For Autumn/Winter 2026, ERDEM celebrated twenty years as an independent fashion house. Titled The Imaginary Conversation, the collection reflected the voices and stories that had shaped the brand over two decades. Erdem Moralıoğlu revisited characters who had appeared throughout the house’s history, with garments transformed through new cuts, materials, and silhouettes.

Gowns and coats tied to figures such as Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire, opera legend Maria Callas, photographer Madame Yvonde, and writer Radclyffe Hall returned transformed through shifts in cut, proportion, and material. Likewise, Adele Astaire and Marianne North surfaced through movement-led draping, layered silhouettes, and botanical motifs, while Duke Ellington’s music shaped the collection’s mood. While, the ceremonial grandeur of Velázquez’s royal infantas ultimately anchored the collection in structured, regal detailing.

Courtesy of ERDEM

Among the most striking moments was the return of a bridal dress from ERDEM’s first show in 2006. Reimagined with an exuberant gathering of voluminous skirts, it was a gesture that connected the house’s beginnings with its future. The piece captured the emotional core of the collection.

In a letter accompanying the show, the brand described fashion as an imaginary conversation that had continued for twenty years, shaped by memory, imagination, and the lives of women whose legacies crossed borders and eras. As Erdem Moralıoğlu wrote, “it was never a monologue but an exchange between past and present, where writers leaned toward dancers and outsiders interrupted icons.” The collection, he insisted, was not about nostalgia but continuity and carrying voices forward.

Courtesy of ERDEM