Simon Cracker creates a brand uniform to highlight star upcycled garments

  Simon Cracker's collection for next summer is an expression of exasperation with a world of uninformed "experts," and as an antidote the Italian upcycled brand has distilled its focus to singular, spotlight garments, paired with a Simon Cracker new uniform.

For designers Filippo Biraghi and Simone Botte, upcycling is the lexicon they use to tell the story. This season's was titled: "The devil in the details."

They took inspiration for their ironic and disproportionate details from the Belgian designer Martin Margiela, adding to the garments oversized buttons that were actually facsimile copies, huge safety- and clothespins and giant zipper pulls. "We didn't copy Margiela. We tried to use the same language,'' Biraghi said.

The basic Simon Cracker co-ed uniform for Spring-Summer 2026 was a simple square T-shirt fashioned from jersey stock that they saved and reconditioned after it became waterlogged in flooding. The T-shirts, each with a big care label sewn on the front, were paired with tailored black shorts.

This Photo shows a model wearing a creation of men's Simon Cracker Spring-Summer 2026 collection. AP

The uniforms were backdrops for the real stars: A blazer with multiple crumpled arms that unfurled on the runway into dramatic trains. A triplicate of belted trousers tiered to make super low-waisted streetwear. Shirts sewn on dress fronts, with the arms tied behind the waist. A frenzy of shirts that become a ruffled skirt. Three pleated skirts layered to form a strapless tiered dress.

Each garment, made of clothes that had been in some way discarded, had its own architecture, and its own story.

Biraghi said that the designers have come up with a "recipe" for some core garments, including the Siamese T-Shirt he was wearing. It was made out of two T-shirts, one forming the sides with the arms, the second contributing the front and back panels. The idea is put out some identifiable pieces, while maintaining the uniqueness of each garment that is core to the brand.

"Our niche wants unique pieces. It is not the herd that interests us. Fewer but more devoted,'' Botte said.

Associated Press