Contradictory, peculiarly feminine, and somewhat mystical; this is how Erdem’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection comes across. And the reason behind this is none other than the exceptional figure of Hélène Smith, a late 19th-century Swiss medium in whom the brand has found inspiration. Hélène is most famous for her claims of having lived previous lives: as a member of the French court in the form of Marie Antoinette, as an Indian princess, and, of course, as a traveller among Martian skies.
The psychologist Théodore Flournoy, captivated by her mediumistic phenomena, published a case study in which he named Hélène’s three incarnations the “Romantic Cycles,” further fuelling her oddly enchanting myth. And, honestly, which woman hasn’t experienced the need to be everything, experience everything, accomplish everything — only to realise we’d need several lives to do all we want?
Erdem’s collection was, undoubtedly, able to convey this peculiar energy. Hourglass mini dresses with antique lace remnants, ruffled collars, corsetry with subtle conceptual touches, frayed floral embroidered linings, and shoes with lacing details: all captured the essence of a woman from the past who has travelled through time, and now finds herself in an era not naturally her own — but one she’s confidently making hers.
The colours helped communicate the eclectic and oddly enchanting aura of the medium: a trench coat in acid green with a slight marbled or iridescent texture, semi-sheer dresses in bright pink with red details, baby-blue dresses splashed with pink floral patterns, and shoes –plus more floral elements– in emerald green. Everything communicates a contradictory, almost wacky energy: garments that feel as though they belong to another fashion era, yet are rendered in styles and colourways that are distinctly modern. It’s an expressive fusion of romance and modernity, of artistic essence and wearability.
Smith was also known for producing an entire “Martian language” during her trances, including a script and vocabulary, concluded by scientists to be an invention of her subconscious mind, but seen by others as works of art and imagination. This language appears as jet crystal symbols embroidered throughout the collection: a tribute to dreamlike women who are usually discredited, and who continuously invent and reinvent themselves through their art.
Erdem’s Spring/Summer 2026 is an exploration of femininity that is ever-evolving. It tells a story of identities overlapping and being reassembled at the edge of imagination, yet still feeling pure and real. As Erdem states, the collection is a meditation on the shifting sense of self, embracing the contradictions of reality and dream. It reflects the many facets of femininity — expressive, fluid, and never confined to a single narrative. And, of course, an artistic woman of many selves needs a deeply expressive wardrobe to match.
