March 30, 2026 |
In a season of attention-grabbing debuts, Mark Howard Thomas, design director at Carven, took a different tack. For his first show at this storied French house, the talented British designer wanted to express something intimate. “We were aware that other very big houses would be making a lot of noise that season, so it was intentional to create something that felt more calm, more considered,” he says of his decision to show the collection at the brand’s home on the Champs-Élysées. That idea of home and intimacy was at the forefront of his design choices too, with clothes inspired by linens and tablecloths.
“We were thinking about home. We had the radio playing in the background when people arrived at the show and there was a fresh, green scent created for the space by Dawn Goldworm, who does scents for Bentley, Disney and many others,” says the designer, whose models walked through an internal courtyard onto the street in a simple but striking gesture that communicated his desire to make elegant clothes for the real lives of modern women. “I was thinking about the Carven woman in summer. It’s Paris, it’s July, it’s balmy and warm, and she’s a little bit undressed, but not in a vulgar way. She’s in movement, she is in the city,” he says.
Although it was his first collection as creative director, Thomas joined the house in 2023, working with Louise Trotter, who left to join Bottega Veneta last year. “For me, it was really us going from the first chapter into the second chapter of the brand,” he says.
Mark Howard Thomas, Carven’s design director, with images from his SS26 mood board
His starting point was an image of Madame Marie-Louise Carven, wearing a white skirt and blouse, in the salon above the boutique. “She lived to 105. She had two husbands who were both antiques dealers. And I think she had a lot of fun and joy in her life,” he says of the couturier who was at the forefront of the post-war, ready-to-wear revolution in France. The brand has always put women’s wardrobe needs at its heart. “She was a petite woman looking for clothes that could fit her in couture. That’s why she started. [It was] through a need, which I always think is a great way to begin a business,” he says. “One of the other stories I love is that, when she launched her first perfume, she parachuted baby bottles of perfume all over the city. She was a businesswoman and very smart. She’d travel to Asia and the Americas with the collection,” he says. “I connect to her sense of fun. It’s definitely me – a sense of joy in the process of what you’re doing. And the idea that you are dressing someone and making sure that person feels confident and great.”
His studio is in the same building as her original atelier and, Thomas says, the founder’s presence is felt in his studio. “Sometimes she blows the windows open here, because we’re in her original head office. She used to have her atelier on the first floor. When you’re not sure if anything’s going right, there’s that gust of wind. You know, it’s an old building, so that’s Madame Carven.” Here, he explains the thought process behind his debut collection.
Mark Howard Thomas
WHITE
We wanted something that felt almost like a palate cleanser from where we’ve been, but still in the same spirit of what we’ve done. So, on my mood board, there’s a lot of white. I had this idea of white being something that is a new page, a blank page. There’s something to be laid down there.
FRENCH HOMEWEAR
There was a reference to the Parisian home – tablecloths and taking squares of fabric and manipulating them to the body. That was something we were playing with. We used a special technique on the edge of some fabrics called point ajouré. It’s basically an embroidery you use on pillowcases or napkins. There’s a special machine you put the fabric through and, when it’s finished, it creates little squares connected to each other. We used these machines in the atelier to finish some of the garments.
LACE COAT
This is from the Carven archive. Madame Carven donated all of her [fashion] collections to Musée Galliera. Everything is catalogued in an online system and every season we focus on 10 to 15 pieces to see up close. This season we pulled a lot more tailoring pieces and this was one. I liked the way the lace was imposed onto the fabric in an all over feeling, it’s not just a detail. I like the little back opening. It’s almost like a projection of something a little bit more sensual.
SUMMER VIBE
I love the shape of the chairs in this picture. I love that they’re outside. And I love the green. It feels like summer. It feels designed, but it doesn’t feel too stylised. The white in that not- shiny aspect also feels quite Carven. It’s very much in the spirit of how we’ve been doing imagery on our social media. I can imagine our label and branding on top of that. It just feels us.
TRANSPARENCY
I was thinking about this in heat, in summer. That feeling of walking through the city, with a bit of transparency, there’s air moving through it. We used a beautiful silk organza fabric inspired by these images. The first image, where there’s two girls in the skirts, is a fabric reference. And then the one where they’re walking and you can tell it’s a city, it’s much more about spirit.
MADAME CARVEN
I read that she’d cultivated an orchid in 1993. I found that fascinating but thought, how am I going to translate this into something that doesn’t feel twee or too overly feminine or obviously floral? It became quite architectural and abstract. There’s the trouser that has the waistband that drops over, inspired by the structure of the flower.
MENSWEAR
I love a little bit of a masculine reference in there, like the layered cotton shirts and the image of the three guys all in white from an old L’Uomo Vogue. It gives you that crisp, summer feeling. There’s definitely a masculine-feminine play that’s happening in contrast.
JEAN PROUVE
That’s a Jean Prouvé door. I love the texture and the play on the colour, of the white on white.
PEARLS
The pearls have been important for the house and we played with them in different forms. It could be buttons, or back zipper loops. For this collection we had them on cuffs and had pieces fully pearlised. Both the front of a bag and a shoe were completely embroidered with pearls.
Marie-Louise Carven with the orchid she cultivated
VINTAGE LINGERIE
There’s a lot of French lingerie inspiration in the collection. There was also transparency with pleating. That came from an old vintage piece we referenced, but we did it in a very distorted way in the top of those slip dresses.
Photography by Tom Modol. Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 76 – CREATIVITY, CHANGE, FREEDOM – out NOW. Order your copy here.
