Alexis Bittar SS26: Beauty, Power, and Fashion
Through this pageant, Bittar lays themes of misogyny, patriarchy, and the relentless pressures of perfection.
Photography by Marco Ovando
While Alexis Bittar’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection dazzles with fresh, sculptural designs, the jewelry is only part of the story. Bittar stages a presentation that blurs the lines between fashion, performance, art, and social commentary. Drawing inspiration from cult classics like Blue Velvet,
The Virgin Suicides, and Eyes Wide Shut, the show unfolds as a theatrical narrative set at the fictional 1991 Miss USA pageant, with Miss Louisiana at its center.
From the start, it is clear this is no conventional fashion week presentation. Guests crowd into the theater at Abrons Art Center with little sense of what awaits them. The performance itself feels deliberately dystopian–models and actors move in silence, never speaking to one another, while eerie music pulses like a soundtrack pulled from The Twilight Zone. Each model emerges one by one through a revolving stage door, positioned under stark lights as though put up for auction, before being escorted down from the stage by a suited man to face the unflinching gaze of a lone male judge.
Photography by Marco Ovando
Through this pageant, Bittar lays themes of misogyny, patriarchy, and the relentless pressures of perfection. Characters embody archetypes–the host as the face of the patriarchy, the pageant itself revealing the misogyny and objectification beneath the glamour. The audience, seated silently and passively, becomes part of the critique, standing in for the spectators who consume and sustain these systems. Nothing in Bittar’s show is accidental; every detail carries intention. Even the state each model represents is deliberate, with each contestant representing a U.S. State where transgender rights are currently under attack. Every choice Bittar made transforms the pageant setting into a pointed critique of how bodies are legislated, judged, and commodified.
Within this tense yet highly stylized theatrical frame, Bittar’s collection came alive. He fuses ‘90s minimalism with ‘80s maximalism, resulting in oversized bangles stacked in layers, chandelier earrings that graze the shoulders, cuff bracelets, and statement necklaces that rest on the collarbones like museum relics. The pieces stay true to Bittar’s signature style with crumpled gold textures, colored, metallic accents, and bold forms. Hand-sculpted lucite pieces in sherbet shades of mauve and teal further blend ‘90s simplicity with ‘80s extravagance.
With this collection, Bittar underscores that fashion is never just about seasonal trends. Fashion has the power to mirror and challenge the social realities we live in. Fashion is performance. It provokes, tells stories, and challenges power. Above all, it is art–and in Bittar's hands, it is all of these at once.
