There is a particular electricity when a woman refuses to soften. Laura Gerte’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, Deviant Defiant, entered Berlin Fashion Week with that voltage already humming beneath the surface. Presented inside a vast former department store, the show unfolded in a space that still carried the imprint of consumption and expectation. Columns stretched upward. Concrete held its temperature. The air felt suspended. Before the first model appeared, a monologue filled the room. Steady, intimate, reflective. It circled questions of agency, willfulness, and the cultural unease surrounding female autonomy. The words lingered long enough to shift perception. When the runway began, the collection no longer required explanation. It moved with intention.

Laura Gerte does not dress heroines. She dresses women who have stepped outside the narrative designed for them. Deviant Defiant reclaims the figure of the female villain and treats her as a subject of maturity, knowledge, and erotic authority. No caricature. No costume. Just precision.

How does your process influence the forms and silhouettes this season?

At the beginning, there is the drawing, but most of the collection emerges through the process itself: many garments can be worn in different ways, which can only be understood in interaction with a body, both my own and the model’s. In these interactions, the most exciting forms emerge and are further developed.

Is there a thought or attitude that runs through the entire collection?

Eigensinn, inspired by “Willful Subjects” by Sara Ahmed: Eigensinn is often read as something negative, as stubborn and persistent, especially in women. Ahmed argues, however, that willfulness – particularly in women – can be a tool of resistance.

What does this collection say about you as a designer?

Every collection is a reflection of my experience as a woman, amplified through conversations with my female friends. In addition, there are feminist theory and cultural considerations. This collection suggests that I have become more mature, more focused, and braver.

What does the idea of a “vacuum” mean to you in the context of your work?

I would describe the months of conceptualizing and developing the collections, before the presentation, as a vacuum – until then, it only exists in the studio, belongs only to us, and not yet to the outside world. That makes the moment of the show both extremely exciting and very vulnerable.

Deviant Defiant. Two words historically sharpened against women. Defiant: marked by refusal. Refusal to obey, to comply, to make oneself smaller in the presence of authority. Deviant: departing from accepted standards, especially in matters of conduct, sexuality, and social order. Language has long used these terms to discipline female autonomy. To name a woman defiant is to accuse her of disobedience. To call her deviant is to suggest danger. Laura Gerte reclaims both. In her hands, defiance becomes posture. Deviance becomes design logic. The collection does not illustrate rebellion. It inhabits it. Authority is not requested. It is assumed.

The first look established vertical authority. A narrow, elongated silhouette cut through the space with precision. Sculpted wool framed the torso while the lower half extended in a controlled, almost architectural line. The body appeared intensified, drawn upward into focus. Every seam carried intention. Every closure held tension. Colour reinforced this authority. The collection moved through a concentrated spectrum of black, charcoal, deep burgundy, ink blue, oxidised brown. These were not decorative shades. They felt sedimented. Pigments with depth. Surfaces that absorbed light instead of reflecting it. The darkness was dimensional, layered: matte wool against slick leather, dense satin against porous mesh. Occasionally, a muted red pulsed through the sequence. Not bright, not ornamental. A blood-warm undertone running beneath structure. It suggested interiority, something circulating below the composed exterior.

The absence of high contrast created cohesion. Tones shifted subtly between looks, allowing silhouette and texture to remain the primary focus. Light caught the edges of a leather seam, a mesh panel, and the curve of a hip, then disappeared again into the depth. As the sequence unfolded, verticality repeated in variations. Fluid jersey twisted around hips and ribcages, leather wrapped tightly across the waist, satin pulled the figure into sharper contour. Volume entered through precise placement of hips exaggerated, shoulders slightly extended, hems interrupted, recalibrating proportion while maintaining control. Texture carried narrative weight. Reclaimed garments and deadstock textiles retained traces of previous lives. Surfaces held memory. Wool absorbed light. Mesh revealed structure beneath. Leather resisted softness. The interplay between rigidity and movement created a silhouette alert to its own presence.

The collaboration with Dr. Martens intensified this dialogue. Original Icons were deconstructed and re-engineered into garments and accessories. Soles migrated upward. Leather panels reappeared as structural extensions. Familiar weight was redistributed across the body. The gesture carried subcultural lineage while reinforcing the collection’s darker register. Movement direction by Dafni Krazoudi sustained a steady, deliberate pace. Hair and makeup by Philipp Verheyen sharpened the mood, sculpted faces, concentrated gaze, an expression that did not seek reassurance. Styling by Luisa Probst maintained elongation throughout, preserving tension without excess. Inside the reclaimed department store, set design by Marilena Büld intensified the atmosphere. The vastness of the industrial landscape framed the silhouettes without diluting their presence. A monologue by Samja Zad preceded the show, embedding the runway within a discourse on willfulness and agency before the first look appeared. Across the collection, colour and form worked in tandem. Darkness functioned as density. Red registered as pulse. Blue carried depth. Black held authority.

In Deviant Defiant, Laura Gerte stages autonomy as structure. The female figure stands elongated, self-contained, uncontained.