Objects of Ordinary Reimagined

Yasuko Furuta returns with TOGA SS26, having paused on the fantastical to refocus on the everyday, refracted through a lens of the surreal. With a philosophical starting point in pop artist Claes Oldenburg's large-scale reworkings of the mundane, this collection takes familiar items—white shirts, slip dresses, and button-downs —and refracts them so that the familiar feels uncanny, altered. It's a season built on gentle subversions.

At the preview, Furuta spoke of finding inspiration in a brief YouTube interview with Oldenburg, particularly his half-melted sculptures (ice cream cones, soft cloth forms, inverted spoons). It's that tension of solidity compromised by softness, of everyday shapes made pliable, that becomes the emotional core of TOGA SS26. "Take something ordinary, look at it anew" seems as much a directive as an inspiration.

Set in an austere first-floor room at the Queen Elizabeth I Centre, with Brutalist concrete pillars and floor-to-ceiling windows gazing out onto Westminster Abbey, the backdrop amplifies this tension between structure and regularity, as forms bend, melt, puff up, or slouch. The environment becomes a frame for the garments to stretch and shift against.

TOGA has long been celebrated for its ability to play with wardrobe staples, and SS26 pushes this further. A crisp white button-down becomes something new when the sleeves are sliced, rolled, or puffed: the shirt is still recognizable but comfortable and unpredictable.

Skirts and dresses feature ruffles, detachable collars, and retro prints of cacti and florals that flirt with vintage pinafore energy, except that these are blended, remixed, and reinterpreted.

Slip dresses made of silk and layered fabrics offer a soft touch. Sharp-shouldered tops in thick, floral jacquard provide a counterpoint for rigidity. Detailing remains Furuta's forte: boning, crinolines, detachable ruffles, collars; accessories like the knitted shopping bags enclosed in Perspex, leather wedges inspired by Japanese athletic plimsolls-all of it reinforcing TOGA's craftsmanship and delight in material hybridity.

The collection's colour story plays between muted and slightly unexpected tones: creams, whites, and stone colours with bursts of retro prints—cactus motifs, florals—and restrained clashes between white and cream. Subtle differences in tone matter (off-white vs. snow, ecru vs. cream), so that garments layered together or contrasted feel intentional. TOGA uses prints as punctuation rather than a distraction.

TOGA shows once again how bending what is basic—the white shirt, slip dress, blouse—can yield garments that feel new without being alien. That is a rare skill. Furuta's attention to texture, hardware, and the juxtaposition of structure (boning, power shoulders) with ease (slip, drape, puffed volume) lends emotional and tactile richness. There is a playfulness in TOGA SS26—but more importantly, a tension. The half-undone, the asymmetrical, the sleeves sliced and rolled, the collar detachable-these nods to imperfection and provisionality give the collection its strength.

The very nature of "remaking the basic" sometimes demands very close attention from the wearer. Items like slip dresses buttoned wonkily, or collars/riffs detachable, risk looking messy rather than artful off the runway. The balance between intentional imperfection and sloppiness is fragile. Prints and texture layering are used sparingly but with impact; however, too many"unexpected" details in proximity (hardware + flounce + clashing prints) can fight rather than sing in harmony for some looks. What is "new" here may feel incremental for longtime TOGA followers; the challenge will be keeping the brand's signature eccentricity & alive while pushing at the edges of what is wearable and what is spectacle.

TOGA SS26 signals a designer comfortable with her identity, able to distill playful eccentricity without resorting to hyperbole. Furuta doesn't need to shock-she needs to rethink. By drawing from art (Oldenburg) rather than runway tropes, she reaffirms that TOGA belongs to a space between clothing, sculpture, and story.

This is a show that underscores how subtle shifts—sleeve cuts, collared detours, accessory scale-can accumulate into meaningful change. For buyers and for the fashion discourse, TOGA continues to offer an alternative: the couture of the quotidian, the transformative potential of small change.

TOGA Spring/Summer 2026 is less about the extravagant moment and more about the persistent remainder: the ordinary refracted, the staple undone, the silhouette turned on its head. Furuta has fashioned a season of clothes that feel both familiar and otherworldly

-white shirts you recognize, skirts that surprise, accessories that delight, prints that whisper rather than shout.

It's a meditation on what happens when you take the foundational pieces and bend them—not breaking, but stretching, softening, puffing, and rolling. This collection doesn't demand spectacle. It asks for perception: how we see what we already own, and how we might choose to wear it again, in a different way.