George Trochopoulos wouldn’t necessarily describe himself as a fashion person. Or at least he wasn’t one when he first started designing. “I wasn’t the kind of kid who played with my mom’s dresses,” Trochopoulos says. Born in the Greek city of Veria and later moving to Athens in his early teens, Trochopoulos was introduced to creative pursuits at children’s sewing and crafts workshops at the local public library in his home city. There he was able to freely explore a latent artistic energy, finding solace and acceptance. “It was the first time where more feminine aspects of myself were actually being nurtured and cherished,” Trochopoulos says. When he later found himself drawn to the queer club and ballroom scene in Athens, fashion was simply a way to meet new people—he would often make clothes for himself and his friends to go out in. “I would just go up to someone that I thought was fierce and say, ‘Hi, I can make you a dress?’ ” he says. “It felt like it was my way in.”
George Trochopoulos fall/winter 2026.
When it came time to apply to college, he considered a more practical field like law or software engineering, but ended up surrendering to his passion and enrolling in the London College of Fashion. At the time, brands like Rottingdean Bazaar, Matty Bovan, and Charles Jeffrey were up-and-comers on the city’s fashion circuit and served as inspiration for Trochopoulos to fully lean in. “They were doing exactly what I was doing and getting paid for it,” Trochopoulos says. “Seeing those people be so vibrant and dedicated to their craft felt very invigorating.”
In Trochopoulos’s world, no piece of clothing is too priceless to be lived in—and maybe even get a little messed up. “I’m not very precious,” he says. “I don’t want to dress the woman who takes a magnifying glass up to a seam to make sure it’s perfect. I want to make a dress for the woman who’s going to wear it out until 6:00 a.m., chuck it in the washing machine even though it’s not meant to be washed, and deal with the repercussions later.” Trochopoulos’s experimental ready-to-wear knitwear brand catapulted to popularity in 2021 with a collection of sheer knit party dresses that were snapped up by celebrities like Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, and Kendall Jenner. Since then, his designs have evolved, with pieces like a cobalt-blue evening gown model Anok Yai wore to the 2025 BoF 500 Gala and a jacket made out of mussel shells worn by singer Tyla. And while he never compromises on quality, he believes imperfection is an inevitable symptom of experiencing life.
George Trochopoulos fall/winter 2026
His muse is intellectual but not pretentious, carefree but not impressionable, well-studied but not rigid. Think: Solange Knowles (who also wore his mussel-shell jacket) and Tracee Ellis Ross. “I think there’s such a drab association with an intellectual woman,” Trochopoulos says. “People think if you want to go out partying, you’re not an intellectual. Or that if you want to be an intellectual, you have to wear gray and potato sacks. My woman has a refined taste, not necessarily because she studied a lot, but because she studied herself and took the time to figure out what she likes. She’ll know what movie you need to watch or what restaurant you need to be at, but at the same time, she wants to look hot and have sex. And that’s okay!”
In this vein, his latest collection for fall/winter 2026 is where Trochopoulos feels he has truly found his stride. Aptly titled “A Tug and a Pull,” it’s a metaphor for his own journey as an independent designer, being pulled between traditional fashion rules and simply having fun creating beautiful clothes. He paints this picture by juxtaposing playful, structural silhouettes with airy knit fabrics. Or draped, “fucked” mohair sweaters, as Trochopoulos calls them, contrasted with outlandish bubble tops. The collection is a beautiful display of contradictions. “It’s about loving something enough to find your own language instead of trying to make it perfect,” he says. “Because then it’s not going to be yours.”
A version of this story appears in the Summer 2026 issue of ELLE.
