September 22, 2026 |
So, we’ve taken a bite out of The Big Apple – what’s next? We’re jumping on a jet and flying over to the Atlantic to our lovely London homestead. With emerging talent up to our eyeballs and the exciting return of McQueen after 25 years of showing in Paris, this is shaping up to be a cracking season for the Brits. Here’s everything that’s going down at London Fashion Week SS27.
Tolu Coker
Tolu Coker staged her SS27 showcase at a suite at the St Clement Hotel. Titled Act I: Common Ground, the typical fashion show format gave way to something closer to an intimate open house. Clothes shared a room with books, photographs and fragments of Coker’s process. It was a slightly lived-in, almost domestic setting for a collection interested in where people come from, and what they carry with them when they leave.
Marking the first act of a wider interdisciplinary project called Beyond Bounds, the offering picked right up from where AW26’s Survivors Remorse left off. Here, she pictures a woman who has made it into rooms she once imagined from afar, without quite leaving the old ones behind. Coker draws on the discipline of sport, the movement of Balè Folclórico and the ceremony of ballet, creating clothes around the female athlete and the effort and work that takes place before anyone is watching.
Barrel-leg denim and articulated panels gave limbs room to move; double-breasted lapels folded protectively across the body with oversized tailoring. Chiffon, a first time material for the British-Nigerian designer, allowed a new transparency to her design codes, with the fabric set against wool, cotton, tartan and upcycled leather. Its colour palette stayed true to Coker’s foundations, with her earthy browns and neutrals jolted by rich colour inspired by her trips to Brazil. Common Ground asks the question: what happens after you enter the rooms you once dreamed of entering? Coker’s strong SS27 collection suggests that becoming someone new doesn’t mean you need to leave anyone behind. MC
Di Petsa
If you somehow missed Leigh-Anne Pinnock lactating on the runway this week, consider yourself briefly offline. The singer’s white bra, which culminated Di Petsa’s SS27 collection by spraying ‘milk’ out of its nipples, became internet shorthand for the Greek designer’s collection, entitled Holy Milk. It was a surreal study on motherhood and rebirth. The collection was presented in a ritualistic way, casting pregnant models and mothers to portray the Di Petsa dreamworld of femininity and transformation. The clothes moved between codes identifying with bride-like purity and something more visceral. You could find cascading lace, fluid draping and translucent layers, all coming in shades of shimmering gold, deep blue and rich black. Sun motifs and pearls decorated the body to create looks that felt mythological and otherworldly, with jewellery possessing a talismanic quality as they brushed directly against skin. Petsa has always somehow made her clothes look as though they’ve just come out of water. This season, she added milk, and gave people something to talk about whilst she was at it. MC
Selasi
For her latest Selasi collection, Ronan McKenzie turned a car garage into a catwalk space. She was thinking about motors as both a symbol and sanctuary, interpreting cars’ hard, mechanical details into garments that drape and expose the body. Deadstock Mulberry leather was used to make the brown moto jacket, while white iterations gave a softer touch to the collection. We can see across the palette, shades of blue traced the changing sky outside a car window. A cut-out mapping the outline of Barbados on the back of jackets added a personal feel, while Mackenzie’s mother, Margaret, joined friends and cultural figures like Zezi Ifore and Charlene Prempeh on the runway. For McKenzie, community is where the heart is. MC
Charlie Constantinou
For his Season 7 collection, Charlie Constantinou looked to the archives of Cypriot dress. Looking to nineteenth-century Cyprus, where Ottoman dress met the tailoring codes of British rule, Constantinou translated that collision in his own language. Pleated vrakas became loose, utility-minded shorts, traditional robes were reworked into layered outerwear and tailoring was given a technical twist in lightweight ripstop. Washed shades of pink, yellow, lilac and blue brought a softer quality to the utilitarian pieces, while hand-dyed Nike footwear traced a progression from graphite to indigo and flashes of magenta.
