For spring/summer '26, Johanna and Zandra Lundell channel their great-great-grandfather’s ghostly church into Wilhelmina’s 'Poltergeist' collection – a beautifully eerie mix of frayed knits, corseted silhouettes and upcycled treasures
Wilhelmina’s darkly romantic upcycled designs find their roots in Nordic folktales and traditional costumes. But for spring/summer '26, sister design duo Johanna and Zandra Lundell turned to tale that was a bit closer to home. “The research started with a visit to a church in the North of Sweden which our great-great-grandfather partly built,” the sisters say. “Fascinated by the uncanny environment we continued looking for inspiration on the ghostly theme.” This ultimately led to the collection’s eerie name: 'Poltergeist'.
There is indeed something haunting about Wilhelmina’s universe. The frayed knits (“It almost looks like it’s falling apart,” the designers note) coupled with the traditional corseted silhouettes conjure the notion of a sharply dressed damsel from a bygone era whose spirit is haunting the runway. A distressed image of the church itself, meanwhile, is printed on a tube dress with fraying panels – perhaps the most beautifully spooky expression in the offering.
But Wilhemina’s reverence for the past comes through in more than just its interest in fables both personal and universal; it also comes down to the material itself. “Our aim is to use as much recycled material as possible,” Johanna and Zandra say. Yes, there is upcycled fabric, but also oyster shell buttons. “We have a private oyster shell dealer at a restaurant in Stockholm who saves shells for us instead of throwing them in the bin,” the designers say. The buttons can be found on a smart tailored shirt and a covetable overcoat, made from an old table cloth and blanket respectively. Meanwhile, grandma wasn’t forgotten in the collection’s narrative; her old embroidery is reworked into patterned knitwear.
Naturally the show space has a tale of its own. The old factory building in which the show took place (the girls had a shared vision of an “unpretentious fashion show”) certainly has stories to tell. The stage is set with two floor-to-ceiling black textile sculptures by artist Linnea Dalstrand. “They could make you think of a massive altar cloth or a curtain in a haunted house,” say Johanna and Zandra. "Or even a phantom itself.”
See all the looks from Wilhelmina's SS26 collection below. All photos by Bertine Monsen.
