Dear Shaded Viewers,
After their careers in the lead of luxury houses designers Laura Beham and Callum Pidgeon decided to found the house Prototypes. Since 2021, the Swiss-French label has been committed to developing a distinctive language rooted in transformation. Prototypes recovers, modifies, and elevates deadstock and decommissioned garments to incorporate them in a contemporary way into its collections. The durability of the pieces, focused on sportswear, denim, and uniforms, emerges both in substance and in form. The garments reused within their rigorous designs allow them to tell a story filled with history, constraint, and relevance.
Prototypes asserts a clear stance with its Fall/Winter 2026 collection, where floor-length silhouettes, tailoring, dresses, and blouses push proportions in a deliberate, free-flowing movement. The garments, which form an integral part of the transformative process, allow the wearer to change and adapt.
This collection is built around unfinished ideas, the house’s archives, and unused materials: scarves become dresses, military surplus, fur coats, and prom dresses are reworked into new designs. This constant re-evaluation, along with the use of pre-existing materials, refines the concepts over time.
The anonymity of the models is no coincidence, nor is the setting: an abandoned office space. The campaign, shot in their studio near Place Vendôme in the heart of the fashion capital, shows how Prototypes protests and continues to operate in broad daylight without ever fully revealing itself.
Later,
Alex.
