A Spanish Love Letter in Black and Bloom
Review of Carolina Herrera Spring 2026 Fashion Show from Madrid
By Kenneth Richard
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Disciplined. Romantic. Rooted.
For Spring 2026, Wes Gordon didn’t just take Carolina Herrera to Madrid—he took the entire production up a notch and a half. The setting was Plaza Mayor, which, depending on your vantage point, looked either like a cinematic dream or a city square preparing for a coronation. The show was monumental in scale—77 looks, 1,500 guests, balconies packed with locals sipping rosé and watching from above—but what it really staged was a conversation about identity. Not personal identity, but brand identity. Cultural identity. The kind of identity that can carry a house out of New York and make it feel at home somewhere else.
Gordon’s theme was a collision: Spain’s 17th-century Golden Age with its courtly rigor, and La Movida, the irreverent, technicolor cultural bloom that followed Franco’s dictatorship. Discipline meets exuberance. Velázquez meets Almodóvar. And somehow, against the odds, it worked.
The show opened with a sweeping black gown that moved like a punctuation mark—firm, formal, and full of intent. Then came the evolution: tailored bordello jackets in Carolina red, bias-cut skirts in Rioja and saffron, violetta-colored dresses that glowed like sugar under the lights. The collection expanded outward from that opening moment, but never unraveled. The floral language was distinct and localized—Madrid’s carnation rendered in threadwork and porcelain, the violettareimagined in gauzy embroidery, the rose blooming across the collection like a romantic subplot.
And while the number of looks flirted with excess, the show’s pacing rarely dragged. That said, Plaza Mayor proved as challenging as it was majestic. The runway—a rectangle inside a very grand rectangle—offered clean geometry but also created a kind of spatial drama that the clothes had to compete with. With such a long loop and wide perimeter, the models had a marathon’s worth of steps to cover. The audience, spread along the square’s perimeter, had time to admire each look, then recheck their phones, then admire again. At moments, the scale overwhelmed the intimacy. But never the intention.
Collaborations—often treated in fashion as polite afterthoughts—were seamlessly embedded here. Sybilla lent five sculptural silhouettes that whispered with quiet rigor. Alejandro Gómez Palomo turned the house’s white shirt into a flamenco of flounces and flourish. Andrés Gallardo and Levens crafted porcelain and glass jewelry, respectively, that shimmered like family heirlooms passed through a disco filter. And Casa Seseña’s archival capes—a nod to both Picasso and Carolina Herrera herself—added a layered, masculine grace. These were not guest appearances. They were fluent exchanges between houses speaking a shared visual language.
And then there was Esther Cañadas—the Spanish supermodel who hasn’t walked in years—gliding down the plaza in a moment that managed to be both nostalgic and quietly electric. She didn’t steal the show. She simply reminded everyone what presence looks like.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
I’ve never done anything this big. But from the very beginning, it was a love project—every detail rooted in what makes Madrid, and Herrera, feel so alive.
– Wes Gordon
THE WRAP UP
There’s no shortage of brands hopping on planes, staging shows in historic capitals, and calling it storytelling. But this wasn’t a case of “fashion goes abroad.” This was something else—fashion finds a home, and rediscovers its footing. Gordon didn’t just show in Madrid. He listened to it. He designed with the city, not just on top of it.
Yes, the show was big. Yes, some looks may have echoed each other in silhouette. But these are the kinds of indulgences one forgives when the emotional register is this well-tuned. The embroidery was exquisite. The colors sang. The point of view never wavered. Gordon proved that Herrera doesn’t need to shout to command attention—just the right balance of restraint, seduction, and silk.
And in a moment when fashion so often favors edge over elegance, Carolina Herrera stood in the center of Plaza Mayor and reminded us: beauty still matters. And so does intention.
