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The mid-10s has been back in a big way, especially the embellished denim, bomber jackets, and crayon color palettes of 2016. Design duo Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida were defining the era with their then-5-year-old London labelMarques’Almeida They had won the LVMH prize, were dressing Rihanna, and brought their spring 2017 collection to East London’s Brick Lane, which Vogue’s Chioma Nnadi described as “a little bit punk, a little bit coquette, a whole lot of street attitude,” with its raw-hemmed Texas tuxedos and paisley print slips layered over sports tees.
After absconding to their native Portugal and to Paris to show their collections for a few years, Marques and Almeida returned to London last season with a show that traced the M’A girl grown up, with cool and elegant, delightfully drapey takes on eveningwear. Back again in East London under the Shoreditch railway archways with a presentation, film, and live shoot for pre-fall 2026, the designers had a desire to refine house signatures, embracing codes they set early on in their work (long copied, and now cleaved from their original context by fast fashion and the TikTok FYP) and elevating them for today’s customer.
“We think of it like an anchor collection,” said Marques. “This is the M’A D.N.A. that we’ve been exploring for almost… almost 15 years. We’re maturing with our clients, and that’s something we want to be conscious of without forgetting the work we’ve done to get here.”
“It’s never been about being too precious,” added Almeida, gesturing to the end of the rail, where an embellished, gauzy pink gown dragged on the floor. “And we’ve more confident in owning our codes now. I think when we were younger, we didn’t claim it.” “We just wanted to keep moving forward, or if we felt someone was copying us, do something different,” continued Marques. “Now we’re at a stage where we own this language of dressing, and people loyally identify with it.”
The legacy lexicon was propulsive, but with an elevated cadence thanks to fabrication and craft. Textures were touchable, from a croc-like fabric two-piece to the liberal use of brocade lurex. A raw-edged, peplum white denim jacket recalled one of their hallmark utilitarian silhouettes. “People would get bruises from this when we first did it!” said Marques with a laugh. An image of a long Galliano gown paired with a vintage parka from their design research while studying at Central Saint Martins became something of an ethos for Marques and Almeida, and they reveled in that duality. Grungy plaids and florals reminiscent of Kurt Cobain’s uniform were cast in satin on bias-cut slips and slinky halternecks, and ’80s stock market trader shirts were edged with baroque details. A bomber came in a sky blue croc fabric; a pillowy marshmallow of a gown was styled with multi-pocketed khaki army pants. The sporty ribbed knit tank top was attached to a sculptural-hipped, heavy Mikado skirt so that, said Almeida, “it could be a wedding dress for one person, for someone else, with a hoodie, a trip to Tesco.”
Community has always been at the heart of what Marques and Almeida do, and they’re intent on deepening their roots and expanding for their M’A girl-now-woman muse. Presenting pre-fall as the self-described “anchor” collection preempts bigger plans for casting the net further.
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