London Fashion Week SS26 saw Poet-Lab redefine the runway with its bold new collection, Resistant When Opposites Break — a radical manifesto where fashion becomes a language of freedom, resistance, and renewal.
The show unfolded as a powerful dialogue between contradictions: fragility and strength, silence and voice, structure and fluidity. Every garment became a declaration, every silhouette a sentence. Transparency revealed the unspoken, while unfinished edges and ghost fabrics — crafted from deadstock and recycled textiles — celebrated honesty, resilience, and rebirth.
Silhouettes swayed between rigidity and surrender. Sculpted shoulders melted into silk transparencies, tailoring unraveled into organic drapes, while layered structures played with concealment and revelation. Sequined highlights evoked the liberation of the 1970s dance floor, juxtaposed with reimagined echoes of 1980s corporate power dressing.
The collection’s colour palette embodied its duality: muted maroons, greens, and earthy neutrals contrasted against explosive bursts of saturated tones and luminous transparencies. Together, they narrated a story of tension and release, where beauty is born from collision.
Drawing inspiration from the Futurist Manifesto and the discord between the 70s’ freedom and the 80s’ control, Poet-Lab’s SS26 blurred boundaries between seasons, eras, and aesthetics. Across thirty looks, the collection offered fifteen transformative statements — garments that functioned as both shield and proclamation, both rebellion and embrace.
More than a showcase of clothes, Resistant When Opposites Break positioned fashion as poetry in motion: a revolution stitched into form, and a reminder that true beauty lies in the fractures where opposites collide.