Stella McCartney’s Autumn 2026 collection and the Ganni x Barbour Winter 2025 capsule both revive British heritage codes with modern materials, expressive styling, and consumer-friendly updates.
Heritage dressing is having a moment again, and two new collections underscore just how differently designers are approaching the idea. Stella McCartney is leaning into her roots, equestrian symbolism, and next-generation fabrics for Autumn 2026, while Ganni and Barbour are returning with a fourth capsule built around British utility and expressive prints.
Both drops revisit classic codes but push them toward something more playful, polished, and more attuned to what consumers want now: clothes grounded in history but designed for real life.
Where Stella McCartney’s collection turns inward toward memory, heritage, and craftsmanship, the Ganni x Barbour collaboration plays outward, leaning into fun, contrast, and accessibility. But both releases showcase designers reworking historic fashion codes for the modern consumer.
Stella McCartney revisits family heritage
Stella McCartney’s Autumn 2026 collection reconnects with the themes that have shaped the brand since its earliest days, including confident tailoring, animal-free innovation, and a palette that nods to the British countryside. The house describes the collection as reconnecting with the “core elements that have shaped Stella’s identity,” highlighting silhouettes and details that reference her design evolution and a lifelong connection to animals.
The equestrian focus is especially prominent. In the Year of the Horse, McCartney uses the motif as a symbol of strength and freedom, incorporating horse imagery across knitwear, denim, and accessories.
Tailoring echoes McCartney’s Savile Row training and her parents’ shared wardrobes. Sharp shoulders, elongated waistcoats, and double-breasted coats carry a seasonal SMC crest embroidered in gold thread, inspired by a pair of her father’s slippers. Those pieces are styled with wide-leg trousers in responsibly sourced wool. Deadstock heritage checks are layered and clashed in a nod to 1970s suiting, while classic menswear silhouettes appear in tuxedo jackets, coats, and hand-embroidered trousers finished with lead-free crystals.
Movement and texture define the rest of the lineup. Day dresses introduce draping, subtle peplum shapes, handkerchief shoulders, and corded lace. Knitwear incorporates oversized recycled-cashmere cardigans, ribbed turtlenecks paneled with vegan-leather alternatives, metallic lurex polka dots, and Aran cable knits alongside needle-punched horse intarsia. Denim pieces include embroidered SMC crests, corduroy-denim hybrids inspired by McCartney’s farm upbringing, distressed patchworks, and washed corduroy in vintage browns.
Even casual jersey gets the brand’s signature humor, with pieces that read Touch Grass, No.1 Schlag and a Horse Girl tank printed using low-impact algae pigment. Accessories echo ready-to-wear codes: the Appaloosa debuts as a soft day bag with Americana influence, the SMC Boston bag arrives in supple alternatives to nubuck, the Ryder evolves in heritage weaves, and the Dartmoor returns in regenerated nylon and leopard motifs. The Falabella line appears with lead-free crystals, eyelets and a new wristlet in satin. Shoes range from Elyse platforms with studding and crackled metallic effects to leopard-velvet pumps and biobased S-Wave sneakers updated in Vegea with a fully biobased BioCir sole.
The collection is built with 98 percent responsibly sourced materials and remains entirely free from leather, feathers, fur, and skins. Instead, pieces are crafted from vegan alternatives and fabrics such as forest-friendly viscose and acetate, responsibly sourced wool, GOTS-certified organic cotton, and regenerated nylon options, including Econyl.
According to the collection’s fact sheet, more than 2.5 billion farmed animals are killed every year for leather alone, with more than 300 million cows entering the leather supply chain annually. McCartney highlights other facts about the fashion industry’s footprint: it uses enough water every year to meet the needs of five million people while 20 percent of global wastewater comes from textile dyeing and treatment. The fashion industry is the third-largest polluter of air, water, and soil, and is responsible for up to 35 percent of microplastics entering oceans.
“At Stella McCartney, from day one, we refused leather, fur, feathers, and skins,” McCartney said in a statement. “But this is bigger than fashion. It’s about people. The same hidden industries that exploit animals also endanger workers, pollute communities, and strip away dignity. When we talk about sustainability, we must talk about human welfare too. Fashion is not just about what we wear. It is about the health of our planet, our people, and our future. We need to rethink fashion. Support conservation. Believe that change is possible — because it is.”
Ganni and Barbour put a playful spin on British utility
Ganni and Barbour’s fourth partnership arrives with a very different energy, but one that still taps into heritage in a consumer-friendly way. The limited-edition Fall/Winter 2025 capsule leans into Barbour’s long history of practical outdoor dressing and pairs it with Ganni’s print-driven, upbeat aesthetic. According to the announcement, the collaboration “fuses Danish fashion with British heritage utility,” updating Barbour’s signatures with leopard print, Royal Stuart tartan, and vibrant red accents.
The jackets are the headline. Barbour’s waxed and quilted staples are reworked with contrasting patterns, giving classic countryside silhouettes a fresh, city-ready identity. The Anorak, Peplum Wax Jacket, and Waterproof Parka anchor the release, offering different levels of insulation and structure for shifting winter conditions. Accessories round out the drop, including a beret, a tartan scarf, and a wax tote designed to create a cohesive cold-weather wardrobe.
The collaboration’s appeal lies in the way it preserves Barbour’s durability while opening the door to more expressive styling. The traditional greens and navies remain, but they are punctuated by bold prints and energizing color, making something familiar feel new again. For shoppers who appreciate Barbour’s rugged utility but want a lift in personality, the capsule hits that middle ground.
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