Light splinters from crystal chandeliers, in a fractured glow, the aura of the Théâtre National de l’Opéra‑Comique awakens. The weight of stories told fragments nurtured through the pulse of time – Bode Spring/Summer 2026 collection portrays a life lived in motion, a poignant tribute to American composer Morris “Moose” Charlap.
A quiet formation gathered along the aisle’s spine. Seen through the lens of my Caribbean heritage, the miniatures recalled voodoo effigies—small, sacred forms charged with meaning: stitching becomes storytelling, and thread remembers what the world forgets. Lined up as a procession of personal ghosts, these miniature muses are adorned in scaled-down garments. Emily Adams Bode Aujla, ever the anthropologist of emotion, curated the presentation as a kind of séance. Charlap’s world unfolds in delicate vignettes: from boyhood summers in the Poconos to Central Park strolls after post-Broadway curtain calls, from the smoky vibrancy of midcentury Manhattan to the dreamlike melancholy of post-Impressionist Paris.
Notes of “I Won’t Grow Up,” by Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Bill Charlap, resonated as an elegy to an unfinished dream. A voice rekindling the soul of each miniature figure —nostalgic silhouettes wrapped in the texture of a time gone by: theatrical flourishes transpose into tailored jackets while high-waisted trousers in tobacco wool call to mind the backstage air of a 1950s matinee. Shirts are cut with soft collars and fastened with mother-of-pearl buttons. Some wear painter’s smocks stained in pastel washes; others sport sailor stripes or concert pianist blacks.
Charlap—best known for his score to Peter Pan—died young, but not before shaping the soundscape of American musical theater. His final, unfinished work with lyricist Eddie Lawrence, titled The Expressionist, tells the story of a painter searching for meaning in a changing world. From this unfinished score, Bode’s SS26 collection rises from the echoes of this unwritten musical.
