Everything you need to see at the rebooted London Fashion Week

While most of us mourn the end of summer 2025, the fashion world has already moved on to next year. The SS26 season began last week in New York, with shows like Collina Strada, Theophilio, Off-White, Sandy Liang and Eckhaus Latta. This Thursday (September 18), all eyes will turn to the UK capital as London Fashion Week SS26 gets underway. In recent years, there’s been a lot of chatter that London has lost its mojo – but this season it’s determined to prove those people wrong. Earlier this summer, the British Fashion Council’s newly appointed CEO Laura Weir announced that designers who are members of the BFC will no longer have to pay a fee to show their collections. She also announced that the BFC would also be increasing its scholarship funding.

For the first time in several years, LFW feels fresh and hopeful, with a new sense of excitement surrounding this week’s shows. Kicking things off on Thursday afternoon will be Saint Martins graduate Maximilian Raynor, followed by H&M’s grand return to the runway. Then, bright and early on Friday morning, the first of this year’s NEWGEN cohort, knitwear designer Oscar Ouyang makes his LFW debut. It might be an early start, but Ouyang is worth it. 

Later that day, fellow NEWGEN designers and new names to know in the jewellery world, The Ouze and Octi both have special presentations planned, meanwhile, the two biggest catwalks of the day will be Fashion East’s 25th anniversary show (check out their Autumn 2025 cover shoot below) and London’s finest Chopova Lowena (who only show once a year).

On Saturday, Yaku Stapleton’s YAKU presentation will no doubt be one to witness, a designer known for bringing his dinocore to the catwalk. Following that, LUEDER and Pauline Dujancourt are the NEWGEN designers to catch that day, while both Ahluwalia and Aaron Esh will return to the schedule after skipping last season in favour of the September shows.

Women designers are the stars of the show on Sunday’s lineup, with the likes of Talia Byre, Johanna Parv, Camille Perry and Holly Wright’s Tove, Ashley Williams, Lucila Safdie, Tolu Coker and Simone Rocha all on the bill. That busy day comes to a close with three highly anticipated shows falling back to back: Paolo Carzana at 7pm, Jawara Alleyne at 8pm and Dilara Fındıkoğlu at 9pm. We suspect Sunday may be a late one.  

After a packed Sunday, things begin to quiet down on Monday – but not before another Saint Martins graduate makes their LFW debut. Joshua Ewusie’s debut on-schedule presentation for his eponymous label EWUSIE begins at 9:30am, plus shows from Charlie Constantinou and Conner Ives, with a renewed focus on the latter due to the runway success of his ‘Protect the Dolls’ t-shirt. As per usual, Burberry closes us out, no doubt bringing in a host of famous faces both on and off the runway. See you Thursday, LFW.

Head to londonfashionweek.co.uk for the full SS26 schedule