The gap between September and February fashion seasons often feels like no time at all. Halloween, Christmas, and New Year all swing by, and then we’re all back here again, as if we never left. Despite the quick turnaround, London’s design talent were out in force for AW24, with the young pretenders and heritage names all turning out impressive collections. 

Zipping around the British capital with a little help from Mercedes-Benz, which kept the Dazed team on the road and out of the rain, we took in collections by Sinead O’Dwyer, who kicked off proceedings on day one with an inappropriate take on office wear, followed by Johanna Parv and Ollie Shinder at Fashion East, then Central Saint Martins’ eclectic MA show.

Elsewhere, 16Arlington found beauty in the monstrous, Simone Rocha headed to a medieval church, JW Anderson got nostalgic for your nan, and Conner Ives’s fashion poshos stormed the Savoy. Also, Dilara Findikoglu stunned with an electric Sunday night show, KNWLS expanded its It-Girl avatars, while Burberry launched the career of Phoebe Philo’s daughter Maya. 

Below, we round up everything else you might’ve missed, from Aaron Esh and Saul Nash, to Talia Byre and Supriya Lele.

A BOWL OF CIGS AT AARON ESH

You’ve probably already seen it on a million Instagram Stories, but as guests made their way into Aaron Esh’s AW24 show, they were greeted by a crystal bowl filled with Marlboro Golds. Served with glasses of champagne, they harked back to chic London Fashion Weeks of old, when editors puffed on cigs inside before the smoking ban ruined it all. All the more fitting then, that guests were standing in Sarabande HQ, a design foundation set up by a figurehead of that same era, the late Alexander McQueen.

The cigs set the tone for the show to come, one of party girl undoneness, but elegant insouciance. “This collection is about something instinctual,” read the show notes, like “weather and morning commutes and damp pavements, not an artificial reality.” Models came out wearing cummerbunds fashioned onto Topshop-esque skinny jeans, smudged eye make-up and intimidating stilettos, while new AE logo hoodies and beanies were casually contrasted with tailored overcoats. Couture-grade tailoring was a focal point of most of the collection, offset with big sunnies or baseball caps, like models were protecting themselves from the elements on a 5am walk of shame. Unlike a lot of designers at the moment, Esh isn’t concerned with screens or algorithms, but the real-life manoeuvres of London’s coolest kids.

CHET LO’S TERRACOTTA TEARS

When models emerged onto the runway for Chet Lo’s AW24 showcase, their faces were stained with a single tear on each cheek. No, these weren’t the results of any backstage spats, but looks crafted by Isamaya Ffrench in iridescent silver to give the illusion of cascading tears. The accompanying collection, Terracotta, was based on Lo’s childhood fascination with the Terracotta Army, commissioned by the first emperor of a unified China, and discovered 2,000 years later, their original lacquered colours faded to dusty orange. This season, Lo is imagining that his models are the Terracotta Army, reincarnated and come back to life. “That’s why we had the metallic tears too,” he said in an interview. “This idea of them kind of cracking and melting.”

All cracked red leather and military shoulder pads, the first look of the collection was a faithful entryway into Lo’s Terracotta world. From here, the designer’s signature spiked garments came out in force, lending themselves perfectly to the armoured theme. The spikes came on the hood of a grey mini dress, the shoulders of a black shrug and even a full body onesie-cum-dressing gown that totally encased its model. Large sequins on a tank top and evening gown also added to the military theme, but it was the silver knit dresses, cut so finely they resembled chainmail, that were the crowning glory of the collection.

THE SYMBOLIC KNITWEAR AT AHLUWALIA

For Priya Ahluwalia, AW24 was about stories. “Reveries is dedicated to the trading of wisdom found in the old Indian and Nigerian folklore and fairytales,” the designer laid out in notes before the show began. Contemporary artists who explore myth in their work were heavily researched, like Jayasri Burman from New Delhi or Kelechi Nwaneri from Nigeria. Uli, tattoo-like designs drawn onto the skin of Igbo people, was also a source of inspiration, as were Indian gods and the bird, moon and crown symbols that traditionally illustrate their legacies.

The collection that followed was explorative and mystical, rich with vibrant hues and ostentatious drapery. The designer’s themes were most vividly transferred in the collection’s knitwear, which featured the aforementioned Uli and Indian symbols. A crimson and blue collared cardigan featured artistic interpretations of those symbols, in free form strokes brushed across felted yarn. Elsewhere, the same design came on a knitted mini-dress, while it also appeared in amber and green on a vest, corset top and wrap-around mini skirt.

