At London Fashion Week, Being British Is Back

“When a tree falls into a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does he make a sound?” The publication of the London Fashion Week schedule asked a similar question. Since the calendar of five to four days shrank and British giants were missing, the absence felt deafening. If the conviction in the need to keep it twice a year was shaped online in the city in the city, the comments were much more malignant. “It is getting worse. “Everyone goes from New York to Milan.” “What is the point? All best brands go. “It cannot be denied – the success of the London Fashion Week has the chances: the logistical effects of Brexit, the increasing polarization of the industry between Paris and Milan and the inability to maintain talents. Nevertheless, most people with whom I speak who remember the good old days were not alive to see them. And while the complaint undoubtedly makes fun of, the downfall of the London magnetic train reflects the quality of the design that overlook the talent pool in the city. This season, designer proved the merit of British craftsmanship by doubling its aesthetic tropics.

Central Saint Martins Ma
The season started with the Central Saint Martins Ma Show – the long -time jewel in London crown. For decades, the show has been a northern star for the industry and the program as a breeding area for the biggest names of fashion. During the week, an editor remembered what the show used to be. “In the past, you can see what would happen in the industry next year, based on what you saw on the show. If you have seen minimalism, it would be a minimalist year. “I wonder what she did from this year’s cohort. What have you predicted? Perhaps increased use of AI in the industry – three of the sixteen students used in their final collections. Petra Fagerstrom, who opened the show and won the L’Oréal Pro-Prize, presented the classic 1940s and 50s silhouettes by AI-generated errors. The result was a subversion of tradition that hid classic pictures behind micropacked skirts. Keogh Dewar, the duo, consisting of the student Alison Keogh and Kate Dewar, was based on the essentials of their collection on digital textures. Lurex, latex and lamé were used to create uncanny smoothness. Of course, it would be short -sighted to reduce the show to AI. Some designers used their collections as a mirror for their experiences. For Zihan Liu, her journey through Europe was reflected in summer as a metaphor for freedom. Kelechukwu Mpamaugo examined the duality of her identity – Nigerian and Black Americans – to express the tension between tradition and modernity.

Images with the kind permission of SS Daley.

SS daley
If there is a designer that the youngest graduates from CSM should look up, it is Steven Stokey-Daley. The designer behind SS Daley defines what success means for a young, independent designer. He was not only the winner of the LVMH Prize in 2022, but also four years after his namesake, he became one of the most interesting names in London. This season Daley presented his best collection so far. British archetypes were not only part of the autumn/winter offer 2025, but also the core. Graben coats, Duffle coats, Harrington jackets – Among other English classics – were covered, but never defamed. A coat in a checkered cream, black and red (and a suitable suit) was particularly delicious; A curved, cracker trench coat, delicious. Daley’s British is carefree, even Campy – a Corduroy brown suit was combined with a white shirt, the collar of which came past the model’s waist.

Images with the kind permission of Simone Rocha.

Simone Rocha
Even Simone Rocha exchanged her idiosyncratic femininity for a British imagination. In the Goldschmiedshalle, an opulent palace in the heart of the city, the autumn/winter show of the designer was in the middle of large -scale paintings and impressive chandeliers. Rocha supported her upbringing in Dublin and created a Rolodex of young characters – the rebels, the common girls, the good girls, the rugby boys – all through the delicate vocabulary of the designer. Complete leather looks were sweetened by flowing silhouettes. Lock-and-key housing were decorated neck that have the task of capturing heavy knitons against the body. Fur feed flowed out delicate clothes. Rocha did not dive into childhood or adulthood, but the hover that sits in between. Plüsch were kept after comfort, while it apparently suffocated the necks of the models – Youth is as liberating as restrictive. Rocha led the topic of school uniforms directly to British classics. Graben coats, rugby polos, anoraks – all studied through their precious lens. Hoods that are embellished with oversized crystals and collar that are crusted with pearls. Rocha explored the bud of flowers last season. The function did not change for autumn/winter 2025, only the shape – after all, it is not just flowers that bloom.

