An era of couture characterized by its overflow of golden garments and expensive taste, pitted against a crude acknowledgment of class separation, Viktor&Rolf’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, titled Gilded Age 2.0, explores the dual nature of humanity through paired looks that balance opulence and restraint. As if the idea of the collection's sole concepts were not obvious enough, the words themselves sit on the shoulders of the models in two of the looks, as if emerging from the material of the garment itself. The collection aims to play with the idea of affluence in the historical definition of the Gilded Age, while pairing it with an outfit of the same construction but with a disciplined, non-emblazoned design. 

The collection strips down the fashion of the Gilded Age and its history through recitation. Representing the bold and glamorous-ness of a garment, while also reflecting the essence of the era itself, with a form of methodical garment structure, utilizing mostly burlap and jute versus an ornamental organza and cloqué, to examine the duality of the human experience, an enduring and laborious era cloaked by the allure of the extravagant shimmering clothing and styles. The use of the models' ages in the photography of the shoot is also used to play into the collection's world-building ideas of haughtiness in the Gilded Age. Toying with an almost literary tactic to show the youthful aesthete as eager to fit into the glitz of gilded fashion, against a model wearing the twin garb but with an austerity that may come with age.