The Collina Strada Converse Is So Extreme It Barely Looks Like a Converse
For Fall/Winter 2026, Collina Strada completely reimagined the Converse Chuck Taylor. And then some.
The simple canvas low-top shoe was almost unrecognizable in Collina Strada’s New York Fashion Week runway show on February 11, where Highsnobiety was on the ground to get a first look at the collaborative sneakers.
It's quite the achievement, considering we’re talking about possibly the most well-recognized shoe in the world.
Collina Strada’s kitchen-sink approach to Converse’s quintessential sneaker sees the Chuck Taylor updated with a kitsch yellow print akin to a ‘60s wallpaper, which extends down over the midsole and up onto a huge tongue that folds down covering the laces. Beneath that tongue is a multitude of lace charms like translucent beads, chunky metal doodads, stones, and spiky metal eyelets.
And that’s just one pair of Chucks.
The other pair, with a splotchy pastel pink print, is hard to decipher beneath the plethora of huge silky bows strapped to the top. It’s a technique similar to the one seen on Collina Strada’s FW26 Keen collaboration, where sheer faux flowers sit atop a hiking sneaker, and the brand’s equally floral PUMA collection from Spring/Summer 2025.
Hillary Taymour, founder and creative director of Collina Strada, tells backstage that the Keen shoes launch in October and the Converse in June. She's also quick to point out a tightly cropped black fur coat built of biodegradable fabric, a blend of recycled hemp, Tencel, and viscose, that Collina Strada is the first to utilize. But this collection isn’t merely about shoes or high-tech furs.
“I just wanted to focus on dresses this season,” says Taymour. “We’re girls making dresses.”
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