The future of London Fashion Week has been brought into question in recent years, though this season, it seemed brighter than ever. Following a series of announcements from the British Fashion Council’s new CEO, Laura Weir – for example, BFC designers will no longer have to pay a fee to show their collections, and scholarship funding will be increased – hope and positivity were the latest autumn trends. 

A fresh cohort of NEWGEN designers brought an injection of energy too: from Oscar Ouyang’s poultry-inspired knitwear, to Joshua Ewusie’s tribute to the lesser celebrated London boroughs. Former Dazed cover stars Naomi Campbell, Alex Consani and Amelia Gray all made appearances on the catwalk, meanwhile US rapper Cortisa Star opened for Conner Ives, who dedicated his collection to the trans community after announcing that his viral Protect the Dolls t-shirt has raised over half a million dollars for charity. 

Elsewhere, Burberry turned a corner of Hyde Park into Glastonbury (Glaston-Burberry if you like), with a glitzy front row that included a very special Ab Fab reunion. But beyond the shows that cause social media frenzies (see Dilara Fındıkoğlu, Simone Rocha, Fashion East, Aaron Esh and Chopova Lowena), there’s likely a few that you missed. Below, we roundup the SS26 London Fashion Week shows that may have slipped under the radar.

YAKU

For his latest LFW presentation, Yaku Stapleton picked up where last season left off. Since his Saint Martins days, the designer has constructed characters within a familial narrative, and for SS26 that narrative continued. This season, The ImPossible Family Reunion entered chapter six, which was titled A Ground To Stand On – and characters in the YAKU universe were leaving Tutorial Island to explore the wider world. “Our sixth season represents a step toward focus and refinement – grounded yet expressive. Textile choices and surface treatments – camouflage, armour, and elemental textures – become portals into our narrative, with dyeing and printing serving as extensions of the story itself,” said the show notes. During the presentation, models danced into the space wearing Stapleton’s most clarified collection to date. After the presentation, Stapleton told us that, in previous seasons he had tried to do too much, and this time he’d honed down the amount of looks, which seems to be working very well.

AHLUWALIA

After sitting out last season and presenting her collection digitally, Priya Ahluwalia returned to London Fashion Week – and a grand return it was. Setting up shop in London’s NoMad hotel, guests descended into the glamorous glass-roofed atrium, whose tables and chairs had been cleared to make way for white benches denoting a catwalk. “This season, creative director Priya Ahluwalia reflects on how love is expressed, celebrated, and remembered across cultures and generations, examining the ways in which it lifts us to euphoric heights while grounding us in its raw, visceral intensity,” read the show notes. On the runway, Ahluwalia presented her most lyrical and refined collection yet. Fringe layers swished from black blazers, satin and chiffon hugged the body, while evening gowns were both glamorous and youthful. The designer also continued to focus on sustainability, partnering with eBay’s Endless Runway to incorporate “pre-loved materials” into the collection.

STEFAN COOKE

Rather than hosting a presentation or catwalk, Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt of Stefan Cooke hosted an intimate drinks reception in Covent Garden’s Tenderbooks. It was all the more fitting, as their SS26 was inspired by retail spaces as environments that “harbour new subcultures.” The independently owned Tenderbooks is a place that has fostered a community since its 2014 opening, and so has Jake’s, the retail space set up by Cooke and Burt last year. “Since opening a shop in November last year, retail culture has been something we’ve thought a lot about, and have a vested interest in,” read the collection notes for SS26. “We’ve seen first-hand that you can create a real community within a retail space and that develops into a language in culture.” For the clothes, the pair revisited house codes while also creating a new set of retail-dwelling characters. Plucking inspiration from the cult 1980s Canadian brand Parachute and the photography of Amy Arbus, the men wore pleated skirts and screen-printed tops, while the women wore straight-cut denim and ruched yellow tops.

