Maria McManus Fall 2026 Ready-to-Wear

While many looked towards sharper geometric objects this season, Maria McManus channeled something more understated: the rolling and misty landscape of her home in Ireland. “They call it a ‘soft day,’ when there’s a light rain,” she said. It’s a term that conjured an image wonderfully and was translated through the gentle color palette. While not a traditional source of inspiration, a starting point for the collection came from poet and former president of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, who was an outspoken advocate for the preservation of Irish culture. Where his efforts often manifested through literature and the arts, McManus looked to dress to craft her own preservation project, one composed of Aran knits and gentle sloping silhouettes presented in the context of her New York City community. This led her to a quotation from Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, “Behavior that’s admired is the path to power among people everywhere.”