PHOTOGRAPHY Michelle Paradis
For AW26, Taottao staged an immersive, retro-coded birthday fantasy inside a discreet jewellery theatre in Midtown Manhattan. The setting felt deliberately tucked-away, evoking the essence of a childhood hideout in a grown-up daydream that felt intimate, mischievous and slightly surreal.
The mood evoked that split-second shift from New York’s winter chill into sudden warmth, with a sense of theatrical self-transformation at the core. Cupcakes were handed out on silver trays as models touched up their make-up, readying themselves for the festivities, or reclined on a shagged chaise longue as they impatiently waited for their mates to be done, huffing and hiding behind a pair of chic VADA sunnies. It embodied the heightened glamour of dressing up for your own party, all sparkly bravado, suspended somewhere between earnest celebration and performative display.
The label’s signature candy-coloured, semi-sheer plaid returned in softer pastel hues, punctuated by bow embellishments that nodded overtly to birthday codes. High-shine was the guest of honour season, sequins and reflective finishes caught the light, while furry textures, puffer skirts and the brand’s ruffled swirl motifs offset the glamour with a sense of play. Rather than red-carpet polish, the effect felt closer to a dressing-up box; tactile, impulsive and joyfully excessive. Saccharine sweetness was consistently undercut with a flicker of defiance, preserving Taottao’s tension between delicacy and disruption, or in this case, main character-energy party hats, and headphones (courtesy of Marshalls) to block out the noise.
Described as its most overtly playful outing yet, the collection reinforces Taottao as genuinely wearable despite its theatricality – the kind of pieces claimed instinctively by the best-dressed person in the room, with a distinctly London-coded punk sensibility. Creative director Yitao Li treats the brand like a live experiment in self-styling, distorting proportion, exaggerating structure and embracing meticulous detail. Each look read as a ritualistic transformation: nostalgic but self-aware, dramatic yet grounded in joy.
Below, see the full collection, shot by Michelle Paradis.
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