Colleen Allen Fall 2026

Colleen Allen’s inclusion in the 2026 class of LVMH Prize semifinalists marks a milestone for a designer who has quietly been building a brooding, Gothic-romantic aesthetic. “It’s been a goal of mine from the beginning, so to be acknowledged like that feels really affirming,” she said during a preview of her fall collection. After two years of honing her vision, the moment feels ripe: fashion and pop culture are catching up, with the recent box-office release of Wuthering Heights only amplifying the appetite for Allen’s darkly romantic sensibilities.

To push her creativity further, Allen turned to the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, whose monumental spider sculptures inspired her to reconsider space and its relationship to the body. This influence emerged in fleece and wrinkled velvet gowns, designed with expansive swaths of fabric that could be draped as shawls or hoods—a nod to both comfort and dramatic presence. Elsewhere, lace tops cut from a single piece clung seductively to the body, and a sequined off-the-shoulder variation was deliberately torn, echoing the 18th-century bodice that inspired it. Allen emphasized the importance of honoring decay and history, allowing the garments to carry the memory of their former occupants.

Allen’s technical prowess elevates her Gothic mysticism beyond concept into tangible mastery. Patchworked striped cotton formed a spiderweb motif, paying homage to Bourgeois’ practice of recycling and layering memory into art, while Victorian bustle-back dresses revealed complicated seam lines matched with precision at every point. “It’s a crazy tailoring moment,” Allen admitted, and it’s exactly that combination of spellbinding vision and meticulous craftsmanship that makes her a contender to watch, cementing her as one of the most compelling new voices in American fashion.