The design duo discuss their Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Autoerotic.
“Deep assignments run through all our lives; there are no coincidences.” This quote, from David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), framed Gabe Gordon’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Autoerotic. From their earliest moments of inspiration (watching the film together) to developing shrapnel-inspired fabrications, and ultimately to sourcing a wrecked car from a friend of their stylist, the design duo returned time and time again to the themes from their core primary source. But through it, they explored a breadth of additional concepts: Madonna’s Erotica (1992), biodegradable leather, and how the demolition derby, an event in which cars deliberately crash into one another, serves as a metaphor for American masculinity.
“We really start with the fabrication and thinking about our references and building off of those,” the designers, Gabe Gordon and Timothy Gibbons, tell us after their show, which took place at the DCTV in downtown Manhattan. “There were so many new textiles, rubbery and car tire-ish vibes and shiny metallics… I keep thinking of it as shrapnel, all of the pieces flying out from the crash.”
Pairing knits and soft silhouettes with angular, structured pieces constructed from harsh metallics, Gordon and Gibbons explored the intersection — or collision — of desire with destruction, discussing the ways in which sex, queerness, love, death, and violence interact in media. Models made their way down the runway to “Secret Garden” (or a version of the Madonna gem, reinterpreted into a soundscape by Casy MQ), in asymmetrical silhouettes, tire-inspired prints, exaggerated corsetry, protective shoulder pads, undone knitwear, and mechanic-style uniforms with the GG logo where a name tag may be. In some of our favorite looks, pieces looked entirely crafted from mismatched buttons; ragged edges and cutouts gave a burned away effect as if they were the aftermath of flaming cars themselves.
But while a car crash leads to the release of harmful chemicals, Gordon and Gibbons design each piece with the utmost care for the environment, continuously searching for new sustainable practices. “We start with looking at the fabrics from past seasons and questioning how we can reinterpret them in a different way, recycle them into new ways,” they explain, noting their new partnership with biodegradable leather company TômTex. “From the start, the brand has been focused on using sustainable materials, and TômTex felt like a really amazing collaboration because their whole thing is this biodegradable material with zero waste. Other fake leathers will never decompose. It was just so amazing working with their team and designing with them, showing them our designs. I’m so excited to put those in our market, and see what buyers think.”
For accessories, the Gabe Gordon team kept things on theme, with button-embellished JanSport backpacks and a debut collaboration between Lime (yes, the scooter brand) and Bronx-based jewellery label LL, LLC. The exciting collection reimagined retired Lime scooters into sculptural, Art Deco-inspired bracelets, rings, earrings, and chokers.
