Selkie's Spring 2026 Runway Was a Nostalgic Ode to Girlhood Fantasy

Selkie’s signature Prairie dresses, romantic corsets and fanciful gowns were on full display at the Beverly Hills Hotel as the internet-beloved brand presented “Return to Innocence,” its Spring 2026 collection. Notably different, though, was the addition of stuffed animals as accessories on models’ arms, necks and legs. Guests even received a Beverly Hills Hotel-branded teddy bear as part of the gift bag. It’s all part of what designer Kimberley Gordon says is a nod to the “television era” of her childhood. “I grew up in the ’90s and there was this huge television boom. Cable would be on all the time. Today, you can choose everything you want to see [on streaming],” she explained backstage after the show. “But when we were kids, we’d just watch whatever was on.” Although it’s from the 1970s, “Little House on the Prairie” was always on her T.V., as well as costume dramas “Anne of Green Gables” and “Road to Avonlea.” “It really impacted how I see the world,” Gordon said, one full of historical heroines and glossy heartthrobs.

Photos&colon; &commat;themomentdept/Courtesy of Selkie

She reimagined that world for the runway-to-retail collection, with suspender-clad men carrying models down the makeshift catwalk to popular ’80s and ’90s tunes, eliciting oohs and aahs from the crowd. The diverse cast — spanning various ages, sizes and abilities, a rarity these days — wore their hair in undone waves and sweeping updos in a “‘Little House on the Prairie’ in Beverly Hills” fashion. While hair evoked the turn-of-the-century through a ’70s and ’80s lens, the makeup (led by key artist Alex French using Urban Decay) was decidedly ’90s, with supermodel-inspired cool-tones, matte skin, taupe and espresso smoky eyes and nude-brown lips.It evoked Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” “Bridgerton,” ’90s rom-coms (“Full House”‘s Marla Sokoloff was even watching from the front row) and romance novel covers: a girlhood fantasy world. “I wanted to showcase that you can have it all,” Gordon explained. “[Adulthood] is different than you think it’ll be. Maybe men won’t carry you physically but we deserve it all. I think women deserve that beautiful dream that we were shown.”

Photos&colon; Photos&colon; &commat;themomentdept/Courtesy of Selkie

Selkie’s “Return to Innocence” collection isn’t just another take on the tradwife aesthetic, but it’s not not one either. Whether home with kids or child-free by choice, women can’t win either way these days, says Gordon: “I feel like now women are judged so thoroughly on our choices… When you get older, especially now with Instagram, you’re in this intense spotlight and no matter what choice a woman makes, she’s scrutinized to a degree.”
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According to Gordon, the theme is about women having choices and not being judged for them. It envisions a world where a “woman can ask for it all…like we did when we were girls,” she reflected. “We can imagine the best career and being swept up by a man or whoever you choose.”In Selkie’s world, prairie dresses, teddy bears, and romance-novel fantasy aren’t relics of childhood — they’re tools for reimagining it. In Gordon’s hands, “Return to Innocence” isn’t just about nostalgia, but reclaiming the freedom to imagine a life on your own terms.See every look from Selkie’s Spring 2026 collection, available to shop March 20, below.

Selkie Spring 2026. Photo: @themomentdept/Courtesy of Selkie

Kimberley Gordon. Photo: @themomentdept/Courtesy of Selkie

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Selkie's Spring 2026 Runway Was a Nostalgic Ode to Girlhood Fantasy

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