Tibi Spring '26 Runway Music

The context and process behind the track-list from Tibi's S'26 NYFW Runway Show

As most of you are already aware, on September 13th we hosted Tibi’s Spring 2026 Runway show during NYFW at our loft in NoHo. Because many have inquired about our music selection for the show, here you will find the what, when, and why behind the setlist. There were five songs that, mixed and mastered by music director and producer Javier Peral, accompanied and guided our models down the runway:

1. Lose Your Soul

2. This is How We Walk On The Moon (Version One, Two, & Three)

3. All Apologies

4. Harlem River

5. Vanessa and the Changelings

The process for selecting these tracks began months ago, four to be exact. Each year, around the month of May, I start to consider the songs of reference in collaborating with Javier for the upcoming show in September. This is a very passive point in the process. Musically, my mind works by compartmentalizing, into different buckets, the need for sound at Tibi. We work with music in many ways - runway shows, campaign films, boutique playlists, monthly CP Radios, Tibi Close Friends projects, and more. This requires an abundance of simultaneous action as we are producing any, and sometimes all, of these aforementioned projects at the same time. So, when I say “consider”, what I really mean is: I flip the switch in my mind for runway, and when sourcing music, I am now open to filling this additional bucket of sound - I hope that makes sense.

In May, Adam Ten performed a set in Brooklyn, NY where he played an edit of a song called Lose Your Soul by the Dead Man’s Bones. Although I was not in attendance, my best friend sent me a video of this moment from the set and I was captured from the second it started to play. I remember exactly where I was, a Sunday morning in bed in Brooklyn, and I immediately shazamed the video in search of the song title. The edit that Adam Ten played had yet to be released, but I did find the original and arguably best version of the track, thus commencing the journey for the Spring 2026 runway soundtrack.

At this point I started the inspiration playlist, a place for me to throw any song that electrifies the room of my mind where the Spring 2026 light switch resides. Whenever a room is illuminated by a song, I then add it to the corresponding playlist - this goes for everything we do with music, always, all the time. Throughout the summer I build this inspiration out, and then a month out from the show date I meet with Javier to share the playlist, as well as an overview of the creative direction for the collection - the clothing, the colors, the venue, the installations, etc…

Then, two weeks out, the creative team meets with Javier as a group to listen to a more concise selection of songs based off the inspiration received prior. For Spring 2026, the collection was inspired by brutalism, gritty elegance, bold shapes rooted in pragmatic movements. One of the reasons why Lose Your Soul was such an immediate anchor for this collection is because of its multi-layered progression. The song is raw, and it builds. The first minute of the track is a mix of stark instrumentals and beats that gracefully condense into one, climaxing with a strong and grounded vocal, echoed by a softer, but equally as resonant chorus sung by a children’s choir from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. From here, as our established base, we worked to find music that would complement, highlight, and emphasize this creative direction. This is How We Walk On The Moon came next - Javier proposed an incredible version of this track by the Speakers Corner Quartet and Tirzah, which was presented in the context that it would be paired with two additional versions by Arthur Russel, one from his album Corn, and one from his album Another Thought. We then turned to Harlem River by Morby, another beautifully delicate work rooted by the soft looping sound of percussive cymbals that would effortlessly mesh with the previous selections.

So, at this point we have determined three songs. For a fourteen-to-fifteen-minute show, we want at least five, and we still needed to find a couple tracks that would provide the elements otherwise missing from the present assortment - a greater variety of instrument, some strings perhaps, and a prominent, convincing, but feminine vocal. For the strings addition Javier proposed Vanessa and The Changelings, by Phillip Glass, which was an immediate inclusion and resounding yes from the group. It is quite rare, throughout this process, that we find four songs so immediately, without too much challenge, and this flow hit a minor bump as we discussed the last element, the feminine vocal. We considered the possibility of a Kate Bush song. Close, but not quite. This reference sparked the idea of Sinead O’Connor, specifically All Apologies - emotional, elegant, evocative [this moment is captured in the clip above]. The rest is history.

We have worked with Javier for over two decades, since our first runway presentation, and over this period an intangible rapport has been built, one where words are multi-layered with ulterior meanings that need not a further description because, we just know. It’s special, it’s rare, and it’s why our music has been able to evolve and shift with us over the last 30 years. The songs from the Spring 2026 Runway Show can be found on CP Radio 012 along with other specifically curated tracks for the month of September 2025. We hope you enjoy.