There was something very modern about the way Constantinou handled the references. Nothing felt preserved or overly literal – traditional forms were loosened, sportswear became more considered and tailoring lost some of its formality. Heritage, in his hands, became something to keep moving. TP
Labrum
For SS27, Labrum closed its Osmosis trilogy with Hands of Osmosis, turning its attention to craft and the people who carry it forward. Foday Dumbuya looked to West Africa, India and Britain, bringing together techniques including weaving, embroidery, leatherwork and tailoring. Mende masquerade informed raffia trousers, while woven headwear and sculpted leather bags brought traditional forms into a contemporary wardrobe. The Olokun flower, taken from Nigerian Adire textiles, appeared across the collection and in Labrum’s adidas collaboration, while rich colours drawn from Jacob Lawrence’s The Shoemaker and The Seamstress gave the clothes their vibrancy. Embroidered Mamie Bakie pieces, inspired by Dumbuya’s memories of his grandmother in Sierra Leone, added a deeply personal note. With Sampha’s score moving through shifting rhythms and moods, the show was vibrant, personal and as always, steeped in craft. TP
Gui Rosa
Gui Rosa’s SS27 debut, “Hi, Society”, arrived at London Fashion Week with plenty of twists and turns. Inspired by the boudoir of Rosa’s Portuguese grandmother, the collection borrows its gossip and melodrama from television soaps, where nothing is ever quite as it seems. The garments bring together chiffon, cashmere, leather and crochet together, with traditional techniques given a mischievous new life. There’s a cheekiness to the undone buttons revealing flashes of skin, while wigs and disguises add to the collections theatrical flare. Salmon and aubergine looks feeds into the show’s debutante fantasy. Presented at St James’s Court, the collection follows its debutante from the ballroom into the early hours, where the glamour starts to take a turn. Her dress is in tatters, the night is over, and she’s already wondering where to go next. Mateo Carmona
Yaku
As part of the BFC NewGen cohort, Yaku presented his SS27 collection, titled Chapter 8: Can’t Rush Cooked Food, on the morning of the penultimate day of London Fashion Week. Perhaps a difficult slot – given the parties of the night before, but the young designer – who is also a current recipient of the Paul Smith Foundation – didn’t let that phase him. Instead, the show was like a shot of espresso: bright and full of spirit.
An ode to the fantasy found in everyday memories, the collection saw Yaku turn away from far-flung realms of inspiration and look closer to home. Becoming a student of his own “living library” – the memories and experiences of his parents and grandparents – the designer found joy in retelling these stories, transforming them into a fantastical collection grounded in something deeply personal. On the clothes, familiar Yaku codes were pushed into new territory: baggy sets came covered in scales, while sculptural, muscular silhouettes exaggerated the body through padded forms. Details were deliberately unexpected. For instance, in one of the looks, a shield (a recurring Yaku motif) was reimagined as a miniature iPod. In then, the designer crafted a world brimming with energy, and presented a hearty advert for being curious about those around you. BK
Ahluwalia
“Joy as a form of resistance” was the motto behind Priya Ahluwalia’s latest outing. Pictures of former Black Panther leaders at home were a starting point for the designer, who merged more formal flourishes with relaxed silhouettes. There were suits cut wide with an ideal amount of slouch, leather bomber jackets and oversized, mohair cardigans seen throughout.
Ahluwalia gave her womenswear a glamorous bent with draped tops paired with bedazzled skirts, and satin mini dresses that cascaded into fringe trains. Add in an excellent Puma collaboration to the equation – standouts including co-branded track jackets – and you had another great collection from one of London’s favourites. PT
Steve O Smith
A room inside the Royal Academy used for life drawing classes made for a great, intimate setting for Steve O Smith’s latest collection unveiling. The designer stood and talked through the making of each look as they paraded through the space in a salon-style set-up.
