タリア・バイアの若者への洗練された賛歌

Speaking from her east London studio days before her Spring/Summer 2026 show, Talia Lipkin-Connor – the designer behind the Talia Byre label – is trying to stay calm. “We call it swan vibes,” she says. “The point is that you’re gliding on top of the water, but underneath your legs are paddling like mad. If I start to freak out, I’m aware that everyone else will freak out too. It’s my job to be calm.” 

Five years on from launching her namesake label, Lipkin-Connor is stepping things up. S/S26 is the brand’s biggest show to date, held on a crisp Sunday morning on the top floor of Charles Asprey’s six-storey modern building on the edge of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, with panoramic views of the city. The light-filled venue holds over 80 guests – including Incubator gallerist Angelica Jopling, The Souvenir star Honor Swinton Byrne and chef Nil Mutluer (aka Heal Goblin) – a world away from the intimacy of the brand’s previous shows, which have unfolded in cosy wine bars, bookshops, art galleries and restaurants across London. This season, the brand is being represented by DH-PR, Daisy Hoppen’s luxury London PR agency that represents established womenswear brands with strong visions, including Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard and Rejina Pyo, launching Talia Byre into a new and ambitious league. “This season feels more grown-up,” says Lipkin-Connor. “Chic, elevated, how we want to dress. We’re ready to take it up a notch.” 

After graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2020, the designer launched Talia Byre in homage to her great uncle’s legendary Liverpool boutique, Lucinda Byre, which operated from the 1960s to the 80s. Playful, colourful, and infused with a sense of timeless elegance and feminine sensuality, Talia’s rigorous designs are favoured by professional women working in cities, with a subtle formality that transitions easily from day to night. “Our key customers are graphic designers and architects, not so much uber-fashion girlies,” says Lipkin-Connor. “It’s people who sit within the industries adjacent to fashion. When people wear Talia Byre, it’s not like they’re dressing up or playing someone else – they’re still themselves.” In a previous interview, she told me, “Sexiness is everything … but it’s like a clever sexy. It’s quite rare to find sexy clothes done in a way that’s not really obvious. Because also, you don’t really want to have everything out. You’ve got to be clever about it.“

Her new collection is titled Real Estate, named after Deborah Levy’s thought-provoking 2021 memoir exploring ideas of home, ownership and feminism, which the designer read while holidaying in Hydra, Greece this summer. “The whole idea of the book is that her work is her real estate and legacy,” explains Lipkin-Connor. “And we wanted to infuse that into our work. Our collections are documents of time, like short stories.” 

S/S26 is her most mature collection to date, an elevated and at times conceptual evolution of the brand’s core DNA. The central muse of the season is an “80s countryside mum”, someone Lipkin-Connor calls “quite aspirational” (she also throws in references to “rugby mum” and trousers that are quite “golf dad”). It’s easy to imagine this muse on her beach holiday, effortlessly donning this season’s oversized rugby towel shirt and sunglasses with jersey-draped backs, exuding an air of laidback ennui. Or maybe she’s wearing the brand’s loose-fitting, airy all-white ensembles, or just the white trousers – something very “rugby mum” indeed. Wearing all-white is seen by some as a fashion faux pas, a cringe-worthy signifier of class and status, but Lipkin-Connor sees it differently. “At the start of the season, I was set to do it all in cream and white,” says the designer, who wore exclusively all-white ensembles one month this summer. “There’s a classicness and a simplicity that I really liked – it’s a bit of a cleansing.” 

The brand collaborated with Ugg this season, pairing them with every single look on the runway – the ultimate lifestyle shoe remade anew for the Talia Byre woman. “It was a very exciting prospect to take such a nostalgic shoe and make it fresh, exciting and chic,” says Lipkin-Connor, who refashioned the shoe into shearling ballet flats, deconstructed the tongues, and studded them with hardware. “This is about making a statement that we can work with brands and do them at a top level.” 

A key reference on the moodboard this season was an image of a blue William Morris floral bedspread against a four-poster dark wooden bedframe – an aspirational image of a quintessentially British Arts and Crafts Victorian lifestyle. “The collection is very much inspired by interiors, wrapping, familiarity, a bundling-up or a softness of home,” says Lipkin-Connor. The William Morris image inspired the brand to create their first ever floral print, exquisitely hand-drawn and screenprinted in London in baby blue, cream and grey on bombers, pleated maxi skirts, visors and rugby shirt-dresses. The dark wood of the image inspired the deep browns of the leather in the collection, used to create sturdy new bolter bags, studded belts, and sunglasses cases slung around the neck. 

Fans of the brand will recognise their signature stripe, back this season in a bold combination of red and dark green. But generally speaking, there is a new air of refinement and sophistication to this collection, a sense of growing older and stripping back. Take the open-backed apron dresses, where the designer was “thinking about what the concept of a Talia Byre evening is”, a sensual and elegant statement on nighttime dressing. 

Byre’s favourite look from the collection is number 24, a red satin deconstructed striped shirt, paired with white trousers, a studded brown leather belt, and platform Uggs – a simple, confident look that reflects Talia’s maturing as both a person and as a brand. “Each season has a different girl or woman who wears it, but this season probably feels the closest to me,” she says. “There’s a calmness or serenity, reflected especially in the colour palette. There’s a quiet confidence to it – it’s not all singing or dancing.” 

