Fashion East Spring 2026: Less Is More

Fashion East is marking its 25-year anniversary this season with a small exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and a reminder of all the designers who used the emerging talent showcase to supercharge their careers — including Jonathan Anderson, Kim Jones, Martine Rose, Simone Rocha, and Craig Green.

For spring, three fashion school graduates — Louis Mayhew, Cameron Williams and Jacek Gleba — showed their collections, hoping to conjure some of the magic of their predecessors. They turned out minimal collections with a crafty feel and worked with lightweight fabrics that could be layered, wrapped and unfolded.

Mayhew focused on found and donated materials, turning scraps of faux fur into a rough-edged wrap with a prehistoric edge or whipping a papery, tie-dyed fabric into an asymmetric skirt. He slashed the arms off t-shirts, leaving edges raggedy, splattered paint across sweatshirts and created jeans from different colors of denim. It was a stylish exercise in making do and mending.

Williams, whose brand is called Nuba, took a more fluid approach, using draped jersey for tops and dresses and creating trousers with a layer of fabric, peeled back like a banana skin, at the front. The best part of this collection were the sheer tops, which looked as if they were made from parchment. One was short at the front, and long and flowy at the back while another was more classic, with French cuffs.

Gleba’s silhouettes were whisper thin, and included sheer track suit tops made from colorful panels, scraps of rose-patterned fabric that doubled as scarves, and lots of draped – and heavy – jersey. A dancer, the designer was interested in exploring the contours of the body with ultra-tight bicycle shorts and leggings with cutouts to expose muscles and sinew. But it was the gossamer fabrics that won the day.