Smith is known for bringing his illustrations to life with his elegant dresses that resemble walking drawings. This time around, he broke away from his usual monochromatic designs with glorious shades of red and blue, with painterly brush strokes dancing across fringed party dresses, sailor tops and architectural dresses frosted with caviar beads. PT
Pauline Dujancourt
Pauline Dujancourt’s SS27 collection was as much catharsis as it was a display of aesthetic prowess. Titled The Bitter Tears (a nod to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant), the BFC NewGen recipient used her garments to express seven intense emotions – despair, grief, fear, pain, bitterness, sadness and relief. Cascading lace and crochet was used to represent the gentle trickle of falling tears, turning Dujancourt’s deepest feelings into something tangible. The designer’s foundational codes are steeped in femininity and SS27 looked upon them fondly. Wispy tulle skirts and delicate flower-like details have the collection a romantic tone, but the meaning behind it ensured nothing didn’t feel flighty. Resilient in the face of dark times, Dujancourt turned something grave into something beautiful. BK
Geordie Campbell
Geordie Campbell is everywhere. You can’t scroll through Instagram, or take a walk down Kingsland Road, without seeing a handsome chap in one of his ‘Good Boy’ T-shirts. His tees have certainly made a statement, but now Campbell is rearing to broaden his design offering with a collection inspired by the codes and signifiers of cruising.
A big inspiration present throughout was George Michael, who was famously arrested for cottaging in ‘98. The star’s ‘80s wardrobe could be felt in drop-waist trench coats that were littered with utility pockets, as well as baby tees with peck-baring necklines and trousers with a removable flap at the front for easy access. Very cheeky indeed. PT
Lucila Safdie
Since 2022, Lucila Safdie has explored the visual language of girlhood, from its cinematic references to the familiar rituals of dressing up and becoming someone else. For SS27, that world took on a more excessive quality with Apocalipstick, presented as a performance featuring mannequins dressed in Safdie’s designs.
Candy-coloured houndstooth, multicoloured rock studs and flashes of purple and chartreuse gave the clothes a vivid, almost synthetic appearance. Cut-out dresses and gathered chiffon jackets sat alongside boxy jeans and racerback tanks, while delicate lingerie trimmings were encased in slick PVC and heavily waxed denim.
The clothes were girlish and utilitarian, delicate and armoured. Safdie’s department-store setting made the implications clear: femininity was being presented as a product, complete with an endless promise of personal reinvention. TP
Johanna Parv
Johanna Parv’s clothes come from movement, and for SS27 she made the case in an exhibition at 180 Studios rather than a runway. Across three rooms, the collection played out against a busy cityscape, the garments hung like sculptures and framed as what they’ve always been for Parv: a protective layer between you and the city.
A final room turned the concept outward, with four screens playing Tempo, a series of moving portraits of designers and artists – Soft Baroque’s Saša Štucin and chef Imogen Kwok among them – who share Parv’s obsession with material and pace.
The clothes themselves delivered on that engineering promise: familiar silhouettes like the Velocity Trousers and Zip Shirt in breathable linen, a new Car Coat in water-repellent gabardine, transparent knitted nylon and split capris balancing coverage against exposure. The Frame bag also made a comeback, cut to grip a bicycle frame on the commute. Function has always been Parv’s fantasy – and here, at pace, it was most desirable. TP
Patrick McDowell
Patrick McDowell’s SS27 collection felt like an invitation to another era. Drawing on the glamour of 1960s society and the romance of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love, the designer sent out a cohort of considered looks, from sculpted tailoring to elegant eveningwear. Pillbox hats and wide-brimmed boaters, created with milliner Jane Taylor, added a distinctly period feel, while hand-embroidered Pandora jewellery brought an unexpected sparkle to the offering.
With hand-painted Aspinal of London bags, glittering jewels and 1960s-inspired millinery, McDowell made a case for dressing as though every outing might turn into a particularly glamorous occasion. TP
Talia Byre
For her SS27 collection, Talia Byre didn’t introduce colour until the very end. Why? She was laser-focused on getting the silhouettes right first – and it showed. Titled Tuff, the collection marked a definitive step forward for Byre. Looking to two works by British artist Dillwyn Smith, in which translucent fabric is stretched across frames to create an illusion of painted surfaces, the designer explored how subtle shifts can be transformative.
