SUGARHILL’s Spring/Summer season 2026 assortment, titled “python,” continues the label’s regular, however deliberate evolution. Eschewing inflexible seasonal themes, the Japanese label now favors casual nicknames – usually playful and typically chosen by founder Rikuya Hayashi’s youngster – that replicate its fluid, process-led design ethos.
This season builds on SUGARHILL’s core philosophy: materials growth. This consists of the exploration of nuanced ending methods, research-driven references to historic clothes, the shaping of up to date silhouettes and palettes in addition to a deeply hands-on relationship with manufacturing factories. The model additionally locations a singular emphasis on the lived high quality of supplies, embracing the ageing processes of indigo, iron and leather-based as a part of its artistic identification. The model’s guideline, “Converse much less, Suppose extra,” additional underscores this considerate and deliberate artistic course of.
Drawing from the countercultural spirit of Nineteen Sixties West Coast acid folks and hippie musicians, the gathering channels each the sartorial freedom and uncooked textures of that period. To floor this imaginative and prescient, the group traveled by way of California, gathering imagery and experiences that knowledgeable the gathering’s sensibility. Concurrently, they explored how American subcultures had been interpreted by way of a Japanese lens, drawing significantly from bands like Murahachibu and Les Rallizes Dénudés — leading to a set that embraces a hybrid aesthetic rooted in each international and home nostalgia.
“This assortment is a quiet however agency declaration of our consistency and depth over time.” – Rikuya Hayashi
Visually restrained but intricately crafted, the gathering leans into what SUGARHILL calls “well-designed with a twist.” Key seems emphasize materials consistency, with numerous silhouettes minimize from a single textile and elevated by way of secondary processing. “We’re progressively transferring past the period of avant-garde supplies,” the model notes, as a substitute favoring subtlety, realism and tactile integrity. Leather-based items and steel jewellery, developed in shut partnership with artisans, communicate to this intention, merging high-level craft with emotional depth.
Colour capabilities as each anchor and accent. Mint blue and wine purple emerge as central hues, punctuated by vivid pink accents and anchored by deep indigo and black leather-based. Cloth ageing shouldn’t be solely accepted however inspired — buttons are made to rust, denim to fade and threads to boring, bringing impermanence into sharp focus as an aesthetic worth. In the meantime, nostalgic textures like Tyrolean trims and bubble broadcloth are built-in into pared-back kinds to “add a layer of nostalgia and cultural nuance.”
“We merely wish to preserve creating and dwell our lives by way of making issues, all the time.” – Rikuya Hayashi
Because the model marks its tenth anniversary, this assortment serves much less as a celebration and extra as a reassertion of its artistic values. “We wish to reaffirm our dedication to deepening the artistic course of. This assortment is a quiet however agency declaration of our consistency and depth over time,” says Hayashi.
“We’ve all the time questioned the default system of biannual runway exhibits,” says Hayashi, “Whereas they’ll generate hype and elevate a model, in addition they threat being consumed too quickly, finally diluting worth and shortening a model’s lifespan.” Moderately than chasing reinvention, SUGARHILL revisits and refines the values that formed its earliest work. Holding a runway present this season is “a exact act of presence,” and never a nod to tendencies or cycles. Trying forward, the message stays clear and regular for Hayashi and SUGARHILL: “We merely wish to preserve creating and dwell our lives by way of making issues, all the time.”
Keep tuned for SUGARHILL’s extremely anticipated launch on HBX.
