March 9, 2026 |
Something new is brewing in the cutesy and kitsch kitchen of Ashley Williams. For AW26, the designer has created an alternate reality – one in which staying home is not just reserved for sick days, bundled under a mountain of Kleenex, but is the norm. After all, home is where the heart is.
Visual signifiers of domestic, homely comfort flash throughout the collection; wearable bed quilts are attached to humble T-shirts, knit socks are paired with sliders (an ideal combo indeed) and floral housecoats just about fall to the floor, sweeping away any breadcrumbs left over from breakfast. Fixating on the unwind over the current media-obsession of the grind, cosy knits-cum-blazers are draped atop dreamy tulle skirts and undefined nightdresses are donned with silky evening gowns sewn over. Oversized funky hats (seemingly pulled straight from grandma’s closet) and misplaced teddy bears don heads alongside colourful lustrous-locked wigs placed clumsily over natural hair. It shouldn’t work but it does.
Elsewhere shrouding tracksuits are emblemed with lace motifs, as if whipped straight off the curtain frame, and reimagined office skirts feature prints of sleeping kittens. Peeks of silk vintage-inspired knickers are situated aside plastic cloud-resonant belts too.
Williams’s world is fun, refreshing and truthfully resonant, reminding us to work hard but play harder and this collection offered up an invitation to dream and sleep the day away.
Photography courtesy of Ashley Williams.