Despite finding success in classic pieces like the Bolter bag and stripy, loose-fitting dresses, Byre proved she is not going to fall foul of getting trapped by her top-selling staples. Instead, she’s going to create fresh ones, and trust in her eye and talent that her customers will love it. The tailoring was strong, as usual, but came with a sharper edge, with straight leg moiré trousers making neighbours of corseted shirts. There was still a softness to it – ruffles, ribbons and fur emerged at the collections tail end – yet the inflection was different. It was Talia Byre, but in a new phase. BK
Mowalola
Mowalola wants us to be more naked. With a 9:30pm kick off on the Friday night (which in classic Mowalola style actually started an hour later), the designer returned to the London Fashion Week calendar with a slew of snake print bumsters, cheek-slicing G-strings and barely-there minis. Entitled The Hunger, the materials were tough but clubby. There was scarlet organza, bronze sequins and blue fishnet, each one cut into slim silhouettes that slinked off or tightly gripped the wearers frame.
Inspired by films such as Queen of the Damned, The Cell and Female Perversion and their depiction of women’s sexuality as something to be utilised, not subdued, the designer said “I’m running my company, and I wouldn’t dress like a ‘CEO’. This is how I show up – and these are the women like me: other women who enjoy, and find power in, their sensuality.”
Her cast stalked the runway with a flirtatious glint, commanding the attention of onlookers before piercing them with sultry stares. John Glacier, Gabriel Moses and Slawn were among those who watched as Mowalola’s School for the Scantily Clad got underway. Lesson number one – show some skin. BK
Paolo Carzana
Paolo Carzana’s SS27 collection felt like getting dressed in the middle of a particularly vivid dream. The Welsh designer, whose work often explores the relationship between identity, nature and the human experience, brought a wonderfully instinctive sensibility to the runway. Sun-drenched yellows, burnt oranges and powder blues emerged across a series of looks that seemed to have characters of their own. Fabrics were gathered, twisted, draped and veiled around the body, with flashes of skin and unexpected proportions lending the clothes a sense of spontaneity.
Sculptural headpieces added to the otherworldly mood, while a mustard-yellow wrap and vivid orange skirt offered a particularly striking study in colour, balancing delicacy with disarray.
Carzana’s finale brought the collection’s expressive spirit into focus, leaving the front row with a final flourish of colour and movement, until all that remained were, quite literally, their shadows.
Aaron Esh
Fresh off debuting his inaugural collection for AllSaints as the brand’s newest hief creative officer, Aaron Esh decided to shake things up at his eponymous label. Typically, Esh’s colour palette is dark and moody – rich navy, sooty grey and plenty of black. This season, however, the fash pack descended on the well-worn floors of Camden’s Electric Ballroom for something much brighter.
There were hot pink leather jackets layered over matching tees, red tights and wafer-thin organza dresses with underlays of turquoise and sharp red. “There is a feeling of excess without being excessive,” says Esh in the show notes. “Young, but not innocent. Beautiful, but with something slightly strange about it.”
Of course, the darker shades were still there – low-slung leather trousers, hefty chocolate-brown faux-fur coats – but the colour slashed through the collection gave it a different kind of mood, one that felt buzzy and slightly electric. Last season, Aaron Esh created a character would most likely be found smoking a ciggie on the sidelines, brooding in the shadows of the party. This season, they’re right in the thick of it. BK
Ashley Williams
Ashley Williams is wigging out for SS27. Blunt bobs, bursts of colour and a good-girl-gone-bad attitude set the tone for a collection that delights in getting dressed a little wrong. Here, Williams’ familiar girlishness takes a mischievous turn, with delicate silhouettes and playful details disrupted by unexpected styling choices. Nude mesh tights were stuffed with soft toys and other distinctly feminine trinkets, repurposed as makeshift belts, while hairbrushes, tucked into wigs or warped into accessories, become part of the wardrobe’s offbeat vocabulary.
The soundtrack followed suit, slipping between fairy-tale melodies, rap and R&B. Familiar objects were also stripped of their everyday purpose, imagined into something altogether more surreal. Williams has long toyed with the codes of girlhood, but for SS27, her girls seemed intent on rewriting the rules. TP
Oscar Ouyang
The step from being a teenager into adulthood, and trying to look the part, seemed like a starting point Oscar Ouyang this season. There’s a certain whimsy to his collections, as if you’ve stumbled on a mischievous group of friends playing dress up in their parents’ clothes. Yet this time, they were grappling with the responsibilities of growing up. And so his lads came in boyish, semi-sheer shorts paired with oversized waistcoats, or deconstructed trench coats. Fix up, look sharp.
