The hunger for connection in a world that devours the outcast. Human desires and nature at its rawest, its most intimate.
Like the movie “bones and all” message, to accept and love it entirely, even the parts that repulse or destroy.
To accept the things that decay, both as humans and the nature that surrounds us The skin gets older, wrinkled, bruised.
The fruits get rotten, moldy. The plants get dry and rough. To wear your heart on your sleeve, bare, exposed, imperfect.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Rawness
Intimacy
Decay
Desire
Acceptance
Love
Abandomnment
THE PERSON
The Look
Name: Ada (they/she/he)
Age: 24–35
Location: Urban creative
hubs (Berlin, Mexico City,
Lisbon, New York)
What they do
- Inspired by decay in nature and the way the human body records emotion through posture, bruises, and breath.
- Believes that fashion is both memory and movement.
- Drawn to textures that reflect the realness of touch, time, and transformation.
What they like
Contemporary dancer, visual artist, fashion designer, poet, or cultural researcher Aesthetic: Dresses like movement feels—fluid, raw, and intimate. Wears vintage or handmade pieces with visible seams, worn fabrics, and muted tones. Loves garments that stretch with the body and age like skin—wrinkled, soft, bruised by time.
THE INFLUENCES
- THE BRANDS
- THE INFLUENCERS
- THE SPACES
- THE MOVIES
- THE SCIENCE
Fabio Novembre, 2001 “Bones and All”, Luca Guadagnino, 2022 Heart under a street sewer, Robert Gober, Fondazione Prada Qimmy Shimmy , 2020 Jenna Ortega on “Taste” videoclip by Sabrina Carpenter Biopolyester, Materiability Research Group COLORIFIX, UK Bacteria Dye Coffee Shop, Andrey Barinov Tender Decay emerges from the quiet violence of transformation — a study of materials, bodies, and emotions as they break down, bruise, and evolve.
The trend finds resonance in the slow decomposition of familiar beauty: the peeling surface of an unstitched leather sofa, the soft collapse of time-worn interiors, and the unsettling intimacy of films like Bones and All, where love and hunger coexist in raw, corporeal tenderness.
Artistic references like Qimmy Shimmy’s uncanny sculptures blur the line between sweetness and skin, life and lifelessness, evoking both discomfort and empathy. Even biomaterials — like kombucha-based biopolyester from Materiability — contribute to the story, with their skin- like textures, organic imperfection, and cyclical nature.
And in the pop world, Jenna Ortega’s shadowed, tender presence in Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” video adds a cultural echo — a Gen Z icon embodying eerie softness and quiet intensity.
Together, these influences explore decay not as death, but as delicate metamorphosis — an invitation to feel deeply through rupture, softness, and the poetry of things falling apart.
THE COLORS
COLOR PALETTE
BRAND GUIDELINES /
PALETTE
2026
The color palette for Tender Decay is a study in muted intensity.
A tactile harmony of rotting reds, dull greens, and flesh-pink undertones that whisper of skin, erosion, and time.
Rich, Red Ochre and Tabasco evoke bruised blood and tender wounds, while the soft contrast of Pale Dogwood and Bridal Blush hints at fragility beneath the surface.
Bog, a muted green, adds a fungal, organic quality, balancing the palette with a quiet, decomposing depth. Together, these shades form a palette that feels both intimate and uneasy, inviting touch while warning of decay.
THE PRODUCTS
END PRODUCT & DESIGNERS
Materials speak a language of rupture, exposure, and fragility. Red threads are stitched and knotted into garments like veins or wounds, bleeding across surfaces in tangled, raw forms.
Mold-like patterns bloom across accessories, intricate embroideries that mimic the organic decomposition of forgotten objects.
Textiles are intentionally distressed and slashed, revealing hidden layers of color and texture beneath, as if the garment itself is bruised, exposing a softer, more vulnerable core.
Beads are used sparingly, like moles or tears, clinging to sheer fabrics and adding weight where the fabric thins. Embroidery techniques are uneven and textural, echoing the fungal, necrotic spread of the trend's core inspiration. The materials don’t just sit on the surface.
They infiltrate, erode, and transform the garment from within, creating an intimate tension between beauty and decay.
HIRAM ARMANDO Perez Rizo
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ANA LUÍSA Ribeiro Marinho
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