The Story
On a quiet Tuesday evening in London, within the storied walls of Westminster School, KENT&CURWEN chose not to celebrate its 100th anniversary with noise but with nuance.
The Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, titled Whipplesnaith, unfolded like a secret passed between generations. Off-schedule, almost whispered, the show rejected spectacle in favour of atmosphere leaning into shadow, intellect, and a peculiarly British kind of rebellion.
At the centre of it all stands Daniel Kearns, whose direction continues to reshape the house’s legacy with a quiet confidence. His vision doesn’t rewrite history it disturbs it, gently.
A Study in Rebellion
The collection draws from the obscure yet fascinating world of the Night Climbers of Cambridge a clandestine group of 1930s students who scaled the city’s historic architecture under the cover of darkness. Their unofficial leader, Noel H. Symington, wrote under the alias Whipplesnaith a name now resurrected as both reference and manifesto.
This wasn’t rebellion for spectacle. It was rebellion for belonging.
And that spirit runs through every look.
Attendees, including Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Nabhaan Rizwan and Emma Appleton, bore witness to a collection that feels less like a show and more like an invitation to see differently.
British Codes, Reimagined
KENT&CURWEN has always lived within the codes of British dressing this season, it bends them.
Midnight blues dissolve into inky blacks. Muted taupes and autumnal browns ground the palette, while collegiate reds and flashes of lilac disrupt it like ink bleeding through parchment.
Classic outerwear appears, but never as expected. The trench coat arguably Britain’s most recognisable silhouette is reborn in patent finishes, softened structures, and dramatic high-collared capes. Tailoring is slim yet fluid, disciplined but never rigid.
Knitwear unravels slightly, just enough to suggest movement. Accessories feel almost ceremonial corsage details, embroidered insignias gestures that hint at tradition while quietly questioning it.
The Poetry of Belonging
What makes Whipplesnaith compelling is not just its aesthetic, but its philosophy.
“We think of those nights spent with one or more friends…” the collection notes read an idea that lingers throughout. There is intimacy here. A sense of shared experience. Of stepping outside the rules, but not alone.
Kearns doesn’t position rebellion as opposition. Instead, it becomes a form of connection of finding identity within the margins.
And perhaps that is where KENT&CURWEN feels most relevant today.
A Century, Distilled
Founded in 1926, the house began with ties literal ones binding together the codes of Oxford and Cambridge. A century later, those same codes are loosened, reinterpreted, worn with intention rather than obligation.
‘Multum in parvo’ much in little serves as the collection’s quiet thesis.
There is no excess here. Only precision. Only meaning.
Final Word
In an industry often obsessed with reinvention, KENT&CURWEN offers something rarer: evolution with memory intact.
Whipplesnaith is not about looking back it’s about understanding where you stand in relation to it. In the shadows, in the in-between, in the quiet space where identity is not prescribed, but discovered.
And in that space, KENT&CURWEN at 100 feels unexpectedly young.
CREDITS
Chief Creative Officer
Daniel Kearns @daniel.kearns
Stylist
Pau Avia at Second Name @pauavia
Hair
Matt Mulhall at Streeters @mattmulhall
Make-Up
Ammy Drammeh at Bryant Artists @ammydrammeh
Nail Artist
Adam Slee at Streeters @adamslee_
Casting
Ben Grimes at Drive Represents @ben_grimes_casting
Music
Wladimir Schall @wladimir.schall
Video
Tayo Rapoport @tayo.rap
Production
My Beautiful City @mybeautifulcity
UK/EU Press
PURPLE @purplepr
China Press
Gusto @gustoluxe
Special Thanks
Hermani Heritage @hermaniheritage
