This is Issue 34.

ALEXANDER McQUEEN COMES HOME

Alexander McQueen returned to London Fashion Week for the first time in 25 years, bringing the house back to the city that shaped both its founder and its original identity. Under creative director Seán McGirr, the homecoming became an opportunity to reconnect the contemporary McQueen with its own history without simply reproducing the past. McGirr looked toward the archives and London’s creative culture while also reconnecting with figures closely associated with the house, including jeweller Shaun Leane. The significance of the show extended beyond the collection itself. McQueen was born from London’s ability to turn rebellion, subculture and experimentation into fashion, and its return places that relationship back at the centre of the conversation. For McGirr, it also marks another step in establishing his own interpretation of the house while acknowledging the creative world from which it emerged.

CHRISTOPHER KANE × MULBERRY

Christopher Kane made his return to the London fashion conversation through Mulberry, presenting his first collection for the British heritage brand after the closure of his namesake label in 2023. Rather than treating Mulberry’s history as something untouchable, Kane approached familiar house codes with the irreverence and unexpected details that have defined his career. The iconic Bayswater was reconsidered alongside new bag shapes, while leather became a space for experimentation rather than simply tradition. The partnership brings together two very different sides of British fashion: Mulberry’s established heritage and Kane’s instinct for transforming familiar ideas into something stranger and more provocative. At a moment when many heritage brands are searching for ways to remain culturally relevant, Kane’s arrival demonstrates how an established identity can evolve through a genuinely distinctive creative voice.

FASHION EAST - THE NEXT GENERATION

Fashion East once again used London Fashion Week to introduce the designers who could shape the city’s next creative chapter. This season brought the debut of Mé Mé alongside returning designers Jacek Gleba and Traiceline Pratt’s Goyagoma, three labels with distinctly different approaches but a shared willingness to experiment outside conventional commercial fashion. Mé Mé arrived through the Central Saint Martins pipeline, while Gleba continued developing his increasingly recognizable design language and Goyagoma expanded a world built around Pratt’s individual perspective. Fashion East has spent decades functioning as one of London’s most important launchpads, previously supporting designers who went on to transform British fashion. Its continued relevance matters at a moment when young independent labels face increasingly difficult economic conditions. London remains compelling precisely because new designers are still given space to experiment before the industry decides what they should become.

FRANCESCA LAKE - WAKE THE TOWN

Francesca Lake emerged as one of London Fashion Week’s notable new voices with “Wake the Town,” a collection that brought her Jamaican heritage into dialogue with historical European dress and contemporary London fashion. Lace, corsetry and crinoline-inspired structures appeared alongside leather and denim, allowing Lake to move between tradition, sensuality and street-level references without reducing the collection to a single cultural influence. Rather than treating heritage as decoration, the designer used it as the foundation for a broader exploration of identity and construction. The result demonstrated why London remains such an important environment for emerging designers: its strongest new voices often come from combining personal histories that traditional fashion categories struggle to contain. With her LFW debut, Lake moves from being a name to watch toward establishing a recognizable world of her own.