4 min readIt may be the Year of the Horse in the Chinese Zodiac, but a quick survey of today’s design landscape suggests another animal has taken the spotlight: the swan.
The bird has popped up as a collar-cum-scarf on the Altuzarra Spring/Summer 2026 runway, as a block heel in A.W.A.K.E. Mode’s Spring 2026 lookbook, and as an intarsia knit in Tanner Fletcher’s Fall 2026 collection, and a leitmotif throughout VIVETTA’s Fall 2026 show. On the indie side, Kristin Mallison refashioned a vintage needlepoint rendition into a skirt for Chloë Sevigny, while Lisa Says Gah! released a sweater and T-shirt with mirrored, black-and-white swans, and Emily Dawn Long devoted her entire Fall/Winter 2025 offering to the bird, fashioning a slim knit scarf inspired by its lengthy, graceful neck, as well as a halter top and dress (Suki Waterhouse is a fan of the latter).
The swan has permeated the jewelry and accessories space, too, having recently inspired a sinuous brooch from Sophie Buhai, a series of rings and a bracelet from Anna Pierce, and a handful of homewares from GoharWorld and ModaDomus, Moda Operandi’s in-house line. That’s not even counting the sparkling plumage at Swarovski, which has featured the swan as its emblem since 1989 (a choice inspired by the brand’s Austrian compatriot, artist Gustav Klimt), and recently released a swan-inspired collection to celebrate its 130th anniversary.
“They are everywhere right now,” says Pierce, who began experimenting with the swan in her jewelry about a year ago. She was drawn to it for its symbolism — as the rare animal that mates for life, it’s long been associated with love and commitment — and its prominent place in art and culture. “There’s poetry, there’s romance, there’s myth.”
Pierce is right: The swan’s lore runs deep. It comes with its own in-built metaphors, what with the dualism of its black-or-white coloring, and the half-heart traced by the arc of its neck. And then there’s the stories we’ve told around it: The Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, the Grimms’s wan maiden, Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Ugly Duckling,” the folklore that inspired Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake; as far as modern myths go, consider Truman Capote’s Swans, who got their own TV show; the melodrama of Black Swan, which continues to generate memes a decade and a half on; and Björk’s 2001 swan dress, the rare red-carpet look to earn its own Wikipedia page.
“It wasn’t subtle, and it wasn’t apologetic,” Tanner Fletcher’s Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell say of the latter. “It turned a symbol of elegance into something surreal and slightly absurd, making it unforgettable.” In their Fall 2026 collection, the co-designers played a similar game, pulling the classy bird into a world of Midwest “cabinwear.” Situated next to mallard needlepoints and eBay-sourced duck brooches, it takes on a different valence, but doesn’t feel out of place. “[The swan] shows up in fairy tales, ballet, decorative arts, and mid-century kitsch. It can be high society or slightly ironic depending on the context,” Richie and Kasell add. She is beauty, she is grace; she is kitsch, she is camp. How’s that for range?
Hilma af Klint’s No.1 The Swan painted in 1914-1915.
Emily Dawn Long agrees that the swan endures because of its versatility. Its shape is easily transposed from one aesthetic to another: “stylized for modern minimalism, ornate for vintage revivals, whimsical for cottage-core, and graphic for contemporary pieces,” she says. “The motif is also beyond craft‑friendly: It reads beautifully in cable knits (like our sweater), embroidery, hardware and ceramics, so it functions across price points and categories.”
But as adaptable as it may be, the swan isn’t always dominating runways. There must be something about our current moment that’s pulled the feathered creature to the fore.
Maybe the yearning for signs and symbols is of a piece with the broader medieval revival, as seen in Max Mara’s invocation of Matilde di Canossa for Fall 2026, Dilara Findikoglu’s folkloric Spring 2026 collection, and the current vogue forchainmail — not to mention Chappell Roan’s ongoing tribute to the era and Baz Luhrnmann’s forthcoming Joan of Arc film. Or perhaps the swan’s resurgence dovetails with the return of Surrealism, the art movement that both Sophie Buhai and VIVETTA explicitly tied to the swan. As it happens, Altuzarra’s collection for Spring 2026 explored Surrealism through use of material manipulation and textural details, for an effect of dissonance within the sumptuous femininity of the clothes. When the movement first emerged in the 20th century, the Surrealists were reacting to the senseless violence of WWI; it’s not hard to imagine why we might feel similarly unmoored today.
“There’s been a broader return to decorative storytelling in fashion and interiors, things that feel a little more whimsical or artful rather than purely minimal,” says Lisa Bühler, the designer behind Lisa Says Gah!. “The swan fits perfectly into that mood.”
Everyone just wants to swan around. Can you blame them?
Shop the Motif
Swan Spoon, Mother of Pearl
Moda Domus Swan Silver-Plated Serving Spoon and Fork
Chloe is a news writer for townandcountrymag.com, where she covers royal news, from the latest additions to Meghan Markle’s staff to Queen Elizabeth’s monochrome fashions; she also writes About culture, often dissecting TV shows like The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Killing Eve.