Genaro Rivas’ “A Glass to Break” turned rupture into a material story on London’s February runway

Genaro Rivas unveiled “A Glass to Break” on the official London Fashion Week evening schedule, framing the collection around the idea that breaking can be the first step of reconstruction.

The project began in Berlin with two images that stuck: a photograph of a glass pane marked by a bullet impact, and shattered glass spotted on the ground during a walk with Rivas’ astrologer. In Rivas’ hands, those fragments became a design language for resilience — an answer to the invisible barriers that shape who gets seen, funded, and allowed through.

Across 26 looks (predominantly womenswear, with select menswear silhouettes), the collection moved between force and fragility. Tailoring turned architectural, sleeves stretched into drama, proportions lengthened, and jackets opened to reveal bursts of fabric that read like ruptures — part wound, part warning flare. The colour story stayed disciplined: blacks and slate greys charged by silvery flashes, then cut by red — emotion made visible.

What defined “A Glass to Break” was its material strategy: a conversation between craft, engineering, and next-generation fibres. Printed silks, mohair and denim sat alongside innovations developed with biomaterial partners Ponda, Savian by BioFluff, and Banofi. Ponda’s plant-based insulation (including BioPuff® wadding) ran through lightweight pieces and padded outerwear, while padded jackets paired reclaimed ocean-sourced nylon with Ponda insulation and Savian plant-based bio-fur engineered by BioFluff.

Banofi’s plant-based leather alternative pushed the silhouette into sculptural territory — appearing in dresses, accessories, and select hand-crafted garments that challenged how “luxury” is typically defined. Headpieces by Roberta Cucuzza (some integrating biomaterials), plus hair by Richard Philipart and lead makeup by Manuel de Castro, amplified the tension between beauty and rebellion.

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