For Spring/Summer 2026, Bora Aksu turns to a deeply personal archive—his collection of broken dolls gathered over the years. Porcelain faces with cracked cheeks and faded pastel frocks become the foundation for a collection that reimagines fragility as strength. Each imperfection tells its own story, translated into garments that celebrate resilience and the haunting beauty of what is fractured, delicate, and unfinished.

The collection drifts between childlike innocence and mature melancholy. Slimline dresses are softened with lace trims, butterflies and flowers embroidered gently across bodices, and gingham transformed into sheer overlays. Asymmetry, layering, and transparency convey vulnerability while introducing unexpected modernity. Raw edges and delicate cut-outs echo porcelain cracks, shaping silhouettes that balance ethereality with endurance.

To weave memory into design, Aksu turns to vintage-inspired fabrics. His discovery of small lace manufacturers in Istanbul and their deadstock from the 1980s provided a trove of rare laces and trims. Lace-edged cottons, faded taffetas, softened ginghams, and layers of pastel tulles intermingle with sheer organza and diaphanous silks. These textiles—reminiscent of time-worn frocks—are revived through intricate craftsmanship, merging nostalgia with innovation.

Colors unfold like faded keepsakes: powder pinks, soft corals, and peaches grounded by ghostly whites, shadowy blacks, and touches of midnight blue, lending depth to the dreamlike aesthetic.

“Broken dolls remind me that beauty does not lie in perfection but in the traces of love, time, and survival,” says Bora Aksu. “Through this collection, I wanted to create a world where flaws and cracks are celebrated not as weakness, but as strength and beauty.”

With SS26, Bora Aksu offers a love letter to fragility redefined—a meditation on resilience within imperfection, and the enduring truth that beauty lives in what is cracked, delicate, and unyielding.

Photos by Jason Lloyd-Evans