Ironically, Martine Rose’s recent return to London Fashion Week after a season in Milan wasn’t really a return to London Fashion Week – as we know, the men’s June shows are no more. Despite that small setback, the London designer was home, so there was lots to celebrate. Taking over a multi-storey office space on Marylebone’s Lisson Grove, the location was the site of a former job centre, transformed into a Parisian salon for SS26. Here’s everything that went down at the show.

MARTINE’S MAKESHIFT MARKET

Before guests made their way up the battered staircase to this season’s runway, they were led into a sprawling room filled with 22 vendors, all flogging some very distinct wares. The makeshift market included fashion designers like Jawara Alleyne and Cecile Tulkens, photographers Jamien Morgan and Roxy Lee, artists Ella Lynch and Yaz XL, plus booksellers, record labels and indie fashion mags. Since the beginning of her career, Martine Rose shows have never just been about fashion, but fostering and supporting her creative community, and this market was yet another expression of that. “The market celebrates the community spirit so characteristic to London,” read the show notes, “and the local heroes who contribute to cultural life.”

THE JOB CENTRE, SALON-STYLE

Once the time came, guests trudged upwards to what would have been the locus of the job centre – three large, interconnected rooms joined by two slender doorways, with styrofoam ceiling squares and sunlight spilling through metal blinds. Despite those few original features, that’s where the similarities to the original space ended – sweeping satin curtains and parquet floors turned the once unassuming office into a Parisian salon. Described as a “derelict job centre” in the show notes, its transformation spoke to Rose’s democratic ideals, drawing our minds to those who are able to access and enjoy, say, Haute Couture in Paris, but also Rose’s desire to disrupt that system, too.

A FAMILIAL FROW

What makes Rose’s shows special is their refusal to abide by fashion’s haughtier contrivances, despite the designer’s adoration by those who uphold those standards. There’s no better place to witness that refusal than Rose’s front row, where friends and family sit next to editors and actors, and models and DJs smile as small children chase each other down. This season included guests like A$AP Nast, TikTok commentator Lyas (fresh from modelling for Charles Jeffrey at Abbey Road), plus Brit models Alva Claire and Kai-Isaiah Jamal – but it was the designer’s own family, some in pieces we were about to see on the runway, that stole the frow.

HIGH STREET, BUT MAKE IT FASHION

If you hadn’t cottoned on from the market of curiosities downstairs, SS26 was all about the local high streets of London and paying homage to the people keeping them alive. For those keeping track, Rose’s AW25 collection – presented via lookbook in January – was also indebted to the market trader, so this current offering served as a spiritual sequel, explored much further and deeper than the first time around. On the runway, models clasped at trompe l’oeil bags made to look like crumpled envelopes, a chartreuse women’s t-shirt came with built-in bra cups made from bum bags for holding loose change, while printed trousers inspired by juice carton packaging paid homage to newsagents.

A NEW TAKE ON SHAPEWEAR?

In the backstage scrum after the show, Rose darted out to briefly talk to the press, and while there revealed that some of the tighter-fitting silhouettes on offer were actually her reaction to the ubiquity of shapewear, perhaps from a certain Kardashian-led megabrand. “I was exploring this new shrunken silhouette. Everything feels a bit cinched, a bit too tight, slightly awkward, but somehow still sexy I hope,” said the designer. “ [The collection] was exploring new volumes, with the very long shoes and the shrunken jackets, and things that are really suctioned to the body. It was my version of the new shapewear across different categories.”

MARTINE LOVES A REBEL

When invitations were sent out a couple of days before the catwalk, a single instruction in bold, black lettering stuck out at the bottom of the email: ‘No phone usage or filming during the show.’ Though it may seem quite stern on the surface, the rule was never meant to limit guests’ freedoms, but liberate them from the confines of an iPhone screen. “I’m not really one for rules. I didn’t want people to feel like they can’t do anything,” Rose said backstage when we asked her about the instruction. “But I wanted people to just join me for ten minutes – and that was it. Just being present for that ten minutes really contributes much more to the atmosphere.” But did that mean the designer was peeved when people inevitably whipped out their phones to record anyway? “I don’t want to tell people off,” she said with a smile. “I’m glad people broke the rules, because that’s what they should be doing!” It’s no surprise here, but Martine Rose clearly loves a rebel.

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for Rose’s entire SS26 collection