Sarah Staudinger grew up in the nineties and has never made much of a secret about her affection for the era. For fall 2026 she leaned into it more directly than usual, channelling the decade’s greatest trends and giving them a present-tense revival — not through direct reference but through sensibility. “The collection feels like a very ’90s intuitive approach of print clashing, really relaxed silhouettes, pieces that feel collected rather than overly styled,” she said.

The push, this season, was against fall’s tendency toward restraint. “Fall to me usually feels super restrained, so for this collection we pushed color and unexpected combinations through the styling and lookbook.” The result had the particular energy of a wardrobe that’s been assembled over time rather than put together in one go — which is, of course, a very nineties quality.

Slip dresses and skirts arrived in mixed materials, combining poplin waistbands with silk habotai bodies in a way that nodded to the era’s underwear-as-outerwear instincts. The standout outerwear piece was a tan lambskin leather coat — the kind of minimal, investment-grade statement coat the nineties did so well, designed to carry its wearer through the next decade or two without ever feeling dated.

Staudinger has flirted with minimalism before, sometimes at the expense of the playfulness she’s known for. This season she managed to hold both qualities in balance. The animal motif that has become a Staud signature made its appearance through the collection’s hero creature: the porcupine. Rather than the direct, obvious incorporation she’s used in past seasons, Staudinger took a more oblique approach — a porcupine jacket, scarf and accessories in faux fur dyed and printed with quill-like textures. Cheeky, considered and very much Staud.