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| The comforts of home were the centerpiece of Andrej Gronau's new collection in Berlin. Photograph (above) and cover picture by Jay Zoo for DAM. |
One of the highlights of Berlin Fashion Week, Andrej Gronau’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection made the domestic interior the starting point for contemporary dress. The London-trained designer, who launched his label in 2022, used the season to examine how comfort, privacy, and personal space shape what we wear, translating household materials and silhouettes directly into clothing. The result was a collection that treated the home not as an escape from fashion, but as its organising system. Story by Antonio Visconti. Photography by Jay Zoo  |
A mid-century vibe of housecoats permeated Andrej Gronau's collection. |
ANDREJ Gronau has emerged as an articulate voice in contemporary European ready-to-wear. A Central Saint Martins graduate, the designer operates with a clarity of intent: his clothes consistently probe the uneasy but fertile ground between youthful naivety and adult restraint, between intimacy and public performance. Nostalgia is present, but not sentimental; instead, it is filtered through precise tailoring, unexpected textures, and a subversive sense of play.
"The collection thrives in this tension between good and bad taste, between style and fashion sins, between what we show and what we hide," explains the designer.
The Autumn/Winter 2026 range, titled Room-For-Play, was presented at an apartment in Berlin. Rather than treating fashion as spectacle, Gronau framed the collection around a familiar structure: the home.
Drawing inspiration from the dollhouse, not as a toy but as a system of rooms, rules, and contradictions, the designer asked what happens when adulthood moves back into spaces associated with comfort, decoration, and privacy. The result is a body of work that turned the interior inside out, translating domestic logic directly into dress.
Upholstery to blankets and carpets to curtains inspire the textiles and designs of the collection, including velour, and brocade. Even fabrics traditionally hidden indoors such as terry towelling, knitwear and fleece, were part of the concept. "The fabrics we reserve for ourselves, for rest, for softness, for pleasure are made visible and wearable" Gronau says. "At home, taste behaves differently. In public, it is trained and performed. Inside, it slips."
Rather than treating fashion as spectacle, Andrej Gronau framed the collection around a familiar structure: the home.
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Fleece skirts and brocade tops were inspired by upholstery. |
Fleeced, belted skirts and demure housecoats suggest mid-century domestic elegance without lapsing into costume and styled with shoes soft enough to recall slippers, dissolve conventional dress codes.
Knitwear, already a Gronau signature, played a central role. Intarsia bow cardigans and sweaters appeared alongside shrunken fluffy pullovers in ecru, turquoise, lilac, and aquamarine.
The colour palette, warm, saturated, and optimistic, stood in deliberate contrast to the neutrals the designer sees as part of conformity in the outside world. It underscored Gronau’s growing confidence as a colourist and reinforced the emotional core of the collection.
"Saturated yellows, turquoise, mint and gold recall the era when velvet and velour ruled interiors with confidence and warmth," says the designer. " These tones clash deliberately with bureaucratic greys, the uniform we slip into when leaving for the office."
Underlying Room-For-Play was autobiography. Memories of Gronau's grandmother’s villa, layered with decades of mismatched rooms and decorative excess, informed the collection’s embrace of inconsistency. A second observation, seeing his infant nephew dressed in a miniature adult suit, sparked a provocation: why do adults cling so tightly to rules, while denying themselves joy? With this collection, Andrej Gronau offered a persuasive answer. His vision suggests that refinement and rebellion are not opposites, but domestic partners, coexisting comfortably, especially at home.
Scroll down to see more highlights from the Andrej Gronau Autumn/Winter 2026 collection in Berlin
Backstage at the Andrej Gronau AW26 show at Berlin Fashion Week
