The Beauty of Being Free -Ungaro SS 2026
It was at the Louvre, under the suspended gaze of La Grande Odalisque, that Kobi Halperin, the creative director of the French maison Emanuel Ungaro, found his spark of inspiration. From that moment was born the Spring Summer 2026 collection, which redefines what it means to be beautiful, not as an act of obedience but as an act of freedom. “ Beauty Unbound “ is more than a theme, It is a manifesto.
The muse, imagined through Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’s odalisque, is not a symbol of submission but of reinvention.
“She is a woman who exists between the real and the ideal,” said Halperin backstage. “We wanted to capture that tension, that beauty that never needs to ask for permission.”
The Beauty of the Contemporary Woman
Amid the marché aux puces of Saint Ouen, that iconic sanctuary of art and history, Kobi invites us to see the body as a living artwork, where every curve and every fold of fabric becomes a gesture of emancipation.
Inspired by the ethereal sensuality and the deliberate distortion of Ingres’s painting, the creative director turns the myth of the odalisque into a contemporary symbol.
The Ungaro woman of 2026 does not recline.
She rises.
Art Is the Body
The silhouettes explore fluid lines and architectural draping, reimagining oriental luxury in a modern language.
Ungaro’s iconic codes are given a new fluidity with translucent silks, delicate lace, pleats, drapery, and prints.
The color palette moves from golden sand to warm shades of terracotta and amber, evoking both oriental opulence and the heat of the Mediterranean.
Each piece reveals a dialogue between discipline and desire. There is something dreamlike in the shapes, as if the fabric breathes with the skin, without boundaries between body and art.
When Fashion Meets Art
Like fashion itself, the odalisque is not confined by anatomy or tradition. She embodies imagination, transformation, and the power of beauty to write her own rules.
This collection reminds us that fashion and art not only can but should coexist, and the message is clear.
Beauty is not measured, it is felt, just as in art.
Kobi Halperin remains faithful to Emanuel Ungaro’s legacy of color, sensuality, and freedom, revealing that fashion is, and always will be, an act of imagination.
Courtesy photos Emanuel Ungaro
