ROMANTICISM 2026

/RƏƱˈMÆN.TꞮ.SꞮ.ZƏM/

(1) A STYLE OF ART, MUSIC, AND LITERATURE, POPULAR IN EUROPE IN THE LATE 18TH AND EARLY 19TH CENTURIES, THAT DEALS WITH THE BEAUTY OF NATURE AND HUMAN EMOTIONS

(2) DESCRIBING THINGS IN A WAY THAT MAKES THEM SOUND MORE EXCITING OR MYSTERIOUSTHAN THEY REALLY ARE

  • LOOK 1

  • LOOK 1

  • LOOK 2

  • LOOK 2

  • LOOK 3

  • LOOK 3

  • LOOK 4

  • LOOK 4

  • LOOK 5

  • LOOK 5

  • LOOK 6

  • LOOK 6

  • LOOK 7

  • LOOK 7

  • LOOK 8

  • LOOK 8

  • LOOK 9

  • LOOK 9

  • LOOK 10

  • LOOK 10

  • LOOK 11

  • LOOK 11

  • LOOK 12

  • LOOK 12

  • LOOK 13

  • LOOK 13

  • LOOK 14

  • LOOK 14

  • LOOK 15

  • LOOK 15

  • LOOK 16

  • LOOK 16

  • LOOK 17

  • LOOK 17

  • LOOK 18

  • LOOK 18

  • LOOK 19

  • LOOK 19

  • LOOK 20

  • LOOK 20

  • LOOK 21

  • LOOK 21

With this collection, The BAM Collective strips fashion back to its most essential purpose: spectacle, fantasy and transformation.

ROMANTICISM 2026 is not a manifesto. It is not a critique. It is not an academic exercise. It is a love letter to the magic that first made a child fall in love with runway shows: the drama, the mystique, the larger-than-life silhouettes and the electricity in a room where fashion becomes theatre.

“ROMANTICISM 2026 is my love letter to the fantasy that made me fall in love with fashion,” says Bam. “It’s fashion as theatre, as escape, as transformation.

Independently produced, the collection marks the brand’s most theatrical and texturally indulgent season to date. Sculptural silhouettes grow more architectural. Colours deepen into richer, jewel-like tones. Embellishment intensifies, and textures layer with intricate, hand-crafted details. The collection leans further into demi-couture, balancing exuberance with a modern severity: sharper lines, stronger structure and heightened presence. 

Textiles include tiger motif tapestry, crocodile embossed upholstery, glossed vinyl, flocked tulle, striped taffeta and liquid silver plissé, alongside hand-dyed lace, distressed denim and intricate in-studio beadwork. Each garment constructed to command attention and evoke wonder. 

Staged within the concrete architecture of the Inside Out Centre for the Arts and the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography, the show immerses guests in an intimate, cinematic experience. Gallery lighting casts dramatic shadows, as the audience sits mere metres from the runway, surrounded by the photographic works of Fashion_The Image. Every moment invites viewers to step inside a world of fantasy, where fashion becomes an escapist performance that collapses the distance between observer and spectacle. 

In a cultural moment dominated by minimalism and understatement, The BAM Collective chooses excess. It chooses colour and theatre. It chooses fashion for fashion’s sake, because sometimes fashion does not need to justify itself. Sometimes it simply needs to be magnificent.

PHOTOGRAPHER: PIERRE VAN VUUREN. MODELS: CONSTANCE MORE, LETHABO SARA KHUNOU, CAYLEIGH BANCROFT, EMILY FRANCIS, MARIKA OPPERMAN,, KIMBERLY CHAKANYUKA, DEBORAH CHAMBERS, GAIA FERNANDEZ, LESEGO MOSELAKGOMO, SHALOM MUSVOSVI, PONAHALO MOJAPELO, DANIELLE VON GRASZOUW, LESEGO NGIDI, RIVO BALOYI, YIBANATHI NKWEBA, CALEY NKOSI, NATANYA CHETTY, MOGALADI LESO, MORDECAI NGUBANE, MEGAN LEIGH, NATALIA KOSTANOVA