What does a sleepy seaside city in northwest Spain have to do with the future of London Fashion Week? Well, it’s the base of Intidex-owned brand Pull&Bear, the official sponsor of LFW and principal partner of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN initiative. A relationship that first began to bloom just over a year ago, the Spanish brand has teamed up with the BFC to support the next crop of emerging talent.

After working with BFC NEWGEN designers Johanna Parv and Chet Lo earlier this year to create their own limited-edition capsule collections, last month, Pull&Bear opened the doors to its A Coruña headquarters, hosting the next cohort of designers for an educational day of business insights and mentorship. The aim of the partnership is to nurture young talent with financial support and showcasing opportunities, while helping them develop critical skills to future-proof their businesses.

Since NEWGEN’s inception in 1993, the fashion showcasing and development initiative has supported the likes of Alexander McQueen, Jonathan Anderson and Grace Wales Bonner, and in May this year, the class of 2025/26 was revealed. On this year’s lineup and joining us in Spain were designers Oscar Ouyang, Ewusie and Eliza Keane, plus jewellery designers Octi and Toby Vernon’s The Ouze.

Between exploring the impressive HQ grounds and the even more impressive canteen selection, the designers each had their work professionally photographed and were interviewed by Dazed – the results of which, you can read below.

OSCAR OUYANG

How would you describe your brand?

Oscar Ouyang: Textural. Craftsmanship. Knitwear. It’s chic, but it has a light twist to it. Menswear while playing with masculinity. Then with an East Asian, Japanese, animé kind of aesthetic to it. I try to make knitwear as modern as possible.

Do you remember the moment you first fell in love with fashion?

Oscar Ouyang: Honestly, at the magazine stand when I was a kid. In China we only had Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, unfortunately I didn't grow up with Dazed. It was all just very glam.

What’s something you’ll take away from visiting the Pull&Bear HQ?

Oscar Ouyang: It’s very interesting to learn about how the team works and their target audiences too. It’s my first time experiencing this type of pace, so it’s interesting to see what research they do and what market they tap into, and how they communicate with their audience.

What can we expect from you during London Fashion Week?

Oscar Ouyang: I really just want to put on a sick, banging show. I’m really happy with the collection I’ve made. We’re still editing it, but it’s a really fabulous collection.

OCTI

How would you describe your brand?

Octi: Everything is designed around nature, particularly patterns and textures around nature. I see nature as always changing, whether it’s erosion, decay or human interaction. So through various processes, like casting from discarded fruit skins or from rocks, I see the pieces as long-lasting preserves of nature.

Was there one moment you fell in love with jewellery?

Octi: I used to raid my mum’s jewellery box as a teenager so I think my love for it has always been very apparent. I taught myself how to make it in lockdown when I started repurposing some of the old pieces that she didn’t want. One of the first things I made was a silver lemon peel ring that wrapped around the finger.

What’s something you’ll take away from visiting the Pull&Bear HQ?

Octi: I think seeing how the teams work together and how they call the different stations islands is really interesting. I love learning about brand partnerships and seeing how design languages can translate into different areas depending on who you work with. Seeing examples of that has been really inspiring.

What can we expect from you during London Fashion Week?

Octi: I’m very excited to be doing a presentation. I play with scale a lot, which is what I’ll do with the presentation too. I want to create an immersive, off-scale space that people can come into and experience on a sensory level.

LIZA KEANE

How would you describe your brand?

Liza Keane: Tension. Thresholds. Polarity.

Was there one moment you fell in love with fashion?

Liza Keane: I remember being really into Tumblr in high school and sort of stumbling into it that way. I have always made things by hand, so I’ve always been interested in shapes and silhouettes on the figure.

What’s something you’ll take away from visiting the Pull&Bear HQ?

Liza Keane: The way that they zero in on the customer. I feel like I could be a little more polished in that department, rather than focusing on really obscure references. Plus how the business revolves around knowing their customer.

What can we expect from you during London Fashion Week?

Liza Keane: I like the idea of pushing one specific button. It’d be fun to piss a lot of people off.

THE OUZE

How would you describe your brand?

Toby Vernon: Jewellery that celebrates the hands of the maker, using 6,000 year old techniques. I like to see evidence of the human hand. The Ouse is named after the river, which runs through my hometown of Lewes.

Was there one moment you fell in love with jewellery?

Toby Vernon: From the first one I made I was immediately hooked. I was in awe that I had made this silver ring, I was taking so many photos, thinking ‘this is so amazing’.

What’s something you’ll take away from visiting the Pull&Bear HQ?

Toby Vernon: A very good team is very important. It’s a huge company, but individually people are very good at their set roles. Basically, work with amazing people.

What can we expect from you during London Fashion Week? 

Toby Vernon: I know it’s cringe to say ‘expect the unexpected’, but people are already assuming one thing, so I think it’s a chance to do the opposite. It’s not going to be about the product, this is a chance to be more conceptual.

EWUSIE

How would you describe your brand? 

Joshua Ewusie: It’s very London, but it celebrates how multicultural London is – it’s a culture in itself. When we try to identify the Ewusie woman, she has references from her own culture but growing up in London has added to that too. 

Was there one moment you fell in love with fashion? 

Joshua Ewusie: I think it was being 12 or 13 years old and first seeing fashion shows on YouTube. I remember seeing that Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton chequerboard show with the escalators. I fell in love with the idea that fashion can be [a way of] storytelling.

What’s something you’ll take away from visiting the Pull&Bear HQ?

Joshua Ewusie: I think it’s amazing how succinct and organised the process is. The direction and the art direction is so clear, I hope to take that with me. Even though it’s a huge company, you can see how well the different departments work together.

What can we expect from you during London Fashion Week?

Joshua Ewusie: I want people to be able to step into my world – with a presentation, I have the opportunity to do that.