A couple years back, Magda Butrym marked her 10th anniversary with a campaign called “Decade of the Rose,” featuring her supermodel compatriot Malgosia Bela.
On Sunday, Bela was back to open Butrym’s show, the most fully-fledged PFW presentation she has staged to date. Backstage, the designer said she approached this collection—entitled Zima, the Polish word for winter—“like a big switch in my head.”
The cause of that switch? The sudden realization that Polish New Wave, and specifically the 1969 film Polowanie na muchy (“Hunting Flies”) by director Andrzej Wajda, packed as much inspiration as its French counterparts. “It was so sensual, effortless and relevant to today,” she said. Back in its day, that film tried to settle a score by portraying its central character, Irena, as a controlling, mantis-like creature. The 2026 twist: Butrym reclaimed Irena and her oversized sunglasses as a heroine who, as she put it in her show notes, “doesn’t perform femininity, she claims it.”
In a week dominated by ideas about how women can reclaim space by the yard through power shoulders, panniers and the like, Butrym made that case with restraint. Yes, there were exercises in strategic padding, a continuation from her pre-fall collection, and she amplified volume by pushing bustle-like layers to the front, as on a black taffeta bustier dress with ample layers and hidden pockets. A designer who tends to skew mini, she surprised by drawing out skirt lengths to midi and almost ankle lengths (“not all women are 34s,” she offered.) Knitwear was also a focus, with everyday wardrobing staples. Her signature Slavic details, such as hand crochet or little kerchiefs, were handled with a light touch.
Butrym’s strongest looks played on texture, for example on a well-tailored black leather coat cinched with an espresso croc-embossed belt, an ample, glossy leather coat, cropped and belted high on the waist; and a couple of black shearling numbers. A black skirt and a white bustier dress embellished with feather-like fabric fringe and beads looked chic yet relaxed. Butrym’s core loves a blazer, and here she offered a double-breasted, hourglass one paired with fluid trousers. A structured, cropped jacket in shaved faux fur made the season’s power-dressing statement without risk of encroaching on anyone else’s personal space. It was accessorized with a soft-bodied yet structured new bag called Barbara, named after the designer’s longtime friend and ally. Here’s betting that, in September, when this collection lands in the new Magda Butrym store on Mercer Street, those pieces will move fast.
