PICTURE this: a muddy Jaguar idling on a country lane, its seats sticky from champagne, its passengers sequinned and restless. The subjects have traded fields for Fulham; by midnight, you’d catch them under the lights of a Chelsea nightclub. For Spring/ Summer 2026, Daniel Fletcher takes Mithridate deep into the decade of excess, marrying British sporting grit with the seductive pulse of 1980s city life.
“The feeling of this collection is town and country, and how those two worlds come together,” begins the designer, back at his studio the day before his show. Nearly a year into his tenure, and most notably a total revamp of the brand, Fletcher feels in control and settled at his new post. So much so, his ambition is to take components that you’re so familiar with and turn heritage into hedonism.
The collection comprises design paradoxes. Sequin mini-dresses set against sensible cotton stripes and cable knits arrive with a surprising authority as they drape over silk tailoring. He’s redefined the “Sloane Ranger” stereotype through his own lens, one that magnetically pulls the character in both directions. The palette of the season is equally restless – racing green and chocolate brown clash with baby blue and lavender.
But Fletcher’s subversions go even further. A carpet is transformed into a cocktail gown, the popular sweater sleeves reincarnated make a return from Pre-Spring, and puffball taffeta frocks flirt with irony. There is built-in decadence wherever you look. Shirts take on tuxedo shawl tassels, and nylon Harrington jackets get a lift with formal evening-wear detailing. Or as Fletcher puts it: “When you apply two things that shouldn’t make sense together, it creates this kind of very eccentric English way of dressing”.
Accessories push the collection into storytelling mode – and evolve the foundations of what the Mithridate wardrobe looks like. Doctor bags swell into oversized luggage with trunk stitchings; tasselled golf shoes and sharply cut riding boots march from pavement to party. Costume jewellery in malachite and crystal ties the partygoer back to the imagined estate.
Aptly titled Edge of Seventeen, Fletcher’s SS26 outing for Mithridate is the rallying cry for the new era. It’s knowing, eccentric, and unafraid of contradiction. Going between London and China has afforded him a new sense of freedom, where experimentation to play with characteristics and to change their meanings has paid off. You don’t need to choose between the two lifestyles, because in Mithridate’s world, you can have both.
by Imogen Clark