For many, the bedroom is a space that evokes deep and complex emotions. It is a physical space that forms a bridge between the outside world, to our most intimate selves. It is also a space where we can seek refuge and take a break from the chaos of daily life. The bedroom is a reset point, accompanying us through the ups and downs we experience. It is a uniquely personal space where we can explore and come to embody our truest selves.
Florentina Leitner’s AW26 collection is, in part, an ode to the bedroom. Not as a physical space, but rather a conceptual one: The bedroom becomes a locus for safety, comfort, and guidance when the outside world is just too much. The collection, entitled ‘You Are A Star’, explores themes of growth, self-exploration, and self-assertion through bedroom imagery.
An Austrian designer based in Antwerp, Leitner launched her eponymous label in 2021 after graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and designing womenswear for Dries Van Noten. Her brand has quickly become known for narrative-led collections, bold prints, sculptural shapes, and a playful – almost filmic approach to world-building on the runway. Leitner treats each season as a self-contained universe, drawing on cult cinema, girlhood iconography, and myth while grounding the fantasy in pragmatic, wearable pieces.
‘You Are A Star’ takes inspiration from two iconic pop-culture moments: firstly, the sleepover scenes in The Princess Diaries. And secondly, Carrie running across NYC in her pajamas to go meet Miranda on New Year’s Eve, in the first Sex and the City movie.
The influence of this latter scene emerges in the tension between private and public appearance that characterises the collection. Garment-wise, that tension materialises through nightwear pushed into daylight. Boxer shorts and cotton pieces feature pyjama-inspired details, sheer négligés serve as layers over pink lingerie, and relaxed silhouettes are finished with playful, shiny tiaras. The looks move fluidly between familiar comfort and pointed glamour, often within a single outfit. Think hoodies trimmed with ruffled cotton panels at the back, or tailored jackets hung with star-shaped jewellery motifs.
Leitner’s collection is a coming-of-age journey much like the one told by The Princess Diaries, where we witnessMia Thermopolis go from introverted outsider, to confident princess. This particular journey is one full of playful experimentation, which is reflected in the looks on the runway.
Stars are omnipresent. Attendees would witness them repeatedly – laser‑cut into tops, scattered as glittering applications across knitwear, embedded into jewellery and outerwear, and echoed in sparkling prize-bow embellishments. Elsewhere, lamb-shaped bags, sleeping masks and glittery beauty-queen details push the collection toward a surreal slumber-party mood All of which is underscored by a grounded palette of grey, black, white and brown, occasionally lit up with soft pinks, blues and metallics. We are brought back to those intimate moments in our bedroom where we play with clothes, make-up, and accessories.
Leitner’s AW26 is, ultimately, a reinvention of the bedroom’s impact on outward-facing fashion. We see the space transform from quiet retreat to the stage on which identity is firstly explored. In its cosy pajamas, glittering star motifs and slyly regal details, ‘You Are A Star’ captures the moment when private fantasies harden into public self‑belief, suggesting that the route to visibility begins in the soft, liminal spaces we claim for ourselves.