FASHION FIX: SPRING 2026

02.28.26.  Independence has always been the most powerful form of luxury. In Undeniable: The Designs of Christian Siriano and Ashley Longshore, now on view at the Branch Museum, two unapologetic creatives take center stage - each having built empires by turning talent, technical mastery, and entrepreneurial nerve into cultural disruption. They broke the rules, rewrote the narratives, and became historic firsts in the process.

Christian Siriano, who won Project Runway in 2008 and launched his eponymous label the same year, has long treated the runway as a platform for inclusion. Trained in London under Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, Siriano quickly became known for fantasy silhouettes, sculptural gowns, and red-carpet moments that command attention. But beyond spectacle, he has consistently championed women of all sizes, backgrounds, and identities - most famously in 2016 when he stepped in to dress comedian Leslie Jones for the Ghostbusters premiere after multiple fashion houses declined. The moment was more than generous; it was a pointed rebuke of an industry still grappling with who it deems worthy of couture.

That ethos is embodied in the gowns featured in this exhibition and worn by two singular cultural forces. At the 2019 Met Gala themed “Camp,” Janelle Monáe channeled surrealist art in a custom Siriano look, inspired by Dali and Picasso, and complete with a blinking eye - equal parts couture and performance art. Last year, Halle Berry stunned at the Academy Awards in a body-hugging Siriano creation that balanced sensuality with architectural precision. These are not simply dresses. They are declarations.

At the age of 24, Siriano became the youngest person ever to appear on the Crain’s “40 Under 40” list. In 2012, the first flagship Christian Siriano store opened in New York City, and in 2013 he was inducted as a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Over the years, his designs have graced the world’s most visible red carpets - worn by Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Julianne Moore and countless others. 

Across the gallery, Ashley Longshore’s electrified pop aesthetic pulses with similar defiance. The self-taught artist - often dubbed the “feminist Andy Warhol” - built her career outside traditional gallery systems, leveraging social media, humor, and entrepreneurial audacity to construct her own art empire. Longshore’s work celebrates abundance, femininity, consumer culture, and unapologetic self-expression. Like Siriano, she has reshaped expectations - becoming the first female artist to mount a solo exhibition at Bergdorf Goodman in its century-plus history. She has forged numerous creative collaborations that blur the boundaries between fashion and fine art. Together, Undeniable is less a pairing and more a conversation - about power, spectacle, entrepreneurship, and the radical act of showing up exactly as you are. On view thru March 22.