AW26: Dreaming Eli’s New Collection Reimagines a Modern “Court” Built on Female Alliances

Dreaming Eli has introduced its Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, “The Court of the Maddest, Merriest Things Alive,” describing the season as a milestone shaped by partnership. The chapter centres on the creative union of founder Elisa Trombatore and Arian De Vos, whose relationship—beginning when they met at eighteen—has influenced the brand’s storytelling from the start.

At the core of AW26 is a concept the label calls “love outside of love,” positioning female friendship as a powerful, often underestimated force. Rather than framing intimacy through romance, the collection focuses on bonds that sustain life through polarity, difference and shared growth—an emotional architecture built from connection.

The collection imagines a contemporary court where power is not hierarchical, but relational. Each look becomes a character, mapping the complexity of women loving women platonically, creatively and spiritually—through tenderness and tension, care and competition, intimacy and self-definition. In Dreaming Eli’s framing, feminine strength is formed through diversity and alliance, not uniformity.

On the runway, the brand expands its accessory language with new 3D-printed pieces made in collaboration with Harry Mack, building on the pearl-filament bag line. Pearl-infused and matte thorn-like filaments appear as body jewellery and headpieces, wrapping the body in forms that symbolise both constraint and reclamation.

Materials and surface techniques are central to the AW26 identity. Fabrics are distressed—ripped, burned, and worn—before being enriched with organic freshwater pearls, creating a narrative where damage becomes ornament. The collection introduces hand-shirred silks, textured knitwear and crushed pleated silks, alongside new fabrications including velvety stretch faux fur and vinyl leather-effect denim embossed onto lace. Dreaming Eli’s signature upcycled denim is hand-painted for the first time.

Volume appears in skirts referencing Marie Antoinette’s court dress, reinterpreted through draping and distressing, while the line-up moves between mini corset dresses, bodysuits and skirt sets, tailored trousers, hybrid corsetry-motorcycle jackets in vinyl-lace fabrication, and layered gowns built around sculptural drape.

Dreaming Eli positions AW26 as a manifesto and a memory: a celebration of polarity, difference and the idea that strength is built in relationship.