Drawing on contemporary dance and religious iconography, Colleen Allen explores the female body as the subject of its own experience, with fabric as a medium of physical and spiritual expression.
Dance provides a physical language to express what words cannot always communicate. For Spring Summer 2027, New York-based designer Colleen Allen translates this idea into fabric, drawing inspiration from choreographers Martha Graham and Pina Bausch, alongside religious imagery and Regency fashion. Presented during New York Fashion Week, the collection explores the relationship between discipline, sensuality and spirituality.
“I was thinking about dance as this sort of access to an ecstatic spiritual religious state”, Allen explained. Both Graham and Bausch transformed movement into a language of physical and emotional expression. Their influence suggests that the body itself can become a source of knowledge and spiritual experience.
Religious references appear in hooded silhouettes and capelets reminiscent of clerical dress. Metallic coin embellishments evoke Joan of Arc, introducing ideas of protection and feminine strength. Their movement also produces subtle sounds, extending the sensory experience of the garments.
A finalist for the 2026 LVMH Prize, Allen has explored female archetypes since launching her label in 2024, with the witch as a central figure of intuition, autonomy and embodied knowledge. This fascination with feminine power continues in her Spring Summer 2027 collection, bringing together women whose bodies become instruments of expression and transformation. Fashion, like dance, emerges as a way of experiencing the body as both a physical and spiritual space.
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