Alice + Olivia Went Straight Down the Rabbit Hole for Spring 2027

Stacey Bendet turned Alice + Olivia’s runway into an actual Wonderland for Spring 2027, complete with a 20-foot mirrored gown and a stiletto sculpture the size of a small car. I have thoughts.

If your idea of spring fashion is restraint and quiet neutrals, this show was not built for you.

For Spring/Summer 2027, Alice + Olivia’s Stacey Bendet presented “Welcome to Wonderland” on September 10 at 583 Park Avenue during New York Fashion Week, and she went all in on Lewis Carroll. The venue turned into a series of surreal sets. A garden built around a 20-foot mirrored gown. A life-sized dollhouse stacked with mattresses, and rooms dense with florals, embroidery, and lace.

The clothes themselves split the difference between two things that shouldn’t work together and somehow do. Bendet calls it “preppy couture.” Blazers, boxer shorts, denim, and plain T-shirts, all elevated with the kind of embellishment you’d expect. Feathers, sequins, organza, and hand-embroidery in soft pink, lavender, pale blue, yellow, and white. Bendet called Spring 2027 “the season of the dress,” and the dress count backs her up.

The AI Fashion Experience

Here’s the interesting part: Bendet says she’s now doing a lot of that embroidery and print work herself. But she is using AI to test ideas that used to require weeks of back-and-forth with her design team. Guests at the presentation got their own version of the tech, too: an AI experience from Glance. Each guest could see themselves wearing looks from the collection before they left the building.

It’s a strange pairing on paper, Alice in Wonderland by way of a design tool. But it tracks with a designer who’s always treated her runway presentations like theater sets, not just a place to hang clothes.

The show also marked the return of Alice + Olivia footwear. Pumps, slingbacks, platforms, ballet flats, and wedges, including one with a sculpted rose blooming out of the heel. And a stiletto sculpture large enough to require its own gravitational pull announced the relaunch.

It’s a lot of collection. It also completely works.