September 1, 2026 |
Aaron Esh’s first memory of All Saints was buying a pair of military boots from the British brand when he was in his late teens. “They really gave me a lot of confidence. You know, you had to be cool to wear those boots,” he says, adding that he thinks they helped him impress his first high school crush. Flash forward 15 or so years and now he is leading the high street giant into its next chapter as the brand’s new chief creative officer.
Today sees a fresh look for All Saints landing in stores and online with Esh’s debut AW26 collection. The clothes aren’t the only things that are new. The brand’s website has been completely redesigned, as has its graphic identity, tone of voice, social media strategy and in-store music playlist. Add in a massive Alasdair McLellan campaign shot on a group of creative Londoners and 10,000 copies of an 80-page magazine celebrating the relaunch landing across All Saints stores globally, and you’ve got yourself quite the first day of September.
Not only this, but Esh is simultaneously heading up his eponymous label which he launched after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2022. His next collection, set to be unveiled Friday September 18 during London Fashion Week, is his biggest to date.
Aaron Esh, portrait by Anton Gottlob.
His own line has been influenced by fleeting moments of elegance found in the everyday. Whether that’s at dinner parties with friends, down the local boozer or the glimpse of a glamorous night owl trotting down Kingsland Road at 4am. Coming out of his last show last September, you couldn’t help but think of the mass appeal his clothes could have. His troupe looked effortlessly slick. Out they came in cropped leather bombers with matching skinny trousers with access-all-areas passes plonked on the bum. There were suede military jackets and trench coats thrown over distressed skinny jeans, and glam bias-cut silk dresses that were played down with distressed baseball caps and slouchy boots. If the golden era of All Saints is tied to being the indie sleaze uniform of the 2010s, Esh’s aesthetic embodies new ideals for contemporary cool.
The designer’s appointment at All Saints last October is part of a seismic shift of luxury designers taking on creative director roles at mass market brands. Whether that’s Clare Waight Keller and Francesco Risso at Uniqlo, Zac Posen at Gap, or John Galliano, who has been tapped by Zara for a two-year partnership. “This is where I think the industry is moving,” says Esh. “10 years ago, the idea of a designer working with a brand at an accessible price point was looked down upon. I think this is just the start of people being able to wear really great clothes, designed really nicely, without having to spend extortionate amounts of money on them.”
Under Esh’s direction, All Saints’s identity is being “reasserted rather than reconstructed from scratch”. The designer never wanted to come in and wipe the slate completely clean, but was certain he didn’t want this new era for the brand to be a nostalgia trip to its grungy glory days. “It was about asking myself ‘What made me, as a 17-year-old, feel so confident wearing All Saints, and what is that today?’ How do we make something feel contemporary, cool and authentic within the codes of the brand but in a completely new way?”
All Saints AW26 lookbook, photography by Mitchell O’Neill.
Arriving at the office at 9am on his first day last November, Esh brought with him thousands of images he had researched and piled everything into giant towers of paper, each divided into different categories. “I had the design team go through every single image individually and start with what they liked,” he says. “The team spent all day going through the research I did with my design director. “It wasn’t about me saying ‘Go and design these jackets’. It was more ‘Out of these details of these jackets, these historical references, what inspired you?’” Sitting down with the stylist Katy England – like the writer Osman Ahmed and art director Jamie Reid, England works with Esh across both All Saints and his own brand – the pair literally wrote down the perfect wardrobe. “We had this day where we just brainstormed it. Although it’s stupid to do it like that, we were literally reimagining a wardrobe from scratch; ‘Long sleeve T-shirt, short sleeve T-shirt, oh we forgot a vest.’”
In the collection, beloved All Saints staples like a strong white tee, rugged denim separates and leather biker jackets are given a refresh, amongst gorgeous new additions like lilac leather dresses, shaggy faux furs, handsome woollen overcoats and great knits. “As a customer in my 30s, there are very few places where you can buy really great trousers or a great shirt at a price point like this,” says Esh. “These things could be seen as filler items but they have had the same level of attention as some of the more statement pieces in the collection.” Coming from a CSM background, as well as having to earn his spot on BFC’s Newgen program and previously making it to the LVMH Prize finals in 2023, Esh knows you can’t cut corners. Whether that’s the clothes – which are fitted and refitted until the look and feel is perfect – or the written copy that is posted to the brand’s website and social channels, everything goes through a strict approval process.
All Saints AW26 campaign, photography by Alasdair McLellan.
To launch the collection, Esh recruited Alasdair McLellan to shoot 17 people, mostly street-cast, in pared-back, black and white portraits. These include models and Esh muses Kiki Willems and Lux Gillespie, who are joined by artists, writers, chefs, retail workers and students. “Alasdair’s portraits make someone look like the best version of themselves. That is essentially what we are trying to do with the clothes, too,” says the designer. “This is like an anthropological project that is so London, when you see [all the cast] together, it’s like being down the pub. I feel so unbelievably proud of it. I burst out crying on set and I’m not a crier.”
With the collection available to shop today, Esh now has the task of keeping All Saints loyalists on board while enticing a new cohort of devotees into the mix. He hopes to do this by making clothes that can easily slot into your wardrobe, that will last you for years to come, all without ever looking dated or too try-hard. “You cannot contrive trying to be cool,” he says. “It’s all about being authentic.”
Shop the collection here.
