Hollywood has long been a driving inspiration for David and Phillipe Blond of The Blonds, who have dressed everyone from Beyoncé to Lil’ Kim for tours and performance appearances. This season, the designers drew inspiration from contemporary Hollywood glamour to create a fashion safari for their spring 2026 collection.
Their runway show opened with co-creative director Phillipe Blond wearing a gold beaded and crystal asymmetrical moto jacket dress with opulent shoulder pad details. Moto jackets have long been a Hollywood staple, having been a signature of many male film icons from Marlon Brando to John Travolta in “Grease.” Of course, The Blonds had to put their own bedazzled twist on one of the most classic staples of cinema icons and what would usually be an everyday wardrobe piece.
The fashion safari concept was evident through pieces evidenced in a leopard-print bodysuit with a matching corset and a leopard-print mini bodycon dress with matching gloves. One dress even featured tiger stripes, which, when it comes to animal prints, is a more uncommon pattern compared to leopard or cheetah print.
In this outing, The Blonds aimed to make the runway feel more cinematic, drawing inspiration from iconic silver-screen sirens and femme fatales throughout cinema history. The leopard-print dresses clearly nod to Nicole Kidman’s character, Suzanne Stone Moretto, in the 1995 film “To Die For,” where she wore a leopard-print dress while seducing Matt Dillon’s character, Larry Maretto. The catsuits were also a tribute to one of pop culture’s most famous femme fatales, Cat Woman.
Images courtesy of Purple PR
Rather than make the femme fatale an everyday fashionista, The Blonds once again bridged the gap between fashion and costume by creating looks that would be ready for an opulent film and imagining what a silver-screen siren would look like today if she were dripping in crystals, bejeweled corsets, and stilettoes. Whenever the camera is ready to roll, The Blonds are here to dress your star ladies in opulence.
—Kristopher Fraser
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