Standing Ground’s Couture Debut Looked Like the Future—With Deep Irish Roots
With his sculptural, sci-fi gowns, designer Michael Stewart announced himself as couture’s newest star.
It takes a lot to impress fans of haute couture. Still, within the first day of Paris Couture Week’s fall 2026 shows, insiders were buzzing about Standing Ground’s debut presentation happening that evening. The brand founded by Michael Stewart in 2022 led the Irish designer to win the inaugural Savoir-Faire award of the LVMH Prize in 2024, as well as garner a devoted industry following in the process. From inside the antiqued walls of the Irish Embassy in Paris, Standing Ground stepped into a new era, with minimalist-chic gowns and a subversive sci-fi twist.
Rather than go in a completely new direction, Stewart specifically wanted to hone the techniques he’s perfected since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2017. That meant elegant maxidresses with sculptural, twisted features and cloak-like frocks straight out of Dune. One particularly eye-catching piece had mirrored, chunky beads trapped inside a long skirt. “I think we shouldn’t feel pressure as designers to abandon everything and come up with something new every season,” Stewart said backstage after the show, adding that he’s relishing “Not feeling the need to move on so quickly. There’s so much wealth in what we continue to develop. I’ve started to be playful with it and express it in different ways.”
Kristen McMenamy closed the show in a long and sheer white wedding dress made of handmade Irish Carrickmacross lace, which took nine months of development by 26 artisans who worked on it for 4,000 hours. “Since I was showing couture, I wanted to present what Irish craft can be, and bring them to a stage they deserve to be on,” Stewart said.
Signatures of the label—like the ultrastructured corset top paired with draped, sculpted skirts—dominated the collection. Never one to shy away from color, there were bubblegum-pink trains, grey gowns that resembled a robot, and barely butter-yellow draped dresses. The giant, mandarin orange taffeta skirt of one gown popped against all the modernist silhouettes. A highlight was one lemon-lime strapless dress covered in the designer’s signature beaded-fabric look. A pop of periwinkle emerged from a beige, suede-effect corset. “I love building a color palette that’s not typical,” Stewart, who often uses deadstock fabrics in unusual shades, said.
Speaking of not typical, some of the couture fall 2026 models wore one white-out contact in each eye; a few of them had striking beehive buzzcuts by the hairstylist Duffy. The alien aesthetic was strong, but still stylish. After this week, it’ll be interesting to watch this rising brand develop a new narrative. For now, it’s safe to say that haute couture has a new star.