Speaking from her east London studio days before her Spring/Summer 2026 show, Talia Lipkin-Connor – the designer behind the Talia Byre label – is trying to stay calm. “We call it swan vibes,” she says. “The point is that you’re gliding on top of the water, but underneath your legs are paddling like mad. If I start to freak out, I’m aware that everyone else will freak out too. It’s my job to be calm.” 

Five years on from launching her namesake label, Lipkin-Connor is stepping things up. S/S26 is the brand’s biggest show to date, held on a crisp Sunday morning on the top floor of Charles Asprey’s six-storey modern building on the edge of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, with panoramic views of the city. The light-filled venue holds over 80 guests – including Incubator gallerist Angelica Jopling, The Souvenir star Honor Swinton Byrne and chef Nil Mutluer (aka Heal Goblin) – a world away from the intimacy of the brand’s previous shows, which have unfolded in cosy wine bars, bookshops, art galleries and restaurants across London. This season, the brand is being represented by DH-PR, Daisy Hoppen’s luxury London PR agency that represents established womenswear brands with strong visions, including Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard and Rejina Pyo, launching Talia Byre into a new and ambitious league. “This season feels more grown-up,” says Lipkin-Connor. “Chic, elevated, how we want to dress. We’re ready to take it up a notch.” 

After graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2020, the designer launched Talia Byre in homage to her great uncle’s legendary Liverpool boutique, Lucinda Byre, which operated from the 1960s to the 80s. Playful, colourful, and infused with a sense of timeless elegance and feminine sensuality, Talia’s rigorous designs are favoured by professional women working in cities, with a subtle formality that transitions easily from day to night. “Our key customers are graphic designers and architects, not so much uber-fashion girlies,” says Lipkin-Connor. “It’s people who sit within the industries adjacent to fashion. When people wear Talia Byre, it’s not like they’re dressing up or playing someone else – they’re still themselves.” In a previous interview, she told me, “Sexiness is everything … but it’s like a clever sexy. It’s quite rare to find sexy clothes done in a way that’s not really obvious. Because also, you don’t really want to have everything out. You’ve got to be clever about it.“

Her new collection is titled Real Estate, named after Deborah Levy’s thought-provoking 2021 memoir exploring ideas of home, ownership and feminism, which the designer read while holidaying in Hydra, Greece this summer. “The whole idea of the book is that her work is her real estate and legacy,” explains Lipkin-Connor. “And we wanted to infuse that into our work. Our collections are documents of time, like short stories.” 

S/S26 is her most mature collection to date, an elevated and at times conceptual evolution of the brand’s core DNA. The central muse of the season is an “80s countryside mum”, someone Lipkin-Connor calls “quite aspirational” (she also throws in references to “rugby mum” and trousers that are quite “golf dad”). It’s easy to imagine this muse on her beach holiday, effortlessly donning this season’s oversized rugby towel shirt and sunglasses with jersey-draped backs, exuding an air of laidback ennui. Or maybe she’s wearing the brand’s loose-fitting, airy all-white ensembles, or just the white trousers – something very “rugby mum” indeed. Wearing all-white is seen by some as a fashion faux pas, a cringe-worthy signifier of class and status, but Lipkin-Connor sees it differently. “At the start of the season, I was set to do it all in cream and white,” says the designer, who wore exclusively all-white ensembles one month this summer. “There’s a classicness and a simplicity that I really liked – it’s a bit of a cleansing.” 

The brand collaborated with Ugg this season, pairing them with every single look on the runway – the ultimate lifestyle shoe remade anew for the Talia Byre woman. “It was a very exciting prospect to take such a nostalgic shoe and make it fresh, exciting and chic,” says Lipkin-Connor, who refashioned the shoe into shearling ballet flats, deconstructed the tongues, and studded them with hardware. “This is about making a statement that we can work with brands and do them at a top level.” 

A key reference on the moodboard this season was an image of a blue William Morris floral bedspread against a four-poster dark wooden bedframe – an aspirational image of a quintessentially British Arts and Crafts Victorian lifestyle. “The collection is very much inspired by interiors, wrapping, familiarity, a bundling-up or a softness of home,” says Lipkin-Connor. The William Morris image inspired the brand to create their first ever floral print, exquisitely hand-drawn and screenprinted in London in baby blue, cream and grey on bombers, pleated maxi skirts, visors and rugby shirt-dresses. The dark wood of the image inspired the deep browns of the leather in the collection, used to create sturdy new bolter bags, studded belts, and sunglasses cases slung around the neck. 

Fans of the brand will recognise their signature stripe, back this season in a bold combination of red and dark green. But generally speaking, there is a new air of refinement and sophistication to this collection, a sense of growing older and stripping back. Take the open-backed apron dresses, where the designer was “thinking about what the concept of a Talia Byre evening is”, a sensual and elegant statement on nighttime dressing. 

Byre’s favourite look from the collection is number 24, a red satin deconstructed striped shirt, paired with white trousers, a studded brown leather belt, and platform Uggs – a simple, confident look that reflects Talia’s maturing as both a person and as a brand. “Each season has a different girl or woman who wears it, but this season probably feels the closest to me,” she says. “There’s a calmness or serenity, reflected especially in the colour palette. There’s a quiet confidence to it – it’s not all singing or dancing.”