MASHA POPOVA WANTS YOU TO DIG OUT YOUR JEGGINGS

While Masha Popova’s first two runway collections gorged themselves on Y2K nostalgia, for AW24, the Ukrainian-born designer took a quick sojourn into the 2010s. It’s a period that “defined her formative teenage years,” according to the show notes, and this was realised in clashing animal prints, wet-look Ugg boots and chunky jewellery that you might find at Monsoon. Elsewhere, denim came slashed or sprayed in different hues, while tie-dye t-shirts slid unceremoniously off shoulders – but there was one particular avatar of the 2010s that stood out. It may be controversial, but Popova is making a case to bring back jeggings. At one hallowed time in British history, the jean-legging dominated high-streets and shopping centres alike, bursting onto the scene in all their flammable, nylon glory. This season, Popova gives the jegging a fashion makeover, scrawling them with barbed wire doodles and styling them with chunky flip-flops. Grab your McQueen skull scarves and Jeffrey Campbell Litas – the 2010s are back baby!

SAUL NASH WOULD RATHER BE AT THE CLUB

Saul Nash’s cult activewear found a home in London’s It-crowd, so it makes sense he’d want to transition to the club. “Dress Codes was inspired by garage culture and nightlife,” the designer told Dazed, backstage at his AW24 show. “Growing up in my household, my older brother was an MC, and whenever you would go to clubs it would say ‘No hoods, no hats and no trainers’. It really inspired me to think about a way to move my activewear into a space where I could wear it when I go out as well.”

For the following show, Nash fully transformed his catwalk into a club. Dancers flitted across the space to a soundtrack mixed by Cktrl, British rapper Envy took up MC duties, while classic garage tracks like Oxide & Neutrino’s “Bound 4 da Reload” thudded through the soundsystem. Signature Nash silhouettes emerged on the runway, but were given a new lease of life for this party-ready scene.

Anoraks were sprayed with Acid House smilies, red silk shirts were paired with smart loafers, while Jourdan Dunn closed in a netted shotta bag with sunglasses on her head. The grey muscle tops adorned with undressed men were probably Nash’s most explicitly queer pieces to date, the cherry on top of a slick and sexy collection that never tried too hard.

PAOLO CARZANA’S PILE OF CLOTHES

Paolo Carzana is on a journey. Career-wise, the Welsh designer won a Kering/BFC scholarship for an MA at Saint Martins, is a semi-finalist in the 2024 LVMH Prize, and also has the BFC’s NEWGEN division funding his shows. For this season’s show, however, the journey was metaphorical. Titled Melanchronic Mountain, Carzana’s AW24 show was about a symbolic climb, inspired by trials of modern life. “Everyone around is feeling a lot in this moment, the way the world is,” he said in an interview before the show, adding that “it’s so hard to try and be positive, but we can.”

Models first emerged onto the catwalk in ragged tops and skirts, indicating the road that they’d travelled was unsafe. Then came headdresses by Nazir Mazhar, artfully piled for protection, while bare feet were smudged with silver paint in some sort of ritualistic act. But rather than the garments becoming more threadbare to suggest an uphill battle, models became swaddled in even more clothes. One standout look consisted of pink and yellow cotton shirts tied around a torso, while a hulking white overcoat was layered on top. The road ahead might be treacherous, but Paolo Carzana’s clothes are here to keep you safe.

YUHAN WANG REIMAGINES RUTH

Though she may have been a revered Supreme Court Justice, the name Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t conjure much high-fashion fantasy to mind. Despite this, Yuhan Wang decided to devote her AW24 collection to the figurehead, along with other women in the legal space. According to its shownotes, The Trials “pays homage to prominent female figures in the legal arena who have played pivotal roles in shaping history”, such as Ginsburg, Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve in the US Supreme Court, and Lady Brenda Hale, the ‘Spider Woman’ former-President of the British Supreme Court.

On the runway, legal signifiers from the courtroom world were melded with Wang’s hyper-femme aesthetic. A judge’s gown came in black, sheer lace, while the bands worn around lawyers necks were reimagined in white doily. Elsewhere, briefcases were wrapped in pretty lace ribbons, skirt suits came with crop top blazers, and hair was piled to look like a barrister’s wig. For Wang, reimagining Ruth was all about “honour(ing) the women who have courageously advanced the world towards a brighter and more equitable tomorrow”. While we don’t think Ruth would’ve worn lace stockings and suspenders to court, it’s gratifying to watch Wang find inspiration in these unlikely places.

