Joshua Ewusie was the breakout star of London Fashion Week

There aren’t many people I’d get two trains, a DLR and a single-decker bus for – in the pouring rain and during a tube strike – but Joshua Ewusie happens to be the first. Contactless card in hand, I brave the journey from Dazed’s central London office to Ewusie’s Docklands studio. The 27-year-old designer is about to be London Fashion Week’s latest debutante, showing his first-ever on-schedule collection in a couple of days time. “I still don’t think it’s fully hit,” says Ewusie, sitting behind his desk. “We’re on a good track. Every day there’s something to do, but I’m not trying to get too stressed about it just yet.”

Born and raised in west London to Ghanaian parents, Ewusie studied Fashion Design with Marketing at Central Saint Martins for his bachelors, completing a six-month placement at JW Anderson before graduating in 2022. From there, the designer was immediately accepted into the university’s prestigious MA programme, with funding and scholarship support from the British Fashion Council and Chanel, plus a mentor in Karl Lagerfeld’s longtime muse Amanda Harlech. After seeing what he could do with leather, Chanel also provided Ewusie with the materials for his clothes, as well as the two-year lease on a post-uni studio space.

The following graduate collection, called You Don’t Fear the Cold, was conceptualised around “my sister going clubbing, and wearing these very short dresses in the winter, and being obsessed with her and her friends going out”. Presented alongside his classmates in February 2024, the collection separated Ewusie as a singular talent, showcasing his abilities in artisanal leatherwork, but also constructing a cast of cool, unbothered urbanites. Shortly after, for an appearance on US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the stylist Harry Lambert dressed Emma Corrin in Ewusie’s finale look, an intricately bugle-beaded minidress that could’ve been the output of any heritage house.

“I finished my MA and thought ‘what am I doing now? There’s nothing to do’,” says Ewusie, reflecting on that period of time. Eventually, the lull led to a kernel of inspiration, which grew into his SS26 EWUSIE collection. “It was summer at the time, and it made me remember summers in London growing up, not having much to do,” he continues. “When I was trying to remember that time, I remember being in these areas that were quiet and very green, but then they would be surrounded by a motorway, or high rise buildings.” With a dearth of his own images to refer to from that time, Ewusie sought out the work of others. That was when Shining Lights fell into his lap, an anthology of Black women photographers from 80s and 90s Britain. “The book was edited by Joy Gregory, but she was highlighting other photographers like Eileen Perrier,” says Ewusie. “I really liked how important they thought it was to document their own experiences, because they saw value in them, and understood they needed to be documented. A lot of their images helped to start the collection, through colour palette and the idea of childhood.”

Using Perrier’s images as a jumping off point, Ewusie conceived a collection that imagined a day-in-the-life of the EWUSIE woman, debuting in September at London Fashion Week. In the cavernous basement of NEWGEN’s show space, the presentation’s focal point was a long, blue table which models sat at, walked beside, and strutted across. “We wanted the table to represent the outdoor third space, like green spaces in London,” said the designer. “I wanted the table to be communal and a community.” Ewusie worked with set designers Cassandra Adjei and Matthew Hearn⁠ for an aesthetic that would “reflect this woman we’re describing – basically her day in 24 hours.” Looks included a halterneck dress made from a thick leather weave; a laser cut leather mini skirt; a kente cloth mini dress, resist-dyed with indigo to create a pointillist pattern; another minidress, this time a blue, silk jersey one knotted at the back; plus a laser cut bralette with the Ghanaian Nsubura pattern etched into it. “​​I didn’t want to make too big of a collection,” said Ewusie of the ten outfits. “I’m not competing with the bigger brands with the number of looks, so it’s really key what each one says.”

I’m proud to be from those areas of London that aren’t really highlighted, but if you’re from London you love and adore them – Joshua Ewusie

Also in the collection, a garment that’s become somewhat of a hero piece was a graphic t-shirt with the words ‘Welcome to Lewisham’ printed on it, in reference to the London borough – but flanked by two palm trees and rendered in an ocean blue. Ewusie posted the cotton t-shirt on Instagram weeks before its debut at LFW, and it immediately stuck out as a red herring among his output. “I wanted to release the collection almost like how an artist releases an album, and have singles to build up and tell the story,” says the designer of his social media strategy. “I wanted to put the t-shirt out before because I think it’s a bit different to what people maybe think of me.” Though originally from Shepherd’s Bush, Ewusie’s Docklands studio is just across the river from Greenwich, while the laser cutters and screen printers he uses are both in Lewisham – so he’s getting used to life as a south-east London boy. “Being from west, when someone says they’re going to Lewisham you’d be like ‘oh, that’s so far away’, so [the t-shirt] was being funny.”

Not only was the garment an ironic reference to Lewisham as some far-off, tropical land, but it was also inspired by what Ewusie refers to as “faux-tropicalism”. For the designer, the aesthetic encompasses things like souvenir t-shirts covered in cartoon beaches, or the tropical background you might use on a Zoom call, or fake palm trees in a dingy travel agents’ office. “It’s the idea of being in a hot place, but you’re actually just drawing a really happy cartoon of it,” he says. While a fun visual gag, the merging of Lewisham with the “faux-tropical” aesthetic seems to speak to something deeper, mainly the ways in which certain Londoners must romanticise their surroundings to survive. The young Ewusie did it, playing in those green spaces as a child, surrounded by a concrete jungle – and many others do it too. Maybe the designer is hinting at the complex feelings inhabitants have about the capital, a place that they know is not a paradise, but continue to imagine is one out of love. “For me, whether it’s Lewisham or Shepherd’s Bush, the people that you see there, that’s what London is,” says Ewusie. “The t-shirt celebrates that side of London. I’m from there, I’m proud to be from those areas of London that aren’t really highlighted, but if you’re from London you love and adore them. That’s what the t-shirt was about.”

Like many in his line of work, Ewusie’s upbringing is a central part of his practice. As well as outside work such as Perrier’s, research includes collating family photographs from his childhood, or exploring Ghanaian fabric work. “I always do look at West African culture, but in a weird way it’s already very innate,” says the designer. “I’ll find a pattern and think, ‘oh, that textile was on this leather pouffe that my mum got from Ghana.’ I’ll do a bit more research into that textile, but maybe mix it with traditional embroidery from a vintage dress from the 50s.” This mixing is also another prominent aspect of Ewusie’s work, the product of a childhood spent on a cultural faultline. Whether it’s the “faux-tropical” Lewisham tee or kente cloth recontextualised for the club, Ewusie sets out to explore the positive and negative effects of two cultures coexisting. “When I talk to friends from any different background, we can all relate to the struggles of maybe having traditional parents, but also growing up in London and what that entails,” he says “and my work documents that. My MA started that, and this collection it’s more fleshed out.”

After his LFW presentation is over, Ewusie embraces his collaborators backstage, like the collection’s stylist Feranmi Eso, and textile designer Julia Dotson. After securing a place on the BFC’s NEWGEN scheme, and the house of Chanel firmly in his corner, Ewusie seems more than primed for success. When the designer mentions that, after graduation, the Chanel team – who he refers to as “family” – plainly asked him ‘what do you want to do?’, I ask if the option included nabbing him for their own atelier. Ewusie laughs coyly, as if embarrassed to say yes, but instead replies diplomatically: “I think both their brand and my work is a lot about craftsmanship, and really highlighting and appreciating the labour behind beautiful things.”

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for Ewusie’s entire SS26 debut.