Salome is an icon. Immortalised by poets, painters, artists, writers and designers for centuries, it was Oscar Wilde who cast her as the ultimate femme fatale.

At Fashion East, Jacek Gleba delivered a Salome for AW26 that felt less biblical and more bodily. Drawing on Oscar Wilde’s decadent heroine and the razor-sharp illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, Gleba sliced and reassembled the balletic form into something taut, slippery and defiantly queer.

Ribbed jersey rompers clung like a second skin. Leggings slouched at the knee in viscose crepe. Cotton ribbons flashed from trouser yokes, teasing the hip with high-cut illusions that toyed with exposure. Referencing Serge Sudeikin’s costume for Tamara Karsavina, historical opulence was stripped back into fragments that moved with the body rather than dressing it.

This was Salome as gesture, not spectacle. Seduction here felt quiet, controlled and entirely self-possessed.