By Jesse Scott
Blumarine stole the show on Day Four of this Milan Fashion Week as designer David Koma proposed a daring collection defined by feminine ferocity. Based on the Italian philosophy of “glamour as power,” in many ways an all-encompassing lifestyle choice that shapes the country’s social scene as much as it does sartorial movements, the collection’s protagonist is a mythological diva based among the canals in Venice but with nuanced international sensibility. Every gaze turns in her direction as soon as she enters the room, and she is very much aware of it. The Blumarine girl unapologetically encapsulates extravagance, such as the trailing stole and waterfalls of statement gold jewelry in Look 33. And she often channels raw sex appeal, such as in a red sheer lace dress worn with thigh-high stockings in Look 6. But whatever she chooses to wear on a given day, she loves high drama and is proud of it. Our generation has been told since we were in school that it’s “not cool” to try. Koma begs to differ. And the results speak for themselves.
Bluemarine Autumn/Winter 2026: Looks 6, 33 (Images courtesy of Blumarine)
The greatest symbol of glamour and power in Italy is, of course, the opera. And the greatest global ambassadors of Italian opera are Giacamo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi. From Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème to Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata to the title characters in Turandot and Aida, these operas are filled with powerful female characters with personalities that “launched a thousand ships.” Note I did not say “faces” which launched a thousand ships, although under the male gaze (or female gaze to reference Beatte Karlsson’s ingenious new collection for Avavav), the “face” is often all that is considered.
The spirit of these operatic heroines, and the duality of strictness and softness that is woven through their stories, was encapsulated by this collection. Watching the show, I imagined Mimi sweeping into Cafe Momus on a New Year’s Eve in decadent Look 7 or Turandot scorning her suitors in stately Look 38. What Koma described as a “darkly theatrical palette of red, black, white, silver, and gold” dominated. Roses, forever a symbol of both tragic romance and Blumarine, were omnipresent. They were ingeniously knitted onto a mini-dress in three-dimensional strands in Look 5, embroidered on an exaggerated black bomber jacket in Look 24 and even printed onto deadly ensembles of gold chain mail in Looks 21, 22. The Venetian lion also recurred, most memorably as door-knocker-inspired hardware centering a shoulder-less goat hair jacket defying gravity as it stretched out like wings in Look 30. We also saw the lion on a gilded harness worn like a top in Look 32 and on an elegant black mini dress paired with towering statement boots in Look 31.
Blumarine Autumn/Winter 2026: 5, 7, 21, 22, 24, 30, 31, 32, 38 (Images courtesy of Blumarine)
Blumarine Autumn/Winter 2026: Looks 34, 38 (Images courtesy of Blumarine)
As Shakespeare said, “all the world’s a stage.” That reality holds true four centuries after it was penned - but some people, including the Blumarine girl, are more honest about it than others. Speculations, accusations, assumptions, allegations? She’s heard them all and she doesn’t care. After all, why would she listen to someone who wishes they had her life? This collection was for everyone that’s ever been told “they’re too much.” And we need more of it.