Some summers never happen. For queer youth, entire seasons of love and freedom can slip away, lost to shame, silence, or the simple fact of being born in the wrong place, the wrong time. With The Summer I Never Had, MARKE’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection reaches into that absence, stitching together memory and fantasy, history and desire.

Inspired by the hidden love stories of novels like Maurice, Swimming in the Dark, and Young Mungo, the collection moves through three emotional stages of queer coming-of-age: concealment, self-acceptance, and the bittersweet weight of memory.

The Mask is armor. Sharp tailoring speaks of conformity, of hiding in plain sight. The cuts are precise, the lines exact, but beneath them, there’s softness. These are clothes that protect, but also betray the tenderness they’re meant to disguise.

The Light is freedom. Structure loosens; volume and drape take over. Washed denim in pigeon blue and soft rosé, Renaissance-inspired silhouettes, sheer checks. The body is no longer something to conceal. It’s celebrated. The mood shifts from restraint to release, like stepping out of shadow into sun.

The Memory is what lingers. Faded checks, sweat jersey in charcoal and grey, fragile layers that feel like half-remembered dreams. These pieces hold the ghost of a summer that never was, a love story cut short. They’re haunted but beautiful, like nostalgia for something you never got to live.

Check out the collection presented during Berlin Fashion Week below: