Taymour wants you to pay close attention — not just to the sets of models representing “light” and “dark” looks in matching silhouettes, but also to the venue. What at first feels like a typical scenic option for a New York Fashion Week backdrop is actually a lot more intentional. “You don’t recognize it [from] TV? The perp walk,” Taymour tells Fashionista. No, she’s not referencing an episode of “SVU.” She’s recalling the December 2024 images of Mayor Eric Adams flaunting a handcuffed Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of the United Healthcare CEO.

Taymour is no stranger to making a political statement during her shows. Not only did she choose to highlight the controversial subject of billionaire assassination, but she further emphasized her point with the runway’s soundtrack. The verses of Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” played off beat over Smash Mouth’s “All Star” — at first an odd pairing, until you remember the latter isn’t just synonymous with “Shrek,” but also has a subtly existential theme: “My world’s on fire, how about yours?”

As models walked the recognizable runway to the uncomfortable rhythm, each colorful pastel ensemble was followed by a completely blacked-out version of the look closely behind them. “They’re the shadow version of the person, so they’re black,” says Taymour. “It’s about the duality of light and dark and how we can be the best representations of ourselves during dark times. The silhouettes are the exact same. That was the hardest thing in the world to do.”

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When it came to casting this season, Taymour didn’t stray too far from the core Collina group of models who typically walk (although Aariana Philip, who was in the brand’s last several shows, was noticeably absent). “We had to cast their ‘shadows.’ We got similar height, similar size, similar body type, similar skin tone, all of it,” she says.

As for the “light” representations, which will likely be sent to production over the “shadows,” Taymour chose the colorful pastels based on her customers’ preference for muted hues: “I just choose colors I love, but I try to mute it down as much as possible to where it can feel like a neutral for someone who doesn’t wear color as much.”

In her show notes, Taymour clarified that encouraging us to embrace our dark sides, doesn’t mean that “the darkness we face — mass starvation, forced migration, assaults on trans, queer and women’s rights, climate collapse, rampant inequality — can be solved through personal self-reflection. These crises call for solidarity: a commitment not only to our own shadows but to the shadows of others. Facing the darkness means seeing it clearly, even acknowledging that, sometimes, it can be chic.”

See the full Collina Strada Spring 2026 collection below.