TOGA’s Autumn Winter 2026 show unfolded in the cavernous Yeomanry House on Handel Street, a space that felt halfway between drill hall and gallery, the perfect backdrop for clothes that insist on being read as wearable art rather than a straightforward wardrobe. This season, Yasuko Furuta’s focus was on what fabric can *do* when it’s pulled, crumpled and pressed, and how those gestures might register on the body as movement, friction and, occasionally, surprise. The result was a collection that hovered between preppy polish and experimental sculpture, men’s and womenswear sharing the same vocabulary of slippage, double layers and jewellery that refuses to behave like an accessory.
Let’s talk about “liquidity and movement” – you can see that research in real time as the clothes stride across the parquet floor. Natural fibres – cotton shirting, soft wool tailoring, silk bases – are spliced with sharper synthetics, echoing the idea of our natural bodies wrapped and adorned in plastic. In practice, that meant crisp shirts sliced and re‑attached to skirts, shorts and trousers; panels that peel away from the body; and hems that appear to have been paused mid‑motion, as if the garment is still deciding what shape it wants to take.
One of the clearest expressions of this push‑and‑pull comes in a white tailored look cinched with a translucent amber corset that seems to float on top of the torso, anchored by a double belt. The trousers are interrupted at mid‑thigh with a horizontal seam and sheer insert, as though the fabric has been lifted and reset, while a neat cardigan and polo keep the overall impression studious rather than severe. It’s preppy, yes, but in TOGA’s language: a uniform that has been quietly manipulated, stretched by the wearer’s own movements.
Checks and tartan ground the experimentation in something familiarly collegiate. A boxy plaid jacket sits over matching long shorts, the proportions slightly off in a way that feels deliberate, the volume in the shoulders balanced by a lean boot and a structured leather bag. It’s the kind of look that reads as classic at first glance, then reveals its slippages – the skirt‑like cut of the shorts, the soft drape of the lapel – once you actually watch it walk.
Throughout, jewellery is elevated from a finishing touch to a main character. Oversized brooches and enamelled plaques punctuate lapels, skirt hems and even trouser fronts, like fragments of costume jewellery that have escaped their usual placement and gone exploring. On an otherwise strict black knit and wide trousers, crystalline blue flourishes cling to the hips, while double belts slice diagonally across the waist, turning a simple silhouette into a study of tension and release. It’s a reminder that adornment can redraw the lines of a garment just as effectively as a cut.
Texture, too, becomes a form of volume. One standout look swallows the body in champagne‑coloured, almost fleece‑like pile, the surface broken up by patches of sequins in citrus, coral and inky black that suggest shards of light embedded in snow. Another pair of sleek sleeveless tops with a tumbling, three‑dimensional skirt, its fluffy cream mass punctured by glossy jewel‑coloured insets, like geodes cracked open and pressed into fabric. They’re pieces that could easily tip into costume, but here they feel grounded by TOGA’s pragmatic footwear and unfussy hair, wearable art that still remembers it has somewhere to be.
What keeps “Pull, Crumple, Pressed” from becoming a purely intellectual exercise is the underlying practicality: shirts you want to borrow, coats that look genuinely warm, skirts that will actually move through a city winter. The experimentation happens in the margins – in the doubled waistbands, the slashed hems, the jewellery pinned where jewellery doesn’t usually go – inviting the wearer to participate in the process rather than simply admire it from afar. In a season where many brands talk about clothes that “adapt to modern life”, TOGA’s answer feels the most convincing: garments that acknowledge how we twist, crease and decorate them every day, and decide to make that the point.