Expanding on his womenswear, his cast came in glittery party frocks with OTT fascinators and ruffled blouses with barely-there minis. They might be trying to look more grown up, but they’re having a lot of fun doing it. PT
EWUSIE
For his SS27 offering, Joshua Ewusie decided to stage a presentation-cum-exhibition in The Salon space in Kings Cross’ Town Hall. Working alongside his friend Cynthia of C-Studio, the young designer looked to London’s wider creative class to curate a display featuring emerging artists who dissect themes similar to himself – diaspora, heritage, craft tradition and the broader immigrant experience.
In doing so, the presentation felt acutely personal to Ewusie and the stories he tells through his brand. Titled In Lieu of Flowers – a nod to the floral motifs that appeared across the interiors of his childhood home – the clothes echoed this intimate sentiment. Looking to the front room of a house, and what one can tell about the taste of inhabitants from it, Ewusie translated this into garments overtly and less so. He crafted dresses from plastic, the type used for the tablecloth in his kitchen, and laser cut leather so pieces were spattered with delicate, petal-shaped holes. Adopting a more feminine tone – lace and satin was interspersed amongst the heavier fabrics – SS27 was a step forward for the designer, yet still possessed the same character and heart it’s had from the start. Bella Koopman
Stefan Cooke
Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt continue to remind us why they’re two of the most exciting designers working in London today. Their SS27 collection, revealed via a lookbook that appears to have been shot in a school gymnasium, was inspired by “the idea of discovering something new that has been moving in parallel with you the whole time.” For Cooke this was trip to Austria at 15, where he has since half-imagined how the youth there would be dressing.
This thinking has helped spark an eclectic wardrobe featuring varsity-style bombers in candy hues, patch worked denim and colourful vests pulled close to the body. They’re clothes that feel both nostalgic of a time of unadulterated joy with a look firmly for the future. PT
Petra Fagerström
This might’ve been Petra Fagerström’s catwalk debut, yet there was a technical prowess and a confidence to her clothes that put her beyond her years. The Scandinavian designer, who made it to the final of this year’s LVMH Prize, brilliantly skews feminine tropes to envision a wardrobe that is both beautiful and delightfully off-kilter.
In Fagerstrom’s hands, florals dance along leather pencil skirts that cascade into razer-sharp knife pleats at the front. More leather skirts were sliced to reveal knickers beneath, while pretty dresses were slightly warped in their construction, or were given a hazy trompe l’oeil finish. Top stuff all-round. Paul Toner
Harris Reed
Harris Reed marked five years of showing in London, and his first collection since leaving Nina Ricci with a show in the pink carpeted Mandarin Oriental ballroom. It was a moment to look both forward and back.
In many ways it was vintage Harris Reed: each look offered a striking picture neckline built on tightly laced corseted superstructure. Some came with caged crinolines. But Reed pushed his look forward. Dropping the supersized platform shoes that have been a signature from day one felt like a welcome evolution of his silhouette. The all-white colour way acted both as a palette cleanser and a call sign to potential VIC bridal customers (both male and female). Harris Reed is here for your big day. Claudia Croft
Maximillian Raynor
Maximilian Raynor has made a habit of turning British institutions into theatre, and for SS27 he built his around a village green grudge match. Titled A Village Green Rivalry, the show set two feuding households against each other on a fictional English lawn – the rivalry pitched somewhere between Ascot, Wimbledon and Romeo and Juliet.
The conceit could easily have swamped the clothes, but Raynor knows the difference between a set piece and a collection. Fascinators came fractured, tea dresses were reworked into something ruder than the garden party intended, and sportswear was subverted with knits and contorted silhouettes. At the centre sat a glossy 1968 Bentley, staged as a family heirloom parked in defiance of the whole scene – part of a collaboration with Bentley Motors, set to the cheerful blare of a brass band. The heritage gags are the easy part; it’s the tailoring underneath that makes Raynor worth watching. Talia Panayi
Top Image: photographer courtesy of Tolu Coker.
