Berlin Fashion Week: Play Hard, Land Softly - A Study of Youth and Identity in Luke Rainey’s AW26 Dagger Collection

An urban angel in ripped jeans and holding a bottle of beer stood centre of the runway during Luke Rainey's Dagger show in Berlin. All photographs and cover by Jay Zoo for DAM 

Dagger’s new Autumn/Winter 2026 collection called Play Hard, was a standout at Berlin Fashion Week, and a personal reckoning for designer Luke Rainey, writes Jeanne-Maire Cilento. Photography by Jay Zoo

Starting out with t-shirts printed with 

quotable statements, the designer has 

built a sophisticated label.

LUKE Rainey's label carries the weight of lived experience, designs shaped by resilience and the urgency of making something from nothing. Based in Berlin for the past five years, the Northern Irish designer named Dagger after a ritual blade associated with change and transition, built on the idea that identity is forged under pressure.

Rainey launched the brand in 2020 at a moment of rupture, turning professional rejection into motivation and imprinting that defiance into the label’s DNA. 

Growing up in a coastal town in Northern Ireland, he learned early that style wasn’t about polish but survival. Skateboarding offered a sense of agency, friendship and a raw, resourceful mindset that still drives the designer's approach. It gave him a shared language, a form of escape, a way to belong when options were thin.

This season, Rainey channels memories of long winters, closed storefronts, and the restless energy of youth searching for release. The collection feels protective and worn-in, designed for movement and endurance. Textures are tough, silhouettes grounded, and details deliberately imperfect, reflecting a world shaped by limited options and shared ingenuity.

In a season crowded with conceptual gestures, Dagger’s strength lies in Luke Rainey's conviction and his portrait of youth and perseverance, a reminder that the most compelling fashion often comes from necessity rather than excess. 

Scroll to see more highlights from Dagger's AW26 collection at Berlin Fashion Week