London Fashion Week (LFW) is in the midst of an upgrade: new British Fashion Council CEO, Laura Weir – the organising body which hosts the event each season – has promised to reshape the country’s fashion landscape, with equality at the fore. Coming from a publishing background (she was editor of London-based ES magazine for some years), an opening manifesto presented at the Serpentine earlier this summer saw her call for waived fees for designers to show at LFW (‘fashion week is a valuable piece of national IP and our shop window for what creative Britain looks like’), increased scholarships and funds for young designer businesses, and doubling an international guest program to get more attendees to the event each season. ‘Fashion is not just about shows and clothes. Fashion gives us a preview of society’s next chapter. It’s time to write a new story together,‘ she concluded.
Weir will no doubt be front and centre of proceedings this week, presiding over a schedule which – as ever – captures London’s unique and energetic mix of established and emerging talent. In the former camp is Burberry, which will hold a blockbuster show on the closing Monday evening (22 September), while Simone Rocha, Erdem and Roksanda remain the city’s creative stalwarts as they enter their second decades in business (meanwhile Jonathan Anderson hosted a special dinner at The Ritz to celebrate the relaunch of his eponymous label yesterday evening). In the latter camp is a raft of on-the-rise talent, from fledgling names (recent CSM graduate Oscar Ouyang will show on 19 September) to those gaining traction, like Talia Byre, Aaron Esh and Conner Ives, who will present their S/S 2026 collections across the week.
Here, reported from London, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss and contributing fashion writer Orla Brennan pick LFW’s standout shows – as they happen.
Chopova Lowena
(Image credit: Chopova Lowena)
The cheerleaders in American movies are usually the popular girls – emblems of clean, sunny energy and conformity that rule the school. But not on the campus of Chopova Lowena. In a church-turned-gym hall in west London, design duo Laura Lowena and Emma Chopova channeled the sugary energy of the sport into a wardrobe for the outcasts, presenting a collection that the pair said ‘brought us back to our roots of playfulness and experimentation’.
The duo have been designing as one for over ten years now, forming a symbiotic language that was felt in the show’s confidently bonkers vision. These are two designers who have, season after season, chosen to cast unconventional characters over typical runway models, armouring them in beautifully eccentric clothes that have deeply resonated with a devoted cult of followers. Set to a hyper-drive soundtrack that blended death metal, cheer chants, and heart-racing bass, this season the duo’s unmistakable wardrobe was told through a storyline that blended Bulgarian Karakachani costumes with high school sports gear. Layering up an overdose of trimmings and textures, silhouettes paired their signature carabiner skirts in gothic glittery shades with new sport jerseys and track pants, football lace-up bras, shoulder-pad panniers and pom-pom jackets.
A love letter to the ‘weird girls’ they have been doing it for since the start, the display marked a satisfying close to the first day of London Fashion Week – a city where outsiders have long found a home. ‘There is no“I” in team… but there is one in individuality,’ Chopova and Lowena said after the show. ‘In the collection, we celebrate that push pull of blending in and standing out.‘ Orla Brennan
(Image credit: Chopova Lowena)
Fashion East
(Image credit: Fashion East)
It has been 25 years since Lulu Kennedy founded Fashion East, the Brick Lane-based talent incubator which has helped usher the careers of names like Kim Jones, Jonathan Anderson, Martine Rose, Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner through its runway shows (traditionally, Kennedy chooses a trio of designers to show each season, spanning both mens and womenswear). The ICA provided the location for the celebrations: in one room, a decade-spanning exhibition of ephemera from Fashion East’s ‘rowdy and raw’ history (Craig Green’s wooden ‘broken-fence’ chestplates; a leopard-print birthday cake by Mowalola; a pair of elongated soft toys by Claire Barrow), in the other, a darkened runway ready for Fashion East’s future. It was there that Kennedy introduced two new additions to her roster – Mayhew, the eponymous label of London College of Fashion’s MA Womenswear graduate Louis Mayhew, and Jacek Gleba, a graduate of the Central Saint Martins MA – as well as the return of Cameron Williams’ Nuba after two seasons.
Mayhew titled his S/S 2026 collection ‘Hard Graft’, looking towards the act of ‘mudlarking’, a historic tradition which sees people combing the tidal shores of the River Thames to find trinkets and treasures. As such, garments were adorned with rocks, rusted keys and ceramics like charms, while sweatpants cinched with cable ties and paint-splattered sweaters nodded towards the designer’s background in labouring (he previously worked as a painter-decorator). In its undone eclecticism, it felt typically Fashion East – though despite the energetic start, the challenge for Mayhew will be to find a piece which sets him apart from the pack (playful ladylike handbags, draped with sheets of faux fur, demonstrated a knack for accessories he might explore further). Gleba’s aesthetic felt more defined: a series of body suits and sweat jackets informed by the ‘balletic body’ in intriguing colour combinations which called to mind the work of designers like Kiko Kostadinov. The designer said his work is inspired by his own background in dance, which informed the collection’s sinuous line. Next time, it would be good to see the pieces come alive in greater fields of motion.
(Image credit: Fashion East)
Nuba, which came between the debuts, saw Williams continue a strong eye for drape and silhouette, capturing a twisted elegance in satin trousers constructed to appear like they had been pulled open at the front, cropped jackets which twisted sensually around the body and diaphanous, semi-sheer trousers which fluttered as the models walked. The deep-thinking designer said it was about ‘the silent pull of another life… in act of bravery that consists in remaining yourself within transition’. Indeed, Williams’ shape-shifting pieces seemed to transform on the body, culminating in a jacket which came alive in feather-like fronds of tulle.
As ever, the mood in the room was buoyant: as Fashion East marked its quarter century, it was a reminder of how much a part of London Fashion Week the incubator has become – and a testament to Kennedy’s own (seemingly endless) well of energy in hunting out the next generation of fashion talent. Over the weekend, celebrations will continue at the ICA with a packed programme of talks and film screenings. ‘We’ve had a lot of fun digging through the archive,’ says Kennedy. Jack Moss
(Image credit: Fashion East)
Oscar Ouyang
(Image credit: Oscar Ouyang)
Joining the ranks of the Newgen cohort this season, Oscar Ouyang presented his debut runway show yesterday morning in London. It’s an event he’s been dreaming of since he was 17, he told Wallpaper* in an interview earlier this week, ever since moving from Beijing to the UK to study knitwear at Central Saint Martins. Rewriting the traditions of the craft with experimental techniques and stories found in anime, medieval history and the wardrobes of his friendship circle, Ouyang’s personal approach to knitwear has already seen designs stocked in Dover Street Market.
Transforming the Newgen runway in the basement of 180 The Strand with a letter-strewn floor created by artist Gary Card, his runway debut looked to messenger birds such as owls, doves and eagles as a storyline. In practice, this saw classic materials like silk, linen Harris thread and Irish Donegal yarn taken to experimental new realms, spinning them into ultra-light jumpers and honeycomb weave short shorts that translated the grunge-coded Ouyang wardrobe for summer heat. Adding flourishes of glamour and fantasy through feathers salvaged from the meat industry, the resulting display made for an original debut from a designer set on proving knitwear to be as exciting a craft as any other design discipline.
‘The challenge this season is how to translate the Oscar wardrobe into the warmer months,‘ he told Wallpaper* in an exclusive collection preview. ‘This season, we’re trying to play with the possibility of silk and linen blends and more traditional yarns that people would associate with a vintage kind of look, like Irish Donegal and Harris thread. We want to engage with that history, but with a little twist, adapting them to be more contemporary and hopefully more chic.’ Orla Brennan
(Image credit: Oscar Ouyang)
