For Autumn/Winter 2026, Ludovic de Saint Sernin turns inward, unveiling a collection that feels at once intensely personal and strikingly controlled. Moving away from spectacle, the designer embraces a darker, more severe expression of his house codes — one rooted in instinct, discipline, and desire.
Rendered in a stark palette of black, white, and flashes of blood red, the collection unfolds as an exercise in tension. Here, fringes are no longer mere embellishment but become both structure and gesture, tracing the body with a graphic precision that feels almost architectural. Velvet collides with leather, lace dissolves into mesh, and softness meets rigor in silhouettes charged with sensual restraint.
This season marks more than an aesthetic shift; it signals a return to origin. A reconnection with the designer’s own voice and the raw creative impulses that first defined the label. In an era oversaturated by endless images and relentless content, de Saint Sernin strips everything back. The result is a collection where construction, materiality, and silhouette speak with unusual clarity — quiet, but never passive.
There is a sense of confidence in this refusal of excess. Rather than perform for the moment, the collection insists on permanence through craft. Every line, every texture, every cut feels deliberate, as though the garments themselves are articulating a language of intimacy and control.
Accessories evolve with equal precision. The house’s now-signature Cleavage Bag expands its vocabulary, moving beyond its iconic baguette silhouette into a new family of forms. Presented as a clutch in supple black nappa leather and glossy patent finishes in black, red, and white, as well as a bucket bag in beige suede and black pony leather, the pieces extend the sensual codes of the ready-to-wear into objects of tactile desire.
A new chapter opens with the introduction of the Harness Bag — a baguette-shaped piece suspended from a harness construction that subtly evokes the visual lexicon of bondage and BDSM. Yet, true to de Saint Sernin’s vision, these references are never literal. Instead, they are refined into something elegant, erotic, and deeply modern.
Material remains the emotional core of the collection. Japanese fabrics are juxtaposed with pony hair leather, suede, nappa, and hand-cut metal mesh, while delicate Japanese lace in black and deep crimson introduces a haunting fragility. The dialogue between hardness and softness, exposure and concealment, continues to define the house’s identity.
Captured by Italian photographic duo Nicola and Manuel, the imagery mirrors the collection’s intimate severity. Featuring Anasofia Negrutsa and Amedeo, the campaign amplifies the sense of controlled desire that pulses throughout the season.
With Autumn/Winter 2026, Ludovic de Saint Sernin offers not just a collection, but a manifesto: a return to instinct, to craft, and to the enduring power of restraint.
