Texture and shape once again formed the backbone of HARRI’s SS26 runway show. Set against the brutalist backdrop of The Barbican, the presentation felt like a continuation and evolution of what Harikrishnan Keezhathil Surendran Pillai (known simply as Harri) has been building over the past few seasons. Bold experimentation, dramatically playful silhouettes, and the tension between performance art and wearability. Harri, who has made waves since his MA collection at the London College of Fashion and gained visibility through NEWGEN, has used SS25 to push boundaries. 

This recent show leaned heavily into his sculptural instincts. Silicon jackets, gilets, trousers and baseball caps came in sleek black, resisting the dropping city temperature. Against that darkness, were colourful moments of surprise. Most notable was a small translucent yellow handbag that was fine enough to be suspended between two fingers. Armband-like jackets stretched sleeves upward, beadwork and circular patterning sprawled across trousers and shirts. Big structural gestures — swelling around shoulders, ribs, and sleeves — acted almost like architecture around bodies.

The show’s bookends were especially telling. Early looks established weight and volume while twins closed the runway by walking in identical black hoodies with wings reminiscent of pterodactyls. These sculptural tops were paired with dark wash, heavily patterned jeans. 

What I see in this presentaion is some of HARRI's previous wildness tempered by refinement. The silhouettes are still staggering, but they sit more confidently, balanced between streetwear edge and artful abstraction.

Perhaps most touching was the final bow: not just Harri alone, but the entire creative team who brought this show into being. It felt like a recognition of labour, and of one shared vision. In SS26, Harri does more than deliver spectacle; he underscores what he has long been about: materiality, craft, shape, and a fierce belief in the transformative power of fashion.

Words By: Anya Duncan
Images Courtesy: Cellar Communications