This season the Genaro Rivas ‘A Glass to Break’ On-Schedule LFW
Catwalk Collection was showcased in luxury surroundings in Knightsbridge. As it unfolded itself it became immediately clear that the talented fashion designer Genaro Rivas was not merely presenting a collection, he was celebrating resilience. The result was a collection of bold beauty with force in the perfect setting of No.30 Knightsbridge Hotel & Venue.
Genaro Rivas, The Young Creators Award winner (Vogue Business and Visa) used his official London Fashion Week evening-schedule debut to deliver ‘A Glass to Break’, a collection that beautifully embraced a personal manifesto, a study in fracture, resilience, and determination.
What struck me most was the emotional clarity behind the clothes. The idea began, Rivas later explained, with two quiet moments in Berlin: a photograph of a glass pane pierced by a bullet, and, weeks later, the accidental discovery of shattered glass beneath his feet during a walk with his astrologer.
For many designers such fragments might remain poetic footnotes. For Rivas they became the foundation of an entire vocabulary. The broken surface, fragile yet resistant, mirrored his own path as a self-taught designer navigating fashion’s unspoken barriers. Rather than dwell on destruction, however, ‘A Glass to Break’ was about reconstruction.
Twenty-six looks, predominantly womenswear with a handful of menswear silhouettes woven through the narrative, explored what it means to rebuild from fracture. Tailoring was exaggerated to almost architectural proportions: bold shoulders, sleeves that stretched outwards and jackets that appeared to rupture open with sudden bursts of fabric. These moments felt deliberate as though the garments themselves were pushing outward against an invisible force, garments that looked both proud and powerful.
The palette underscored this. Deep blacks and slate greys anchored the collection in a sober gravity, while flashes of molten silver caught the runway lights like shards of glass. Then came sudden slashes of red, not decorative, but visceral slicing through the darkness like exposed emotion.
Printed silks, mohair, and denim grounded the collection in familiar textile traditions, yet Rivas layered these with innovative materials developed alongside biomaterial pioneers Ponda, BioFluff, and Banofi. The result was a tactile interplay between softness and strength, heritage and experimentation.
From the front row, what became evident was Rivas’ ability to move fluidly between opposites: fragility and force, delicacy and rebellion, classic tailoring and avant-garde construction.
The beauty direction heightened that emotional charge. Hair by the talented Richard Philipart carried a subtle austerity, while lead makeup artist Manuel de Castro amplified the models’ features with a restrained intensity that mirrored the collection’s mood.
One of the most striking elements appeared above the garments themselves. For the first time, Rivas brilliantly introduced sculptural headpieces co-designed with the talented milliner Roberta Cucuzza, each piece meticulously handcrafted. They rose from the silhouettes like crystalline crowns, delicate yet commanding, echoing the theme of shattered surfaces reassembled into something unexpectedly powerful.
Watching the final looks pass, I was reminded that fashion often speaks most clearly when it draws from something deeply personal.
‘A Glass to Break’ does not simply reference the idea of the glass ceiling, it confronts it directly. Through fracture, reconstruction, and unapologetic form, Genaro Rivas proposes that barriers are not merely obstacles, they are surfaces waiting to be broken.
Article by Kim Grahame
Main photo and Catwalk photos: Milly Wee @millyywee
Catwalk photos @rkvishalofficial
Photos: Priya Germaine
@genarorivas
genarorivas.com
