KNWLS unveils Ballistic AW26 collection with Painting Rooms pop-up

KNWLS opened its A/W 2026 collection BALLISTIC as an ephemeral concept store at The Painting Rooms in Covent Garden, foregoing a traditional runway in favor of a curated installation that closed on February 23, 2026. Designers Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault presented the new season from an atmospheric 19th-century backdrop rather than a catwalk, making the collection part gallery, part retail space and part nightlife venue.

The move signals a return to London after KNWLS made a Milan debut last season; the label, which Knowles and Arsenault founded in 2017, has built a devoted following for its mix of sensuality and structure. DazedDigital catalogues that roster of fans as Charli XCX, Lisa, Saweetie, Amelia Gray, Vittoria Ceretti, Ravyn Lenae, Col the Doll, Anok Yai and Arca, and notes the duo have "cracked the It-girl code" with collections that balance heat and power.

The Painting Rooms pop-up at 1–5 Flitcroft Street, WC2H 8DH, occupied a space once used to paint West End backdrops, and the presentation leaned into that theatricality. The installation displayed KNWLS garments alongside a curated selection of books, artworks and furniture, and the weekend programming included parties and even a Pilates class, a deliberate blending of commerce, culture and performance.

Charlotte Knowles framed the season as an exercise in refinement: "The goal was to elevate the collection," she explained. "This season, we started from historical references and silhouettes." The designers describe the aesthetic as a "self-possessed femininity - sensual, elegant, soft, severe," and add plainly, "There's an innate hanger appeal."

BALLISTIC mines Victoriana and toughens it up. Leather corsetry and signature leather corsets sit alongside coquettish silk intimates, slinky slip dresses and romantic sweetheart necklines cinched by heavy-duty silver buckles and sporty toggle fastenings. Puffed, gigot sleeves and exaggerated shoulders recur across bonded leather and neoprene jackets; Wallpaper details that the sculptural gigot effect is achieved by bonding lambskin to neoprene. Scuba tracksuits, a wild dyed-tip shearing jacket described as lion-like, and silk slips "torn up and tied back together" punctuate the collection, while the finger-covering drivers' gloves reappear, a trend DazedDigital spotted at the CSM MA show as well.

The season was previewed through a lookbook shot by Aidan Zamiri. The Scottish photographer and filmmaker supplied a series of images that accompanied the pop-up; Wallpaper notes Zamiri had premiered his Charli XCX-starring mockumentary The Moment at Picturehouse Central earlier in the week, underscoring the cultural crossover at play.

Industry context matters: KNWLS has previously worked with brands including Miss Sixty, and WWD reports the designers teased an upcoming collaboration set to launch in autumn, though they would not disclose the partner. Visually, one Elizabethan-leaning jacket with a fur ruff drew a comparison to Tudor-inspired shapes seen in Martine Rose's AW26 menswear, reinforcing the season's dialogue between historical silhouette and contemporary toughness.

Practical details remain simple. The Painting Rooms presentation at 1–5 Flitcroft Street, London, ran through February 23, 2026, and the collection BALLISTIC is credited to Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault, the founders of KNWLS. With this pivot from runway to installation and a teased collaboration on the horizon, KNWLS continues to test how far Victorian form can be pushed before it snaps into something modern and dangerously wearable.