Stefan Cooke
“There will be a big cake.” Stefan Cooke delivered the promise in her AW25 invitation. But Louis Thompson’s sweets were hardly the only thing that had together with Jakes, the pop-up shop, in which the loyal participants (I myself have locked) every Saturday as part of the weekend routine Parade. The promotion of the community is often a forced undertaking-one cringey mix of TikToks and fan service regurgitation of archive-sins Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt are not guilty. Autumn/Winter 2025 speaks for the community that they have built. There are aesthetic movements with wrinkles in tight pants and overlapping chains made of geometric leather panels. All progress is made vertical. Surrounded by the candied cherry and almond cake, the cult favorites developed on metal shelves. The famous (and personally coveted) Jacke rock was reinvented. Kashmir dresses were camouflaged as rock-and-invested sets. When the brand grows, your audience is also – or maybe the opposite. It is difficult to say in Stefan Cookes. This season was a final extension to the Womenswear, a way in which they only immersed their toes beforehand. The CO-ED collection does not fluctuate from the strengths of brand-one characteristic attitude to the casual deconstructivism. Vintage silk scarves are cut, newly arranged and patched on Harrington jackets. The British label does not reinvent the wheel, it only turns.

Images with the kind permission of Dilara Findikoglu.

Dilara Findikoglu
When Stefan Cooke refers to London’s craft, Dilara Findikoglu speaks for what some consider the lost underground culture of the city. The last show of the designer took place in a sophisticated church in East London – a real fit for the dramatic dance, which developed inside. This time Findikoglu brought us to an inconspicuous place: a club on the second floor of an apparently empty building. In front of me, Bautista Barilli, co-founder of Opia, explained to the city’s leading Queer Rave Collective that the Blackwandy, red illuminated club, in which we wanted to enter, once years earlier organized a legendary hardcore goth-goth-goth-goth group and is currently organizing a regular sex party. Fashion was examined as a imagination with a craftsmanship that contradicted the industry rules in detail. Where and with who can the craft be climaxed? Findikoglu has a talent for despite. Her visual vocabulary – which can only be described as Gothic, punk and cunt – is a strong contrast to what most do, not only in London, but in the fashion circle as a whole. This year was the inspiration Botticelli’s Venus, a reference that was both taken by a model and literally by a model that wore nothing but a shell and long strands of hair. The explorations with this unconventional material continue in a voluminous, shortened jacket and a pair of braided body suits, one in blonde, another in black. The maritime story was continued in carefully placed, individually drilled mussels in decorated corsets. Safety needles interrupt both the precious corsets and the entire collection. The roughness associated with beauty is not lost, but sanded and polished to meet the quality standard for Findikoglu every season.

Images with the kind permission of Burberry.

Burberry
Daniel Lees Burberry, who served as the last show of the week, reached similarly new heights. In the last seasons, the brand has become a mirror of the criticisms against British fashion. As a premiere British Luxury House, the recent financial (and somewhat creative) Rut of the brand was used as one of the leading arguments against London’s autumn as fashion capital. Daniel Lee has been criticized since his affiliated in 2022 to the fact that he is unable to turn a ship over, the course of which he was not set. Autumn/winter 2025 marks a turning point. When Lee’s mission, in the past, was difficult to understand in the past – in the past – in the political seas what British means – it has made it quite clear this season. Lee looked at the media representation of the country’s identity. The designer Saltburn quoted backstage as inspiration. Ironically, the carefree approach was the reason for his success, in very serious clothes-maybe the least adventurous occupation, which he created during his term. The national, powerful, sounding, emblem-having upper class was regarded as a nominal value without instinct to match intellectualization. Printed Silk Pyjama sets, jacked jackets lined with Schearling, which are reminiscent of hunting clothes, classic trenches that were adorned with curtain tasty-there was an element of satire in what Lee achieved. The coats swept, the Accessoires Equestrian. We can’t ask Burberry much more. Lee seems to have found a way forward. “When a tree falls into a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does he make a sound?” Of course, don’t be idiotic enough to miss it.