Collina Strada has never strayed away from societal commentary. From Collina’s gym to AI prints, Hillary Taymour’s work for the brand is constantly evolving with force against the populace. This season, for Spring/Summer 2026, those forces came to a culmination.

Images courtesy of Collina Strada

Models walked the runway, not alone but in pairs, with replicated outfits in light and dark. Think The Shining twins, if one was goth. In the show notes, Taymour explains, “Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we are living in an era of crisis. Humanity’s darkest impulses no longer lurk in abstraction; they are taking concrete form. Our shadows walk among us.”

Images courtesy of Collina Strada

The collection confronts this idea of duality: ideology vs. ideas. Self vs. society. The fabrics clash—pink and green (Taymour’s staples) against purple and blue-toned blacks. Silhouettes are a push and pull, sleeves billow while waists are tight. The tension is palpable between the two, similar yet utterly different. Collina Strada’s aesthetic has always flirted with the political and the poetic, but this season, it becomes urgent.

Images courtesy of Collina Strada

On the runway, models inhabit these dualities fully. The line between light and dark, outrage and joy, chaos and couture blurs. Collina Strada reminds us that to engage with fashion today is to engage with the world: it is to confront, to reflect, and to shine through the shadows.

The shadow isn’t skeletons in the closet; it’s out among us. The light only exists because darkness is acknowledged. “To inhabit the light, we must know the shape of the shadow it casts.”