London Fashion Week SS26 | When resilience matures into strength
This article was written by Demi Karanikolaou for Harper’s Bazaar Greece. You can find it here.
As the saying goes, hope dies last - and if you work hard, it never does. Not long ago, London Fashion Week oddly felt like it was lacking the spark - full of promise, yet strangely lacking the instant gratification that can draw international editors and influencers to London. However, this season the city oozed with a renewed sense of purpose, the spores of change too visible to ignore. Under Laura Weir’s - the new CEO of the British Fashion Council - first outing, new structures and plans for the local industry already felt underway, aligning with the BFC’s ambitions to restore fashion’s role as a UK economic powerhouse.
The shift was evident across the catwalks. Patrick McDowell set the tone by drawing from his family history and the elegant silhouettes of the ’40s & 50s - “my grandmother, who was born in 1923, sewed for herself and her sisters during the war,” he mentioned. McDowell’s growing visibility - his look was featured in the finale of And Just Like That - met substance in a collection anchored by a showstopping finale wedding dress and a collaboration with Aspinal of London on custom Mayfair handbags - a favourite of Princess Kate Middleton, who earlier this year presented him with the Queen Elizabeth II Award.
And if McDowell moved forward by honouring the past, George Keburia pressed fast-forward, proposing a wardrobe for time travellers where Victorian romance flirted with gaming avatars and military codes; puffy sleeves and bubble volumes toyed with ultra-micro shorts and knowingly cheeky slogan T-shirts (a “BYE ANNA” tee was an instant talking point), while organza and jacquard mixed with patent leather, gabardine and rugged denim - a persuasive case for anyone seeking a successor to the cheeky provocation of Demna’s Balenciaga.
DiPetsa’s wet, beachy universe opened up like a shell to reveal new aspects of her. In her first independent show after the NewGen programme, titled “Archaeology of Self”, she expanded further into menswear and more wearable pieces, without abandoning her signature siren charm. Borrowed from the tourist shops of the Aegean, slogan prints (e.g. “Imitation Poseidon”) were reclaimed and elevated. Supermodel Nassia Matsa opened as a mud-kissed angel and, unexpectedly, a tulle ball gown closed the show. Bold moves, from a designer who can clearly deliver and evolve.
If innovation is the hallmark of UK fashion, Karina Bond is poised to become one of its clearest representatives, continuing her extraterrestrial couture at Freemasons’ Hall with pieces created - literally - from thin air. Using a 3D pen and biocompatible, biodegradable filaments, the London designer produced futuristic garments and accessories that felt almost unreal, including spiky, handcrafted handbags, but also with some more commercial moves, such as a collaboration with jeweller Vicki Sarge. When I asked what comes next, her answer was fitting to her brand’s ethos: “I want to leave sewing machines behind and adapt new technologies like 3D printing and laser cutting to make ready-to-wear,” she said. “3D printing is at its very beginning; I want to develop filament that mimics fabric - soft like wool or cotton. This is the future of fashion for me, and I want to lead it.” Her comment truly landed like a thesis for the spirit of London itself.
At Poet Lab, Giuseppe Iociofanno worked with the same unconventional passion through a different filter, treating clothing as the tool to express a worldview: strong tailored shoulders dissolved into silk transparencies, vegan leather blended with delicacy, and the occasional prints were the perfect complements to his gender-bending signatures; “Having diversity through different personalities on my shows is very important to me,” he told me backstage. “This season the look is raw and unconventional - unfinished edges rejecting polish in favour of honesty,” which, in a moment as anxious as ours, felt very fitting. Even Marques’Almeida, showing high above the city in a skyscraper - literally in the clouds - softened its familiar boldness into something more tender: flowing drapes and elegant floral details in a palette drifting from burgundy and olive to pastel hues, but also with denim staples that grounded us back to reality.
Threaded through this wave of change was a confident pillar of classic British elegance you can trust. Alessandra Rich returned with a presentation that combined intricate sheer black dresses and tweed separates with their signature costume jewellery - made daintier. Noon by Noor presented an anthology of modern and practical looks influenced by Veruschka’s glamour; a favourite was a hoodie unexpectedly cut in lustrous lamé shown directly after a gown in the same fabric.
Malone Souliers - another London favourite - looked to the ’60s and ’70s of Cher and Sharon Tate, letting metallics in striking silver, gold and sunset pink catch the afternoon light against the skyline. The brand’s signature shoes and handbags remain true investment pieces: feminine, beautiful and surprisingly comfortable.
If there is a lesson to take away from this week, it is that London’s resilience has matured into power: young designers are not merely recycling the same ideas, but learning to build comprehensive brand universes; elegant favourites know how to add slight variation, and the innovation bug - arguably the city’s heartbeat - has found new hosts. London has not solved everything, but it has clearly begun to rebuild, and in that steadier rhythm lies the promise of a city growing more exciting by the season."