A surface reveals itself not only when light falls on it, but when it casts a shadow. The depth found in Istanbul's worn marble, its softened stone steps and its carved masonry is one of the starting points of the Natalie Kolyozyan Relief AW26 collection. Created for Autumn/Winter 2026, Relief does not transfer architecture literally onto clothing; it looks instead for the relationship between how a building stands and how a silhouette is built. What carries the story is not only shape, but the bond between cloth and light.

The trace of stone: reading Istanbul through its surfaces

Three Istanbul references stand out in the collection's narrative: the porphyry column at Çemberlitaş, the veined marbles of Hagia Sophia and the carved capitals of the city's cisterns. They are not decoration; they are reminders of how time becomes visible on a material. Roughness, veining, hollows and polish each tell a different story of the same surface.

Relief carries this idea into cloth. A garment that might read as a flat plane takes on a changing appearance through folds, cuts and texture. A shoulder line that sharpens in profile, a hem that moves with each step, a jacquard surface that shifts with the light: these can be read as the architectural reference translated into clothing. This is not a replica of a historic building, but architectural thinking adapted to contemporary dress.

The architecture of the silhouette: shoulder, hem and long line

Relief's lines are clean; their effect comes from volume. Broad-shouldered blazers build a strong frame across the upper body, while different trouser cuts carry the movement downwards. Long coats give the silhouette a continuous vertical line. The collection is not tied to a single shape: in some looks the structure sharpens, in others the flow of the fabric comes forward.

The Malachite Blazer brings two essential ideas together with its green metallic jacquard and broad shoulders: form and surface. From the same family, the Malachite Trousers show how volume can be built elsewhere, through a barrel leg. In the collection's look list the two pieces appear together in Look 9. The blazer's shoulder line and the rounded volume of the trouser leg create two different architectural movements within a single look. View product: Malachite Blazer

One of the outerwear expressions of this idea is the Travertine Coat – Camel. Described as a long, oversized camel wool coat, it is a reminder that a strong vertical line can stand out without a showy surface. Check the product page for the exact fabric, measurements and current sizes.

Another distinction appears in where structural detail is placed. In Look 13, the Arch Blazer is an oversized wool suit blazer with a cuff detail, and the Arch Trousers are wool suit trousers with an embroidered hem. In Look 14, the Arcade Cropped Jacket is a short navy wool jacket with gold buttons, and the Arcade Trousers are pleated, wide-leg navy wool trousers. In the first pairing the details at the cuff and hem draw the eye; in the second, a cropped top meets a long lower line. The same architectural idea can be told in different proportions.

The relief of jacquard, the line of lace

A relief carved in stone never reflects light in the same way at every point. Relief's metallic jacquards ask a similar visual question: does depth in a garment come from a dominant colour, or from the movement of the surface itself? The green metallic finish of Malachite and the black and copper tones of the Bronze family give two different answers to how light can change form.

Set against them are more fluid, open layers. The Marquina Dress, with its lace bodice, satin body and asymmetric tulle skirt, represents the collection's more translucent side. Lace builds a linear density, while tulle suggests a moving contour rather than a hard edge. This contrast of materials shows that the collection holds neither a single hardness nor a single softness. View product: Marquina Dress

A vocabulary of names: stone and structure

Relief's product names come from two families. Names such as Malachite, Onyx, Basalt, Travertine and Quartz belong to the world of stone and mineral; Arch, Arcade, Column and Dome belong to the world of architectural form. The system does not claim that the pieces contain real stone; it points to the design idea behind each one.

On one side are names that speak of surface: sheen, density, colour and texture. On the other are names that speak of form: arch, column, dome and structural line. Consider the Chisel Shirt, a white cotton shirt with a layered, sculptural collar, and it becomes clear that the naming is more than a romantic association. The details of each piece carry the visual meaning of its word.

Colour, shadow and the rhythm of the season

The collection's main palette is navy, camel, espresso, burgundy and black. To these, the pieces themselves add accents such as green metallic, ivory and pale blue. Colour is not used here simply as a seasonal code; it decides how surfaces make one another visible.

A navy wool suit and a black and copper metallic jacquard never look the same under the same light. Satin carries light across broad areas, lace gives a more fragmented image, and tulle softens edges. The range of materials in Relief allows the collection to work with different visual densities. This reading is based on the collection text and the product descriptions, not on the technical performance of the garments.

How to look at Relief

It is possible to explore the collection simply by category: blazers, trousers, coats, dresses, shirts. What makes Relief interesting, though, are the ideas that repeat across those categories. Volume at the shoulder reappears in another form at the hem; the jacquard surface of a suit is replaced in another look by the line of lace. A piece named after a stone can sit beside one that refers to an architectural form.

A good way to read Relief AW26 is to see the silhouette from a distance first, then move closer to the detail. Notice the long line of a coat, the shoulder frame of a blazer or the asymmetric hem of a dress, then look at the surface of the cloth. As in Istanbul's buildings, the effect of the whole often lies in the individual details.

Explore the Relief AW26 collection.