Fishing Nets But Make It Fashion: Farah Seif's SS26 Is Pure Alexandria

Every summer, the fashion world falls in love with the Mediterranean all over again. White linen returns. Navy stripes make their appearance. The coast becomes less of a place and more of a moodboard.

For Egyptian designer Farah Seif, it has never been either.

Since launching her namesake label, Seif has built a reputation around refined tailoring, sculptural shapes, and a wardrobe that feels as timeless as it does contemporary. For her Summer 2026 collection, she turns to the place that shaped both her and the brand from the very beginning: Alexandria.

Seif was raised in Alexandria, where the sea was never a destination saved for long weekends or summer escapes. It was simply part of everyday life.

For the label's latest collection, she returned to that familiarity, looking past the postcard clichés and toward the details that rarely make it onto a coastal moodboard. The rough texture of old fishing nets. The way the light shifts from morning to sunset. Weathered stone, salt-worn surfaces, and the simplicity of dressing for a beach day."With Alexandria at the heart of our story, the Mediterranean has always been a natural source of inspiration, not only through its landscapes and colours, but through the lifestyle that surrounds it," Seif tells SceneStyled. "As the collection evolved, those references became less literal. We wanted to translate the feeling of the Mediterranean through texture, proportion, movement and construction rather than recreate coastal scenery."

Linen and denim form the collection's foundation, chosen for the same reasons they have always belonged by the sea. One brings lightness and breathability, the other structure without heaviness.

Around them sits a palette of crisp white, olive, terracotta, deep navy, burgundy and black. Colours that feel lifted from Alexandria without directly quoting it.

The collection's most thoughtful detail is a woven white fabric that mimics traditional fishing nets, developed specifically for the Sirocco Set. It takes an object that has always belonged to the coastline and turns it into something you can actually wear.

That same thinking runs through the rest of the hero pieces. The Olea Striped Set introduces the label's first multicoloured stripe, brighter and more playful while staying unmistakably Farah Seif. The Marina Kaftan leans into movement, with fluid draping and warm, sun-baked tones that echo Alexandria's coastline at golden hour.

The Thalassa Dress goes more architectural, pairing a sculpted halter neckline with asymmetrical draping for a silhouette that feels structured and effortless at once. The Zephyr Set, offered in shorts and trousers, is built to move between daytime and evening.

Together, the pieces offer different takes on the same idea. Farah Seif's SS26 skips the obvious Mediterranean symbols and captures what it actually feels like to grow up next to the sea.