Selkie Debuts The Ghost Ship | NYFW
photography The Moment Department
photography The Moment Department
photography The Moment Department
photography The Moment Department
photography The Moment Department
For Fall 2026, that idea took shape as a traveling pirate circus of warrior girls living off the grid and sailing through space in an imagined apocalypse. Haunted by a regretted past and an uncertain future, Gordon’s cast of rebellious circus girls performed to survive, create and facilitate joy, turning the collection’s fantasy world into a meditation on choice, judgment and self-determination.
The collection brought together maritime folklore, historical fantasy and circus imagery through Selkie’s distinctly feminine lens. Pirate and harlequin references met armor, corsetry, romantic dresses and theatrical silhouettes, while chain mail, religious jewelry, ocean shells and exaggerated accessories pushed Selkie’s familiar fantasy into darker territory.
Returning to create the show’s beauty world were Linh Nguyen and Alexandra French. Nguyen created the wigs for the runway in partnership with Cutler Salon and Redken, while French returned as lead makeup artist in partnership with Urban Decay, developing a “ghost clown porcelain doll” look to complement the collection. French created softly diffused, luminous-matte porcelain skin, diffused circular blush and painterly eyes, contrasted by sharp double-wing liner and a dimensional, softly bitten lip. “The clothes are so feminine, and the hair and makeup bring a little lived-in grunge to it all,” says French. “Kim has such an amazing vision for who her Selkie girl is. Her world truly is for the feminine gaze. I love being a part of her world and creating these characters.”
SOREL partnered with Selkie for backstage footwear, outfitting models in the pink Ambler™ Women’s Waterproof Clog before and after the runway.
At the center of The Ghost Ship was Gordon’s idea of performance itself. Against a contemporary culture shaped by social media, judgment and the pressure to perform for others, the collection instead proposed performance as an act of agency. As Gordon writes in the show notes, “Feminism is the freedom to choose the life you want.”
Ultimately, The Ghost Ship was an invitation to dress freely, embrace the choices that shape us and, in Gordon’s words, “perform with absolute abandon.”
Continuing Selkie’s runway-to-retail model, the Fall/Winter 2026 collection became available to shop alongside its runway debut, bringing the fantasy of the show directly to the brand’s community.
Selkie is on affiliate network AWIN and available via Skimlinks.
ABOUT SELKIE
Selkie is the ready-to-wear label founded by designer and former Wildfox co-founder Kimberley Gordon. Rooted in folklore, fantasy and self-expression, the brand is known for its romantic silhouettes, imaginative storytelling and inclusive approach to dressing, with styles offered across an extensive size range from XXS–6X.
Named for the mythological selkie of Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian folklore, a woman who reclaims her identity and returns to the sea, the brand has built a global community around Gordon’s deeply personal approach to femininity, fantasy and freedom. Through its runway-to-retail model, Selkie brings that world directly to its customer, making collections available to shop alongside their runway debuts.
photography The Moment Department
