February 20, 2026 |
His Royal Highness Charles III, The King, opened his schedule to London Fashion Week with a front-row seat at Tolu Coker’s AW26 show, lending the room a clipped, anticipatory energy. “Please stand for His Majesty The King” commanded a voice over the tannoy. And stand we did, craning our necks for a good look, phones cameras out. But once the lights came on, the focus shifted to a set that transformed the brutalist language of inner-city London into something warmer: concrete textures and fencing framing a mural by Neequaye Dreph Dsane, drawn from family photographs in Coker’s late father’s archive.
The show, titled Survivor’s Remorse and dedicated to lost loved ones Remi Coker and Kayode Coker, opened with Little Simz stepping out from the front row for a live performance, her delivery measured and exacting. Mid-set, she crossed to a model seated on a raised platform in front of live band The Compozers and placed a copy of All About Love by bell hooks in her hands, the exchange deliberate and unceremonious. Simz finished her final bars, the band held the tempo and the first look emerged.
Tailoring anchored the collection. Jackets were corseted at the waist with relaxed shoulders; pleated and flounced skirts offset discipline with softness. British heritage tartans appeared in a vivid palette, setting Yoruba colour language against European savoir-faire to explore dual identity. Hooded silhouettes and athletic ease met sculpted, anatomical corsetry – a wardrobe negotiating between worlds.
Sustainability functioned as structure, not slogan: British wool, upcycled leather, deadstock denim and reclaimed satin reinforced Coker’s belief in clothing as heirloom.
Marking her graduating NewGen season, this was Coker’s most personal outing. Having previously centred other voices, she turned inward, reframing childhood not as something to escape but as an incubator that shaped and sustained her – a pointed challenge to the myth of “making it out” as the only measure of value. In front of The King, she delivered a collection concise, assured and emotionally resolved – survival rendered beautifully.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
