September 21, 2025 |
Patrick McDowell chose the glamorous Control Room inside Battersea Power Station – a 1930s masterpiece of engineering – to unveil his first ready-to-wear outing. Picking up the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design earlier this year, he’s levelling up his business without letting go of the sustainability credentials he first built his namesake label on.
The collection was in tribute to McDowell’s late grandmother who first taught him how to sew. Titled Lancashire Rose, many dresses came adorned in a fuzzy floral motif, like a snapshot of a meadow caught in motion. Every piece that took to the catwalk will be fully traceable thanks to a Certilogo digital passport (in tribute to his grandmother, McDowell produced a replica of her passport from 1923 for guests to take home).
“Losing someone so close to you is one of the hardest things we endure. Creating this collection was a form of therapy, of grieving and celebration for my grandmother,” he said.
McDowell is a designer well versed in creating seriously beautiful dresses. This season’s best included a satin column dress dripping in roses that was made a crimson red using recycled dyes from textile waste. Elsewhere, muddy florals danced up black netting that shadowed frocks and skirt suits, while deadstock trench coats were chopped up and pieced together to create bulbous skirts. An excellent show all-round.
Photography courtesy of Patrick McDowell.
