“We’re bringing colour back in a big way – it’s always been part of our DNA,” Marta Marques told PA Media ahead of the Marques’Almeida spring/summer 2026 show.
Racks of butter-yellow denim, blush ruffles and indigo bustiers surrounded Marques backstage – it looked like a TikTok feed come to life. The so-called “How to dress like a Portuguese girlie” trend celebrates bold prints, clashing patterns and vibrant colour combinations, and while designers are averse to the T word – Marques can’t help but resonate with the trend.
“Someone once told us, ‘you’ve got something very Latin about how you do colour and frills’. We’d been in London for years thinking we were grunge kids, but it stuck with us. There’s instinctive romance in the colour and free silhouettes, even if we ground it with chunky shoes or raw hems,” said the Portuguese-born designer.
For a decade, husband-and-wife founders Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida built Marques’Almeida on shredded denim, oversized shirts and a punk-ish approach to fashion.
From their east London studio they were the rising cool kids of British fashion, street-casting their friends and eschewing traditional runway etiquette. But during the pandemic the pair returned to their hometown of Porto, Portugal, swapping Dalston’s warehouses for the Atlantic light.
That move – and the reflective time it gave them – seems to have seeped into spring/summer 2026.
“This season felt like we had to go through the discomfort of growing pains to come out on the other side with something fresher,” says Marques. “The creative process was much more intuitive and by hand, draping shapes rather than being strict with construction or fit.”
It’s a striking admission from a designer once celebrated for her spiky silhouettes, but she frames it as a liberation: “We’ve been playing around with lots more eveningwear, it felt very serious the last few seasons. This time we wanted something lighter, fresher and more instinctive.”
That shift was visible, Marques’Almeida’s familiar boyfriend jeans have been reimagined into a buttery pastel shade Marta calls “an elevated energy of denim”.
Crisp blue shirts are printed with delicate botanical sketches, frothy pink organza collapses into pools on the floor. “We loved the idea that with Dylon your clothes become better and brighter as you wear them,” she explains, having collaborated with Dylon Detergent this season to help prolong clothes’ lifespan. “It ties perfectly to our belief in garments that live and grow with you.”
Colour, of course, is the brand’s calling card. “We’re very specific,” Marques smiles. “If it’s that shade of pink, it’s that shade of pink, because of how it sits next to the other colours.”
The show itself has been designed as a journey. “It starts with darker, heavier pieces – lengths dragging, pooling – you feel that tension. Then it gets lighter and easier with the floral prints, before ending in a really celebratory, over-the-top moment.”
It’s hard not to read that as a metaphor for the past few years. After the heaviness of pandemic life, Marques’Almeida’s spring/summer 2026 collection feels like a breath of Porto sea air: fluid lines, joyous colour and a sense of liberation.
Front row, singer and presenter Rochelle Humes embodied that same multi-generational spirit the label champions, announcing she’d be passing her outfit down to her daughter – the perfect visual echo of Marques’Almeida’s “family casting” on the catwalk.
“Alaia [Rochelle’s daughter] is already raiding my wardrobe and got her eye on a few items!” Humes laughed. “Most of my statement pieces from my favourite designers are carefully crafted and require a gentle wash – which is exactly why Dylon is perfect.”
“We call it ‘family casting’,” says Marques. “It began in 2015 as a reaction to how models were treated […] now sisters, mothers, daughters walk together.
“This season you’ll see a girl who’s been with us since 2014 walking alongside her mum and her sister’s baby.”
Community has always been central to Marques’Almeida. “British fashion has always been about community,” says Marques, “early on we were in the London showrooms with no idea how to price or sell, and designers like Simone [Rocha] would say, ‘Let me help you with that’. That shared experience breeds creativity.”
Now, teaching and mentoring from Portugal, she’s trying to bring that ethos home.
“The world feels volatile,” Marques says. “But if you break through that there’s lightness in community – even in small units where people speak the same language and share resources. That’s the feeling we want this collection to give.”
On the runway, that translated into clothes that appeared trend-led but are built to last: butter-washed denim that will fade beautifully, airy dresses that will outlive an algorithm and colours so specific they become signatures.
Marques’Almeida’s collection isn’t just another spin of the trend cycle; it’s a reminder that style can be both timely and timeless, as joyful as a TikTok trend but as enduring as a well-worn pair of jeans.
