ISABEL MARANT WANTS YOU TO GET LOST IN THE DESERT

We’re still trying to celebrate the last bits of Isabel Marant summer, and now she’s already pulling us into the next. Remind me, who coined the term ‘desert aunt’ again? This collection is along the same lines, but maybe for her daughter, ‘desert cousin,’ who went glamping and forgot to come home. She smokes clove cigarettes and always knows where to find a cold bottle of booze in the middle of nowhere. 

The shift toward a younger, sexier take on Isabel Marant’s nonchalant Parisian cool girl makes perfect sense, especially now that Kim Bekker (her longtime right hand) is slowly and quietly taking the reins. Turns out last season’s collection was already hers entirely, though they only just decided to mention it. Kim’s been behind the scenes for a while, but now her influence is fully showing: a bit more leg, a bit more low-rise, a bit more… sexy. It still feels like Isabel, just with the volume turned up. Another SS26 collection with a new face behind the designs!!

The title of the collection says it best: she travels alone, drawn to the sun. If last season was a moodboard of Bianca Jagger on a horse, this one is: horsegirl meets Woodstock meets Marrakech rooftop. The palette reflects the same natural drift into the desert: sand, bronze, ecru, pale yellow… then dusk sets in, and suddenly you’re in deep indigo and astral camo, watching the stars on a paisley-covered blanket.

We’re still getting the signature slouchy suede boots (bless), and of course, the romantic mini skirts and floaty tunic blouses. Also: gladiator sandals are back (yay), and who but Marant could we trust to hard launch their revival? Horseshoe motifs repeat (as her subject is probably manifesting Lucky Girl Syndrome). It’s sun-battered and surprisingly less city girl playing Coachella, more your unemployed friend who is doing something vaguely shamanistic in the mountains on a Tuesday.

Isabel Marant’s SS26 makes you want to live the life her clothes suggest. Sleep outside, confide into a language-barrier affair, hitch a ride in a truck, let the wind take you.