Tyler McGillivary just wants to have fun. But there’s an underlying movement she’s also partaking in: dressing women with no limitations. Whether it’s redefining narratives thrust upon them or thinking about real size diversity in this current era of fashion, fun may be the goal, but refreshing is the domino effect.

Tyler McGillivary first launched in 2019 to spread joy, spark awe, and redefine what it means to get dressed. Now, the brand’s spring-summer 2026 collection, Mermaiden, dives headfirst into the “sparking, mysterious world of the sea siren.” Reimagination is a massive part of McGillivary’s latest collection — but more than anything, it’s about ensuring every person who rocks her brand feels “f*cking hot.”

Post-show, we caught up with the 30-year-old designer backstage to discuss her inspirations, diversity on the runway, and what it means to feel good in her clothes.

Teen Vogue: For my ninth birthday, I had a tea party, and then we went to the pool, played mermaids, and watched Aquamarine together, so I was gagged seeing Sara Paxton close the show.

Tyler McGillivary: That was the hope, that every woman here who was a teenager in the 2000s or the late ’90s or whatever, understands Aquamarine. We were so excited she said yes.

Designer Tyler McGillivaryCourtesy of the brand.

Aquamarine star Sara Paxton walking in the SS26 Tyler McGillivary show.Courtesy of the brand.

TV: What first drew you to the ideas of mermaids and sirens for this collection?

TM: I think a lot of our work focuses on the idea of nostalgia. I wanted to push that to a degree this season where it wasn’t only nostalgic, but it went into this idea of shared folklore and shared mythology. The idea of a mermaid appears in a lot of different cultures across different parts of the planet and different centuries. And what I love about it is it’s this sort of consistent representation of a woman. And what I also like about it is that often it’s identified as a temptress. So it has this sort of interesting, almost like a negative connotation, but that ultimately comes back around to being really powerful and woman-forward. And so I think I started with that, I really want to dig into the public domain, really dig into different representations of mermaids over time.

And a lot of the prints are from that. A lot of the prints in the collection are from Hans Christian Andersen’s old Little Mermaid illustrations from the original book. And then around that, we built out the idea of what it would be like if you had a mermaid enter New York City now, like the Aquamarine of today living in New York. That’s where the denim came in, and a lot of those influences. At the end of the day, we just used a lot of those traditional sort of Coney Island type elements of glitter, and all of those things. I’m really happy with how it came out