Mark Fast SS26
Mark Fast, London’s fearless knitwear visionary, unveils a collection shaped by tide, time, and transformation. Channeling long walks along wild beaches and the strange, beautiful objects left behind. There is a sense of calm after chaos in these pieces, as if the collection has been tumbled by waves until only the essential forms and feelings remain. Once sharp and broken, sea glass is reborn as luminous treasure and this season’s designs mirror that metamorphosis with silhouettes that feel both fragile and indestructible. Fast’s ongoing dialogue with nature, its erosion, its patience, its refusal to rush beauty anchors the entire show in a quietly radical kind of emotional luxury.
On the runway, dresses are spun with rope-like knits that coil and contour the body like armor, sculpting the torso and tracing the hips with deliberate, tidal precision. These ropes never feel heavy. They frame skin the way driftwood frames sea foam, giving the wearer both presence and movement. Velvet twinsets bring sleek tactility into the mix, their surfaces catching the light like wet stones while lace cardigans and sheer chiffon gowns introduce a note of romance and seduction that feels almost dangerous. Each look walks the line between exposure and protection, reminding you that sometimes the most intimate pieces are the ones that shield you best.
Just when the collection threatens to drift into pure dreamscape, Fast drags it firmly back to shore with salt bleached denim minis that ground the fantasy with grit and edge. These pieces echo the story of a single fragment of bleached fabric found on a beach and reimagined as a recurring motif, proof that nothing is ever too ruined to be rewritten. Paired with tubular knitted tops and cropped cardigans, the denim acts as a counterweight to all that shimmer, bringing a lived in realism to the siren narrative. It feels less like casualwear and more like armor for the everyday, the sort of skirt you wear to move through the world with your head high and your secrets intact.
The palette runs pale stone, frosted pink, muted yellow, cream and nude, colors softened and weathered like polished glass shaped by the sea. These tones don’t shout; they glow quietly, allowing texture and form to do the emotional heavy lifting. Occasional deeper notes; shadowy lace, darker ruffles, denser knits slip through like clouds across a late afternoon tide, giving the collection a subtle gothic undercurrent without ever dimming its radiance. The result is harmony, not contrast. Light and dark circling each other like waves and undertow.
The Mark Fast woman is a siren, powerful, emotional, untouchable. She wears her strength as allure, her vulnerability as elegance, her freedom as defiance. Watching her move down the London runway, you sense that Fast isn’t just dressing a body, he’s dressing a feeling. That moment when you realize the waves didn’t break you, they polished you until you shone.
