On Friday, Polish fashion brand Magda Butrym, which has garnered a following from the likes of Dua Lipa, Hailey Bieber and Demi Moore, opened the doors to its first New York store, a three-floor flagship in SoHo on Mercer Street.
The opening served as a kick-off to the brand’s first New York fashion show, where Moore sat front row next to Kelly Rutherford, after previously presenting in Paris. Both moves were strategic as, ahead of the opening, chief executive officer Jakub Czarnota told WWD the U.S. is the brand’s number-one market for its direct-to-consumer sales.
Backstage before the show, the designer said because she came into the collection knowing about the store opening, she wanted to find a balance between Poland and New York through her designs. It drew her toward Polish multidisciplinary artist Natalia LL, who came to the city in the ‘70s and was a pioneer of feminist and conceptual art. Butrym paralleled this to her brand coming from Poland to the big city, where she feels the power of women, especially in the fashion industry.
The Warsaw-based designer’s fall 2026 collection shifted from her signature sensual, colorful dresses to an emphasis on outerwear, with largely monochrome crochet, faux fur, shearling, boucle and dense knits adding to the drama. But New York saw another side of Butrym, a softer one that played with plenty of sheer layers, lingerie details and apron dressing.
The best newness came through delicate layers inspired by aprons, which she recalled her grandmothers wearing at home. Designed mostly in sheer silk (although one floral number came in cool cotton covered latex), Butrym said the styles could easily be paired over jeans and a T-shirt, but on the runway were layered atop delicate lingerie-inspired slips or lace-trimmed separates and under urbane trenchcoats.
Also subtly playing to her nostalgia of watching women get dressed up were wallpaper floral prints on feminine ‘80s fare with faux fur cuffs, and tonal crochet-trimmed underwear over tights, worn as pants. But the tensions of her signature design language worked best in the lingerie elements and classic outerwear, not only in leather but in new lightweight foil coated nylon.
