Ernest W. Baker Spring/Summer 2026 at Paris Men’s Fashion Week

Ernest W. Baker Spring/Summer 2026 / SS26 at Paris Men’s Fashion Week, for this seasons collection we started with the idea: “Gothic Grandma.”

An elegant, slightly eerie grandma while simultaneously having an edginess and sense of rebelliousness, all creating an unsettled feeling that something is a bit off. We imagined what it would be like if our grandmother’s “Sunday best” met the energy of a late nightclub. That tension between restraint and rebellion, is where the collection lives. This image became the foundation of our Spring/Summer 2026 collection, which explores the opposing concepts we continue to revisit and develop: old and new, soft and sharp, tradition and subversion.

In the collection, there is a deliberate play between textures and colors, patent leather next to evening wear pieces. Strips of leather and suede sewn together, one of the same material but visually opposite. The collection sees several looks in a more muted color palette, yet are contrasted with looks in strong colors of jade green and red, while vintage roses clash with cheetah prints.

Some silhouettes are stripped back to their purest forms, others are interrupted: sleeveless zip tailored jackets, satin track suits, sculptural high boots that feel both Mod and brutalist, evening wear tailoring, and hand beaded embroidered crochet roses that carry a sense of personal history. Over the past several years we have been curating a collection of vintage pins, small details with soul. These pieces are scattered throughout the collection, not just as accessories but as memories intended to evoke an emotion.

This sense of contrast and tension carries into the imagery. The lookbook was shot in spaces where richness and decay coexist. Interiors that were once grand, harbouring a rich history, now quietly deteriorating. There is a visual tension between being inside this fading space and stepping outside into a more grounded and present atmosphere. Outside feels real, textured and imperfect, while the interior becomes more of a nostalgic dream, elegant yet detached from reality. That play between fantasy and grit, becomes part of the story.

Ernest W. Baker SS26 / Spring/Summer 2026 collection is about contrast, but also clarity, in that the contrast is the result of an organic process, a continuum. We’re drawn to this dynamic tension between something beautifully familiar and something that makes you pause and look twice. It is in that space that it feels most honest for us right now.