Bringing guests together for a salon-style show, the designer presented their Spring/Summer 2026 collection with an intimacy that broke the barrier between performer and audience.

The last time Jackson Wiederhoeft showed during New York Fashion Week, they staged a three act performance with 55 looks, including 26 corseted wedding gowns and elaborate choreography. The prior Spring/Summer season followed the same structure, and even before that, their debut collection back in 2019 brought dancers and models under the same roof for a Shakespearian ballet-slash-fashion show. By now, one could put odds on catching a dance performance while attending a Wiederhoeft runway presentation.  

Therefore, it came as a surprise to learn that the designer planned to show their Spring/Summer 2026 collection in a salon style so intimate that it required two seatings to accommodate the number of guests. “It was like, ‘let’s do something completely different: our smallest fashion show ever,’” they explained backstage when asked about the switch-up in format. “I think my first show in a photo gallery was bigger than this. So it was like, let’s do surgery on a grape. Let’s do the smallest, most perfect thing.”

But it wasn’t just the limited number of guests in the room that created a sense of intimacy. It was the limited (for Wiederhoeft, I should clarify) number of looks — about half of what we had become accustomed to — and the manner in which the models walked right up to our seats, completely disrupting the invisible barrier between the character and the audience. 

Up close, we were able to see the details that make a Wiederhoeft piece so special: the delicate corsetry and drool-worthy tailoring, the intricate beading and thoughtful fabrications (the gold fabric actually took a year to develop), the print designs and buttons. We were also about to get a good look at the latest Wiederhoeft inclusion: shoes.

“This was the first time we designed shoes,” Wiederhoeft explained, telling us about their debut collaboration with Florrie London, a brand that blends Italian craftsmanship with a British style. The heels, handcrafted at an atelier outside of Florence, were presented in various styles, from embroidered offerings to couture salon-style ones. “The shoes are really comfortable and they’re just so beautiful. That was definitely a highlight for me. Head to toe Wiederhoeft.”

Another relatively new inclusion this season was that of menswear, which Wiederhoeft explained used to be a bigger part of the brand: “We used to do a lot more menswear, and we sort of took a hiatus because we didn’t really have the customer for it, honestly. What I really love is getting lesbian clients in for looks, and they both wear the looks together. And I know some of our brides with husbands want that as well, so it’s about being able to kind of craft that world out for them.” 

“So many of our clients find such a special home here and they come to life and they just want to bring other people into it — it’s like their love language, dressing up together, so I just wanted to invite more people into the world. I want Wiederhoeft to be for everyone, that’s nothing new.”

That focus on the client is at the heart of everything Wiederhoeft does, and how the designer stays focused and inspired. “I love fashion so much, but a lot of people who work for me aren’t even fashion people. I like making fashion, but I don’t really pay that much attention to what’s going on. It’s really about just creating beautiful work. I just spend much more attention on the clients and what they want and what they’re up to and listening to them. Those are the muses. People are often like, who’s your muse? Who’s your muse? And it’s like, I don’t know, every client who comes in here. When I see them light up, that’s my muse.”

Words by Sophie Wang

Photography by Madison Aycoth