Christian Cowan Fall Winter 2025-2026 “Sink your teeth into”. Story by RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Christian Cowan / Oli Kearon.

New York Fashion Week kicked off with a sugar rush, thanks to Christian Cowan’s Fall Winter 2025-2026 collection, Sink Your Teeth Into. The designer—never one to shy away from the theatrical—served up a jaw-dropping, tongue-in-cheek spectacle that felt equal parts high fashion and high absurdity. If there were ever a runway show that whispered, “Would Jeremy Scott at Moschino do this?” and then screamed, “Absolutely, and with even more chaos!”—this was it.

Cowan, who cut his teeth (quite literally) on this collection, took a chomp out of conventional design—starting with his now-iconic chewing gum dress. A sculpted silicone number bearing Christian’s actual bite marks, the dress transformed a childhood faux pas (chewing gum on clothing) into a wearable art piece. It was ridiculous. It was brilliant. It was fashion with a wink and a well-manicured smirk.

But Cowan didn’t stop there. Skirts? Boring. Skirts made out of shoes? Now we’re talking. He reimagined footwear, not for the feet but for the torso, crafting an avant-garde high-heel top where stilettos curved strategically over the chest, making bras feel embarrassingly predictable. The playful absurdity continued with color-blocked polka dot corsets and blazers that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a surrealist cartoon.

The collection was as much a personal homage as it was a satirical fashion commentary. Some of the pieces paid tribute to Cowan’s late friend and former colleague Abby McLaughlin, whose flair for the dramatic mirrored Isabella Blow’s own audacious taste. Other elements nodded to Art Attack, the British TV show that shaped Cowan’s childhood imagination, inspiring the vibrant, oversized proportions that turned the models into walking sculptures.

And then there was the naked dress—Cowan’s take on the barely-there aesthetic currently setting social media on fire. Unlike Bianca Censori’s headline-grabbing Grammy’s moment, his version struck a cheeky balance between exposure and elegance, proving that sometimes, subtlety can be just as scandalous.

The finale was a love letter to the lovers of excess. Enter: a skin-tight patent leather dress crowned with a celestial halo of peacock-pink feathers. If the Real Housewives crowd hadn’t already been taking notes, this was their signal to start sketching wish lists. The look immediately sparked murmurs of Bronwyn Newport vibes—the Salt Lake City franchise star famous for making more her personal aesthetic philosophy.

By the end of the 30-look collection, it was clear: Christian Cowan knows his audience. He designs for those who refuse to blend in, for fashion fans who understand that style should be as entertaining as it is wearable.

Cowan didn’t just present a collection—he threw a campy, biting (pun intended) celebration of fashion’s ability to make us laugh, gasp, and question why we ever took it all so seriously in the first place. In a world where fashion sometimes forgets how to have fun, Sink Your Teeth Into was a much-needed jolt of irreverence. And with that, Cowan reminded us: sometimes, the best way to leave a mark is to bite first.

See All Looks Christian Cowan Fall Winter 2025-2026