ANCUTA SARCA’S HOT HONEY BOOTS

Dazed 100 alum Ancuta Sarca makes shoes for It-girls. Rihanna, Rosalía and Bella Hadid have all been spotted in her styles over the years, and she’s even had her own personal shout-out from Cher. Sarca’s shoes are often sneaker-heel hybrids crafted from upcycled football studs, or fur and denim booties made from factory offcuts, but they always have sustainability at their heart. This season, the designer expanded those staple styles, and did so in an airport lounge – because what’s more It-girl than flitting between fashion capitals at the drop of a hat?

At the presentation, models in hoodies and cycling shorts lounged in the faux waiting room wearing a selection of the new styles. There was a bowling bag in lacquered red, micro-handbags repurposed from hoodies, and a red sandal with deep grooves all along its straps. Elsewhere, the classic slingbacks returned, this time in a webbed, silver iteration, but it was a pair of golden boots that caused the biggest stir. Christened on Instagram afterwards as the ‘HONEY BOOT’, the pair came in a glassy mustard colour, with Sarca’s signature logo hardware tacked on the front. If the comments are anything to go by, the girls will be fighting when they finally hit the shelves.

LABRUM DOCUMENTS THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE

LABRUM London creative director Foday Dumbaya has always documented the immigrant experience. He gives his shows names like Freedom of Movement or Poetics of Movement, and even had one in the bustling halls of Brixton Village. This season, however, Dumbaya honed in on the actual documents that make up immigrant life, presenting an AW24 showcase that was chock-full of them.

First there were the show notes, made to look like a west African newspaper called ‘Labrum Tribune’, announcing the collection Journey of Colours. In the notes Dumbaya celebrated the “diverse and vibrant cultures brought by immigrants when they traverse the globe.” Then came the collection, its central print a copper-toned fabric with ‘LABRUM’ passports dotted across it, one that covered shirts, tunics and overcoats. This was soon followed by a look constructed entirely of vintage aeroplane tickets, a huge tasselled cloak of boarding passes that read ‘Air Sahara’ or ‘Air Afrique’. The documents are worn proudly throughout the collection, and in drawing our attention to them Dumbaya reminds us of how far immigrants have come, both figuratively and literally.

THE XL SHROOM PUFFERS AT HOLZWEILER

As guests made their way into the Tate Britain for Holzweiler’s show, they were met by shredded twine hanging from the ceiling, bunched together like a living organism. This was because its AW24 collection, Mycelia, was born from “the natural landscapes of the brand’s native Norway,” particularly the “constellation-like threads of mycelium” below the forest floor, which are the life-sustaining root system of fungi and mushrooms. Maria Skappel Holzweiler’s fascination began in childhood when her family would forage for mushrooms, and that obsession now transfers to this season’s clothes.

The most striking way that this happened was through the collection’s voluminous outerwear. “Sculptural puffer jackets recall more unusual formations of fungi,” said the show notes, just before the first model entered the runway wearing an inverted XL puffer in grey-ish blue. More puffers continued to come down the catwalk, some engorged even larger, others rendering in sleeveless gilet style, but all in the same dusky greys, blues and purples. This was, until, two thirds of the way through the palette darkened, and the shroom puffers arrived in black or with abstract squiggles all over (probably one of those wild mushrooms you shouldn’t eat). After a quick dip into a series of printed dresses and smart outerwear, the final look emerged on the runway – a hulking purple puffer, and the final boss of Holzweiler’s XL mushroom coats.

TALIA BYRE IS SETTING 60s GIRL GROUPS FREE

Talia Byre’s show locations always feel pared back and personal, in comparison to the usual ballrooms and breweries of London Fashion Week. For SS23, she set up shop in Sweetings, a lunchtime institution in Mansion House, and the following spring she was in Tenderbooks Soho, models sauntering between the stacked shelves. This season, Byre invited friends of the brand to her studio in London Fields for Told You So, named after The Shangri-Las’ 1964 hit “Hate To Say I Told You So.” The collection was made after countless hours of listening to 60s girl groups like The Shangri-Las, Ronettes and Crystals in the studio. The resulting clothes were, according to Byre, “a maximalist response” to the music, after the designer “started to look deeper into the influence of control on [the girl groups’] imagery and aesthetic.”

Those kinds of 60s groups are known for their tightly controlled images and near identical aesthetics, but this season, Byre sets those women free. A zebra/cow-print hybrid adorned a skirt, which was paired with diagonally striped knitwear; blood-red office clothes were shown alongside a spotted knitted dress, while more stripes and exploded houndstooth were seen throughout. Despite the clashing prints, there’s still a certain amount of cohesion to the 16 looks, something any girl group would need. Some pieces are repeated and reused for multiple outfits, and why not – this is how the clothing would actually be used. From the electric blue pant suit to the cow-hide bomber, there’s an unabashed freedom to Byre’s clothes this season, apparent to all who were invited into her personal little world.

