Emilie Wenckstern Wins Polimoda’s Best Collection 2026
NO LONGER HUMAN: POLIMODA BEST COLLECTION 2026, Designer Emilie Wenckstern wins “Best Collection” at Polimoda Graduate Show 2026 judged by Eva Cavalli, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Danae Mercer, Eugene Rabkin and Simona Tabasco.
July 3, 2026 – German designer Emilie Wenckstern, who has just graduated from Polimoda’s Undergraduate course in Fashion Design, is the winner of Polimoda’s Best Collection 2026. The award was given for No Longer Human, the collection presented at the Polimoda Graduate Show 2026, held on June 15 in the square in front of the school Manifattura Campus in Florence.
At the heart of the collection lies a radical, contemporary question: what happens to the body when it can be generated, edited, and constructed before it is even physically present? Drawing on dolls, mannequins, sculptural figures, and digital avatars, Wenckstern probes the boundary between human and artificial, turning the body into surface, construction, and image.
The Polimoda Graduate Show 2026 brought to the runway the work of twenty designers from fifteen different countries, the expression of a generation that has grown up in an unstable, accelerated, and profoundly transformed global landscape. The collections told a story of personal, socially aware fashion, in which memory, cultural heritage, identity, and lived experience become tools of creative research.
The Polimoda Graduate Show 2026 brought to the runway the work of twenty designers from fifteen different countries, the expression of a generation that has grown up in an unstable, accelerated, and profoundly transformed global landscape. The collections told a story of personal, socially aware fashion, in which memory, cultural heritage, identity, and lived experience become tools of creative research.
This year’s jury was made up of Eva Cavalli, fashion designer and model, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Fashion Director at SSAW Magazine, Danae Mercer, journalist and body confidence content creator, Eugene Rabkin, founder and editor of StyleZeitgeist magazine, and Simona Tabasco, the Italian actress known for The White Lotus. The jury was invited to assess the collections and select the strongest proposal, based on originality, technical execution, and design coherence.
“The pieces that will stay with me long after today’s show are Emilie’s. Her creative concept, how AI is influencing us to be ‘superhuman’, how for so long we’ve tried to achieve these things even in the Renaissance, and the role fashion plays in all of that, was so moving. Especially for me, as someone who works in the body confidence space. But I also loved the skill involved in the leatherwork, and the craftsmanship there,” commented Danae Mercer. Asked which look would stay with him longest after the show, Eugene Rabkin didn’t hesitate: “Emilie Wenckstern’s final look.”
The international jury confirms the closing power of No Longer Human, able to condense the tension between artificial body, sculptural silhouette, and constructed identity into a single image.
All images by Polimoda. PR Agency PR Consulting Paris.