This season, renowned Turkish designer Bora Aksu wove a spellbinding narrative from the life and enigma of Empress Elisabeth of Austria — a woman cloaked in imperial grandeur yet haunted by a relentless, piercing sorrow. The collection didn’t merely revive Elisabeth’s world; it pulsed with a modern heartbeat — a heady collision of regal restraint and untamed defiance.
Sharp-shouldered jackets and meticulously tailored overcoats — modern-day suits of imperial armor — stood in fierce contrast to fluid silhouettes and deconstructed drapery, each piece a bold echo of Egon Schiele’s jagged, unrestrained forms. The tension between structure and chaos mirrored Elisabeth herself — a sovereign bound by duty, yet seething with an unspoken, rebellious fire.
Aksu’s recent pilgrimage to Vienna shattered the Empress’s carefully constructed façade, exposing a raw, untamed narrative beneath the veneer of idealized portraits. Beyond the polished surface lay fragile relics of her reality — garments suspended in time, delicate sketches aching with longing, and letters that murmured of loneliness and unrest. It was within these haunting fragments that Aksu found his muse: a woman ensnared by courtly rituals yet smoldering with silent rebellion.
The collection ignited a fierce dialogue between two opposing realms — the rigid, oppressive formality of the Habsburg court and the unfiltered, visceral emotion bleeding through Egon Schiele’s incendiary art. Whisper-thin lace, high-neck blouses, and ethereal sheer layers ghosted across the models’ frames, embodying Elisabeth’s spectral elegance.
But rebellion simmered beneath the surface — asymmetric cuts, frayed hems, and bold, skin-baring slashes spoke of defiance, a quiet storm waiting to break. The palette unfolded like a battle cry — muted ivories and soft creams evoking the era’s repressed grace, violently slashed by surges of crimson, deep indigo, and bruised purples — a bold reflection of Schiele’s feverish brushstrokes and the dark, untold chapters of Elisabeth’s life.
Aksu didn’t simply unveil a collection; he staged an experience — a visceral clash where history and modernity entwined in a dark, seductive embrace. It was a raw meditation on beauty and chaos, tradition and rebellion — a magnetic tension that pulsed through every look, heavy with unspoken drama. With AW25, Bora Aksu didn’t just blur the line between past and present — he obliterated it — leaving a haunting imprint that smouldered long after the final model vanished into the shadowed depths of the church.
See more at boraaksu.com.
Photography Zuzu Valla
PR AB Comms
Show Production Antony Waller
Show Calling Lille Freer
Styling Leith Clark
Styling Assistant Delaney Williams
Makeup Janeen Witherspoon at MA+ GROUP using Lisa Eldridge
Hair Davide Barbier
Casting Noah Shelley at Streeters
Music Direction Craig Maddison at MADD Creative
Music Leith Clark, Felipe Pagani
Poem Lottie McCrindell
Studio Team Rofella Aksu, Misuk Kim, Hua Zhou, Sule Cairaschi, Shanon Fernandes, Poppy Smyth, Rehan Avizi, Ester Grannat, Janette He, Adriana Afonso, Sofia Evans, Emily Matthews, Elena Esdaile
