Kenneth Ize A/W 26

Kenneth Ize’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, unveiled at Berlin Fashion Week, emerged as both a question and a confession. In a moment defined by fragmentation and fatigue, the Nigerian designer reframed joy not as escapism but as emotional resistance. The show, titled JOY, asked one clear question: what have we done wrong? The clothes did not seek to answer it. Instead, they traced the contours of vulnerability, community and self-awareness, proposing that true joy can only exist once we face the tension within it. In Ize’s world, fabric becomes philosophy, and craft becomes catharsis.

Collaboration lies at the centre of the collection. Ize’s creative process unfolded through conversations with friends, artists and collaborators including James Tennessee Braindt, Rodney Patterson and KK Obi. These exchanges were translated directly into textiles, where aso oke, velvet and wool intertwined to form visual dialogues between heritage and experimentation. Each garment carried traces of touch and exchange, its surface alive with texture and memory. The collection blurred the distinction between inner and outer life: lining was exposed, denim softened, and every piece felt as if it had absorbed the warmth of its maker. The result was a study in vulnerability as luxury.

JOY ultimately offered clothing as emotion rather than armour. The collection rejected the notion of fashion as distraction, instead inviting intimacy and reflection. Models appeared not as performers but as participants in a shared act of storytelling, their garments breathing, folding and shifting like living forms. There was beauty here, but also truth — a reminder that joy, in its deepest sense, is an act of courage. In Ize’s hands, it became a fabric we could all wear.