Poet-Lab presents its AW-SS26 collection Resistant When Opposites Break, a manifesto in fabric where fractures become freedoms. Contradictions drive the collection: strength meets fragility, silence encounters voice, structure bends into fluidity. Clothing becomes language. Every garment is a sentence, every silhouette a declaration. Transparency reveals the unspoken; seams punctuate silence. This is fashion as resistance, freedom stitched into form.

The look is raw and unconventional: tailored shoulders dissolve into silk transparencies, strict cuts unravel into organic drapes, unfinished edges reject polish in favor of honesty. Fabrics speak in contrasts: silks for fragility, cotton wools for grounding, sculptural taffeta for shine. Deadstock and recycled textiles return as reimagined “ghost fabrics”, stories of renewal and resilience.

The colour palette narrates dualities in collision. On one side, muted greens, maroons, and earthy neutrals speak in tones of contemplation and restraint. On the other, explosive vibrancy, saturated hues, and luminous transparencies ignite energy and rebellion. The fractures between these worlds hold the spirit of the collection, beauty born from contrast, freedom discovered in rupture.

Silhouettes sway between defiance and surrender. Shoulders, once sculpted and rigid, dissolve into weightless transparencies. Tailoring collapses into fluid drapes, and layered structures play with concealment and revelation. Sequenced details capture light, recalling the liberation of the 1970s dance floor and the assertive power-shapes of the 1980s corporate battlefield. These references resist nostalgia, reimagined in a contemporary language of rebellion and sustainability.

The collection draws from the tension between the 70s and 80s, freedom of movement clashing against power and control, and uses that discord as a catalyst. Inspired by the raw urgency of the Futurist Manifesto, Resistant When Opposites Break dissolves boundaries between seasons, silhouettes, and worlds. Minimalism is honed with control; maximalism unleashed as protective strength. 

Thirty looks unfold into fifteen transformative statements, each garment both shield and proclamation, both question and answer. This is not simply fashion. This is a manifesto in fabric, a revolution embodied, an insistence that beauty lives where opposites collide.

Words & Images Courtesy: I.DEA PR
Photographer: Marcus Hartelt