Walking a mile in one’s shoes isn’t enough for Ludovico Bruno. The Mordecai founder applied the idea to garments in the simple yet symbolic performance he staged to present his fall 2026 collection, which marked another evolution of the brand.
As they walked down the carpeted hall of the Circolo della Spada Mangiarotti fencing academy in Milan, some of his models dropped a piece of their layered looks onto the floor, only for them to be picked up and worn by those behind in the lineup.
“Here everything goes with everything,” said Bruno about the concept, which was inspired by the art of letting things go and not being attached to material possessions that is attuned with the nomadic spirit embedded in his brand. More pragmatically, it was an opportunity for the designer to magnify the versatility of his fashions by exploring new silhouettes and introducing fabrications that could express the fit-for-all mission of the season.
The oversized and extra cocooning proportions of Mordecai’s beginnings was narrowed down to slimmer but still loose shapes, as seen in the toned-down volumes of the brand’s distinctive puffers and slender lines of the new shearling jackets and slouchy pants.
Denim also debuted in different versions, ranging from dyed black and washed blue to opalescent or coated alternatives. These added to boiled wools, mohair and cotton treated with a lived-in effect in Bruno’s quest to create garments “that convey the feeling they’ve been in one’s wardrobe for a long time.”
While eye-catching puffers splashed with a fur print made for the weakest links in the chain, the strong streamlining effort at times led Bruno to play it way too safe for a recognizable brand like his.
In between, items that maintained traces of Bruno’s handwriting and of those martial arts references and exotic echoes that set his outerwear and tailoring apart made for the most compelling looks. These were often the leather pieces, led by a bomber jacket with a shawl collar and a sleek judogi-like jacket in black. They proved that the real art is to let things go without losing too much of oneself in the process.
