Being one of the few genuinely young, emerging designers on the CFDA calendar already puts Kate Barton ahead of the curve. But this season she leaned into that advantage—hard—especially on the tech front. For her fall 2026 appointments, she skipped the traditional showroom shuffle entirely and turned the whole thing into an experiment in augmented reality and AI. Upstairs, guests scrolled through images of the collection on a model set against an AR backdrop, courtesy of Amazon. Downstairs, things got even more personal: you could virtually “try on” the clothes yourself. Every look came with a QR code, so you could dive into descriptions, fabrics, materials—the whole breakdown. “The goal was to show how we could use technology to help us,” Barton said. Even without seeing the clothes physically on a model, she wanted people to feel them come alive on their own bodies.

And the twist? For all the AI and AR wizardry, the clothes themselves were refreshingly grounded. Since last season, Barton’s been consciously steering her futuristic instincts toward real-world wearability—less sci-fi costume, more actual life. Her liquid dresses? Jersey. Soft. Forgiving. Those metallic emblems she’s known for? Not rigid at all, but fabric-based, meant to be tied at the bust or taken off entirely, depending on your mood. There was even a leather jacket and skirt—still unmistakably Kate Barton, still cool—but not so out-there that only an influencer with a stylist and a ring light could pull it off.

And for anyone fully uninterested in dressing like a fashion experiment (no judgment), she had solid knits that could slide right into a normal wardrobe—yes, with jeans. Real jeans.

Barton clearly likes to think beyond the box, but she’s also not pretending clothes sell themselves on concept alone. What worked this season was the balance: pushing into the unknown through presentation and technology, while keeping the actual garments approachable, wearable, and—crucially—desirable. Forward-thinking without floating off into space. Which, right now, feels like exactly the point.