WHO DECIDES WAR S/S26: DECAYED BEAUTY & REDEFINED AMERICANA

For Spring 2026, Who Decides War (Ev Bravado & Téla D’Amore) delivers “Read the Room,” a collection that turns decrepitude into high fashion. Inspired by the textures of fading wallpaper, old chandeliers, and distressed mansions, the duo lean into damask-patterned fabrics, lace, denim, leather, treating them as relics to be both preserved and reimagined. Early looks feature striped dress shirts and metallic jeans splattered with bleach, while later pieces push further: double-breasted suits overlaid with poetic text, racing motorcycle jackets with scalloped mixed‐textures, and even shards of stained glass stitched into body-contouring garments.

But beyond the visuals, this show is about emotional resonance and duality, the beautiful and the decayed, the formal and the fragmented. Bridal silks, tulles and voluminous gowns appear in white distorted with rage and ruin; gowns explode into voluminous, ruffled forms like wild flora reclaiming forgotten ruins. Leather coats singed at panels or patched with crystal and burnt-orange create a narrative of damage and reclamation. A live musical performance (with Leon Thomas) underscores the Black American experience framing the collection, not as trauma for spectacle, but as texture, memory, and identity.