SUPRIYA LELE IS FEELING BLUE

Of the 24 looks in Supriya Lele’s AW24 collection, two of them immediately stood out, for obvious reasons. While the designer’s typically sensual clothes came in a palette of blacks, greys and creams, look 16 was a strapless bodycon dress in opalescent blue, while the penultimate outfit was a blue translucent minidress, a nod to the plastic garments of her graduate collection. The looks were inspired by William Gass’s 1976 philosophical text On Being Blue, where he “explores the symbolic roots of the colour blue, from sex to sleaze to sadness,” according to Lele’s show notes.

In the text, Gass describes blue as “the colour of interior life,” adding that whether it be “slick light sharp high bright thin quick sour new and cool or low deep sweet dark soft slow smooth heavy old and warm: blue moves easily among them all, and all profoundly qualify our states of feeling.” These words ended up informing Lele’s collection, and not just the two blue looks, but her entire “experimental interpretation of texture” throughout. The translucent plastic dress appeared again, this time in rust, while bouncy faux-fur coats and intricate lace tights clasped models bodies. The collection seemed to be about how different textures and colours make the body feel, all overseen by Lele’s impeccable taste and keen eye for detail.

BEEP BEEP, THE SRVC BUS IS COMING

Founded by Ricky Wesley Harriott in 2021, SRVC was created to arm the urban women with a wardrobe to slay in the big city. For AW24, entitled Human Resource, Harriott took on the dreary morning commute, reimagining a journey into work after returning from a tropical retreat and “how we armour ourselves to face the day.” Taking over three double decker buses that were parked outside Bloomsbury’s Stewart House, guests piled into the seats while models paraded the aisles sporting the new collection.

A blend of masculine and feminine silhouettes, boxy tailored jackets and outerwear were cinched and spliced up to the thigh, while traditional workwear materials were fashioned into sexy shirt dresses. Elsewhere, models still in holiday mode donned barely-there bralettes and midriff-exposing knitwear that would give Karen from Finance a scare at the photocopier. “What is important to me is making women feel really strong and defiant,” the designer shared following the show.

CHOPOVA LOWENA SET SAIL

Forgoing the newly revived Yeehaw Agenda, instead for AW24 Chopova Lowena designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons were more interested in the Yo Ho Agenda. Setting sail across the seven seas, their off-schedule lookbook opened with Pablo Neruda’s poem Here I Love You which muses on being separated from your loved one by the vast expanse of the ocean. The design duo were initially inspired by the maritime mood after moving into a brand new studio in Deptford overlooking the River Thames.

Landing in the 1940s, the pair drew inspiration from images of wartime couples, designing their own version of camo for cozy fleeces and sailor collar shirts as a nod to military uniforms. Elsewhere classic silhouettes were given the brand’s folkloric twist created from organic Bulgarian cotton and deadstock fur the duo sourced. Trinkets and treasures decorate skirts and dresses, and like a modern locket heart-shaped cutouts were heartwarmingly adorned with photographs from Chopova’s grandparents’ wedding. “There is something very romantic in sailing and I love the whole aesthetic of it – the boats, the sails, the outfits,” Chopova told AnOther. “There’s so much amazing hardware and really cool ideas in it, little things that go together. All the things I love made it into the collection in some way.”

JAWARA ALLEYNE BRAVED THE STORM 

For AW24, Jawara Alleyne was feeling reflective. Revisiting the traumatic experience he endured in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit his home in the Cayman Islands, the former Fashion East designer wanted to highlight the impact of the natural disaster. Entitled Eye of the Storm, the collection was presented in Holborn’s St Mary Le Strand church with models clutching their clothing as they sauntered between the pews, while others held spools of rope. 

As well as featuring Alleyne signatures – think punk cut-and-paste clothing, safety-pinned together and masterful drapery – the designer worked with three students from Ark Burlington Danes Academy, with Konstantinos Slouzi’s textile designs making the final runway edit. Elsewhere, washed-out blues, greens, and whites referenced the work of Caymanian artist Bendel Hydes and accessories crafted from pieces of driftwood nodded to salvaging in the aftermath. Despite all the destruction, Alleyne remained optimistic. Pure, innocent, and dressed in a white mesh dress, his hopeful bride strode on, leaving the storm behind her.