You can always count on the city of pomp and subversion to hand you something unexpected: celebrity cameos, protesters, the highly anticipated return of entire fashion houses. The list goes on. While otherwise known as a hotbed for up-and-coming talent, spurred on in recent years by its Newgen initiative, London Fashion Week S/S 2027 flaunted versatility. Yes, the young talent was there (in droves), but so too was the high street. M&S showcased its first-ever runway show and H&M made a theatrical return with all the bells and whistles, as did some of Britain’s largest institutions, such as McQueen and Lulu Guinness, which came back to London for the first time in decades. After all the buzz and spectacle, we are ready to present you with our favourite collections of the season.
Ashley Williams
Do you remember that unflattering haircut you got when you were twelve? Or your mum's bright pink lipstick that you used to steal for parties? Ashley Williams certainly does. For the London-based designer, there’s something emboldening about the awkwardness of our youth. In her take on contemporary girlhood, she drew from its hazy memories: bedsheets covered in cartoon characters, stuffed animals wrapped around the models’ waists to keep them close, and lacy undergarments that don’t quite fit. In a paradox that felt both nostalgic and unsettling, like a strange dream about your past, Williams paired garments with cat-shaped faux porcelain accessories and a muddy blonde wig.
Mowalola
Hot, provocative and contrary to its name, The Hunger left us feeling full. Off-schedule and last-minute (a combination that only Ogulesi could pull off), Mowalola returned to London Fashion Week with an unexpected display of her core practices. Models looked like they had almost been dusted in gold as they paraded down the runway in ultra-low-cut pencil skirts, netted bandeau tops and snakeskin leather. In a take on workplace autonomy, The Hunger is for women who “don’t want to dress like a CEO”, but rather “enjoy, and find power in, their sensuality”, according to the show notes. Although exploring the nuances of autonomy isn’t new for Mowalola, this collection looked at the concept through its most trivialised vessel: the female body.
Simone Rocha
Under the roof of the Old Bailey, a venue routinely used by the designer, Simone Rocha turned the runway into an unintentional stage. The show? A take on the story behind Caravaggio's long-lost work The Taking of Christ, the oil painting that disappeared for two centuries before randomly turning up in a Dublin dining room. Although not an outright retelling of the very real fable, which playfully nods to the designer's Irish ancestry, its theatrics were nonetheless present. Caught in the gaps between the beaded embellishments and underneath the billowing layers of taffeta was an air of non-conformance to the brand’s usual values. A take on fetishism and the femininity of our deepest, darkest (or not so dark) kinks that forces us to look into Rocha herself: behind the pinks, the reds, the rosettes and bows, and further into the power that can come with the unexpected.
Pauline Dujancourt
London is no stranger to Pauline Dujancourt, who launched her namesake label in the city in 2022 after finishing her master’s degree in fashion at Central Saint Martins. Only a few years on, it seems that Dujancourt is less up-and-coming and more… already there: a designer who has wholly transitioned out of adolescence and into adulthood. Ironically, this particular show by Dujancourt felt like a mirror into the fantasy of her past: clothes to dress a princess she once read about in a childhood storybook, or a fairy she once came across in a poem. These fictional beings were dressed in a mix of free-flowing organza and lace, paired with floral prints and dramatically puffed sleeves, emerging as shadows into the bright lights of 180 The Strand’s Newgen space.
Keburia
George Keburia’s designs have long been an extension of the country he grew up in, telling stories of Georgia’s vast history, as well as its largely unseen contemporary culture. Yet his most recent collection yearned to tell a different story: one of prep schools, country estates and the hoity-toity-ness of the British establishment. Exaggerated silhouettes; a palette of red, white and blue; large, chest-sized embroidery of wild horses, as if building his own Bayeux Tapestry. Keburia’s return to London Fashion Week was not a retelling of British history, but a map of it that helps us look towards its future.
Chopova Lowena
A ghoul, a vampire and a water spirit walk into a bowling alley in central London. No, this isn’t the start of a riddle, but the very concept behind Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons’ S/S 2027 show for their eponymous brand. Lucky Spirit, Lost Strike brought together the eccentricity of Eastern European folklore with the blue-collar camaraderie of 1950s American bowling culture through dramatic silhouettes and intricate embroidery evocative of Slavic pagan symbolism. Aside from the spooky, scary, vampires-and-ghosts of it all, Chopova Lowena’s show was refreshingly playful, polished off by street-cast models and teeny-tiny dogs, as well as their iconic carabiner skirts (I want one NOW)!
Erdem
As a brand that keeps a low profile, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the reputation that precedes Erdem Moralıoğlu, that is, until you view one of his collections. With over twenty years’ experience heading his own brand, after spending his time before that working under Diane von Furstenberg, Moralıoğlu’s clothes speak for themselves through well-thought-out concepts and technical mastery: the kind of opulence we usually only reserve for fashion’s most well-established houses. This season, Moralıoğlu told the story of Barbette, a Texan trapeze artist who shot to European stardom for his tricks and gender-fluid dressing in the 1920s and ’30s. In a circus-like spectacle, true to the nature of Barbette himself, Moralıoğlu boasted both structure and fluidity: models wore well-tailored tuxedos, asymmetric shirt collars and long, embellished flapper gowns, complete with feathers and all.
Mithridate
It’s not uncommon for designers to foster an interest in the vibrant clubbing scene of Britain’s long-gone past. There’s something alluring about studying an era of hedonism and excess in an age that’s now suffocated by algorithms and structure. It was an interest Daniel Fletcher, of Mithridate, was keen to explore with the brand’s S/S 2027 collection: a fun, fun, fun parade of tutus, corsetry and teeny-tiny pants nodding gallantly to London’s 1980s party scene. Despite being founded in Guangzhou, Mithridate’s expertise in London-isms only grows under Fletcher’s ruling hand, reinforced all the more by the David Bowie soundtrack that accompanied the show.
Bora Aksu
Taking place in an anachronistic church just off Regent’s Park, Bora Aksu’s regal display of puffed sleeves, bonnets and Gothic embroidery was an ode to British women throughout history. The collection, built primarily around 17th-century silhouettes, was inspired by the life and work of Mary Beale, a British portraitist of the same era. A worthy muse: Beale was Britain’s first professional female painter, building a career for herself despite the barriers that prevented women from succeeding in these spaces. As the models walked down the aisle, each new garment echoed this sense of defiance: soft ivories were drowned out by deep crimsons (a colour directly taken from Beale’s work, according to Aksu), while feminine frills slowly trickled back to reveal something more rigid beneath the surface.
