Do you know the Vaquera walk? And no, I’m not talking about ‘vaquera’ as in the Spanish word for ‘cowgirl.’ I’m talking about the New York-born fashion label that managed to be underground yet successful. The Vaquera walk is sped-up, quick, rushing. Because if the audience doesn’t pay attention during a show that the designer poured tears, blood, money, and endless hours into creating, they might as well miss the looks. But although this is one of the brand’s most distinctive elements, yesterday at the presentation of the Spring/Summer 2026 collection in Paris, the models did something completely different.
Instead of running and stomping between the front rows, models casually made their way across a white runway. In front of a long curtain, they stopped in a round, bright beam of light, posing for a moment and allowing the audience a peaceful look at the fabrics and shapes. Just like at a couture show, and the spectators are high-end buyers.
Vaquera, founded back in 2013, is known for having a fun, humorous punk spirit that plays with critique, luxury, and storytelling. Fashion that is wearable and hard to understand at the same time. So, this show was inspired by one of the main factors of the industry: commercialism. Last season, their most popular and best-selling, therefore most commercial piece, was a giant bra — something designed simply as a statement piece for the runway. When founders and creative directors Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee saw that, they decided: If that’s the most commercial, we can simply create an entire runway show revolving around statement pieces.
The outcome is a collection that is fun, theatrical, joyful, and exciting — an invitation to escape in a world that seems to be going downhill. A world in which everyone seems to think there is right and wrong: the wrong thing to do, the right event to wear an outfit. The Vaquera girl just wears the wrong outfit at the right time, an homage to the early days of the brand. To the chaos and rawness that ruled their first runway shows: when DiCaprio went to the subway in 2015, rolled out a long carpet, and let his friends pose and present his new collection there. A success because after that flash mob-style show, the first articles were written about this young, free-spirited brand. One of the first moments he realised this could be a career. Or when Taubensee joined the brand a year later, and together they staged a runway show in a Chinese restaurant, with a cast of parents, dolls, acquaintances, and friends smoking cigarettes and kissing — in a time when unusual venues weren’t yet a thing in the fashion world.
Therefore, the pieces of the Spring/Summer 2026 collection are super Vaquera: exaggerated, imaginative, cool, and messy. There is leather and fur, tulle and silk, T-shirts, sweaters, and denim, as well as pencil skirts, blazers, and cocktail dresses. Oversized jackets with high collars and big belts at the waist. Black, white, and gray, with highlights of red, baby blue, brown, and pink. Giant bows, rosettes on the models’ chests, and enormous bras sewn onto asymmetrical skirts. Shirts with black prints of underwear — a design we’ve seen in previous collections. As well as a ragged white silk dress, similar to a black version Rihanna wore a few years ago. Some looks feature puffy sleeves, a skirt whose pleats resemble flower petals, and in the end even a dress that reminds one of Sleeping Beauty, who just fell out of her bed after the prince kissed her awake. After a hundred years, my gown would probably look just as wrinkled, rumpled, and untidy.
What ties the entire collection together like that famous red thread everyone always talks about are the head accessories: simple, elegant equestrian helmets, caps, scarves knotted around the head, and even a dramatic tulle hat. Paired with other horsemanship elements like parade jackets and riding pants that are oddly broad at the hips and tight around the knee — like a modern, sexy lord on his way to a hunt just outside London.
But the longer you look, the less 1800s dandy you see. No, the longer you look, the more funky ‘80s vibes come to mind: huge shoulders and sleeves, layers of tulle, and horrendous prom dresses cut in half just to be bound around the model’s body, as well as dark turquoise windbreakers and sweatpants. Considering what Dario Vitali presented last week at Milan Fashion Week as his debut for Versace, you can’t help but worry that this fashion era might become a trend soon.
But the trend cycle will take at least two years. So, we’re safe — for now. And when it happens, we should make sure to be Vaquera girlies. Because the way the brand has managed to grow from something that started in a subway to showing at Paris Fashion Week without losing its original spirit is impressive and something we should acknowledge more. Just to be clear, that doesn’t mean you have to wear the split-in-half pink prom dress, but it means, you should do the Vaquera walk. If someone isn’t paying attention to you, they can just miss it.