JOHANNA PARV

As guests exited Johanna Parv’s SS26 show on Sunday morning, an editor in the crowd could be heard loudly reviewing the collection with a friend. “Power lesbians!” was the conclusion he came to, and he wasn’t entirely wrong. In an interview with Dazed from last year, Parv described exactly who her clothes are for: “Masculine, androgynous women. Some people say, ‘Johanna likes to go for the lesbians!’” Her most recent show was no exception, staying true to her house codes – tight, adjustable lycra, minimalist and made to be moved in. Her pieces are often designed with the busy morning commute in mind and are made for women who have to jump from bicycle to office, to evening drinks. When in the past she added jolts of lime green and bright lavender to her shows, this season was all about blood red and sage. During the finale, the models reemerged by chaotically dashing around the show space in different directions – recreating the tube at rush hour. Two models walked hand in hand, one in black and one in white, almost like a Johanna Parv lesbian wedding. 

TOLU COKER

If we’re counting correctly, Naomi Campbell has made four appearances this London Fashion Week. First, she opened Richard Quinn’s SS26 show on Saturday, she walked for Dilara Fındıkoğlu on Sunday, and she sat front row at Burberry yesterday evening. Her starring role, however, was during Tolu Coker’s presentation on Sunday afternoon, featuring in a short film directed by Coker and her brother Ade. A tribute to mothers everywhere, Campbell narrates the film by reflecting on her own journey with motherhood. “I’m just a mum, that’s how I think of myself today,” says Campbell. “Those who know me know that I have a childlike way about me, those who know me also know that I’m shy. But those who know me, know more than anything in the world, that what I wanted to be was a mother.” As the super model talks, she wears an elegant, earth-toned suit, before she’s joined by a series of models wearing powder blue two-pieces, playful checkered mid-dresses, luscious brown leather suits and puffball sleeves.

CHARLIE CONSTANTINOU

Last December, it was predicted that medieval-core would be a key trend of 2025. Nine months into the year and that prediction might finally be coming true. Medieval-inspired looks were seen at both Dilara Fındıkoğlu and Yuhan Wang’s SS26 shows, while in the same weekend, Isla Johnston was unveiled as the leading lady in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Joan of Arc movie. Then, on Monday (September 22), Charlie Constantinou delivered his SS26 show, drawing from medieval Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. Constantinou has always taken a shine to very old things (fossilised rocks or Cypriot artefacts, for example), so it’s no wonder he eventually turned to the medieval. Exaggerated shoulders were made to look like armour, meanwhile arms had been smeared with silver spray paint and metallic fabric wrapped around the knees. It was a darker, moodier collection than anything Constantinou has shown before, though it brightened with turquoise and indigo towards the end. Satisfyingly and similarly to his previous finales, the models took their final turn of the catwalk in groups divided into colour palette. 

LABRUM LONDON

Labrum’s Foday Dumbuya certainly knows how to put on a spectacle. Whether he’s taking over Arsenal’s Emirates stadium or Abbey Road studios, he’s always got a trick up his sleeve. Set inside Westminster’s Methodist Central Hall, this season’s spectacle came via performances from Obongjayar, Odumodublvck, Tawiah, Che Lingo and Julianknxx. The 45-minute show seemed to unfold in chapters, with live music performances breaking up the different groups of looks. That said, sometimes fashion and music became one, with the musicians serenading models as they walked. Titled Osmosis, Labrum’s SS26 offering was based on ideas of cultural osmosis, continuing his ongoing relationship with movement while weaving in West African references such as the Cowrie shell. For a show that didn’t finish until well after 10pm on the second day of LFW, it still managed to move several editors to tears. 

PAULINE DUJANCOURT

Pauline Dujancourt’s SS26 show was an emotional tribute to a close friend who suddenly passed away while she was designing the collection. Upon arrival, guests were handed crocheted brooches in the shape of birds – the designer had knitted 450 of them to symbolise her friend’s transition into the next world. The clothes themselves came in Victorian mourning colours: black, white, mauve, lavender and grey, with some deep cerulean woven in too. As well as honouring her friend, the bird has been a frequent motif in Dujancourt’s work, with this collection titled ‘I am the seagull... No, that’s not it’, a quote from Chekhov’s 1896 play, The Seagull. The play’s protagonist, Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya, is a character that the designer finds strength in. “I identify deeply with Nina’s resilience,” explained Dujancourt, “and with her discovery that, despite the hardest times, expressing creativity is a joy and a strength.”