Welcome back fashion divas and divos, today we are ‘holding space‘ for what’s to come this LFW! London is about to be a meeting place for all things British heritage, new talent, and some of the most innovative voices in fashion. The season ahead seems especially important; with many of Britain’s most well-known brands returning to the official show schedule (such as McQueen, Burberry and Richard Quinn) as well as emerging designers who continue to grow London’s status as one of the world’s major fashion cities.
For us, we are most excited to see these shows:
Susan Fang — Friday 18 September
Susan Fang is one of London’s most intriguing designers and has attracted significant attention during recent fashion weeks. Her work combines technical systems, manual skills and imaginative themes as a part of her creative output.
Her SS2026 collection showcased her intricate methodology. Imagining a society existing 3,000 years in the future, Fang translated this futuristic world into 3D-printed shapes, silhouettes produced by computers, small decorative glass pieces using her established manual construction methods. In a partnership with her husband, Orelio, she used digital simulations of air currents to shape computer generated forms. She then converted those virtual shapes into physical garments – but also included tactile elements like layered “air flowers”, feathers, beads and transparent textiles. These materials ensure the final collection maintained a connection to its manual labor.
Her recent projects continue to examine the relationship between technology and emotionality. In her AW2026 collection, displayed in Shanghai her home, she utilized historical styles alongside modern materials. Using light silk fabric, nylon netting, resin insects and 3D-printed shoes, a visual style characterized as existing outside of common terrestrial experiences was curated.
So what are we expecting for SS27?
We expect more experimentation, but hopefully not just for experimentation’s sake. Fang’s strength has always lied in making technology emotionally connect to the audience, over simply technical elements. We also expect sculptural silhouettes, intricate surface treatments and an increasingly sophisticated dialogue between digital design and traditional craftsmanship.
Ahluwalia — Saturday 19 September
Few London designers have developed such a distinct visual, creative, and culturally significant design language as Priya Ahluwalia.
Her SS2026 collection, named Affinity, explored love and intimacy through her combination of her Nigerian and Indian heritage. The collection drew upon her experience’s with Bollywood cinema, Motown, Indian miniature paintings and the Nigerian goddess, Oshun. Detailing such as draped silk, fringe, asymmetry and denim were used to express the contradictory feelings associated within romantic relationships – tension, vulnerability, romance and release.
However, in Ahluwalia’s AW2026 collection, they took that conversation somewhere more communal. Friendship became the central theme, and this was embodied through braided details, interlocking, and woven denim. The collection demonstrated Ahluwalia’s increasing ability to translate personal and cultural research into creative ingenuius.
This is particularly unique because Ahluwalia is a designer whose work rewards closer examination in order to appreciate her ingenuity. Her collections aren’t simply about beautiful clothes; they are constructed around narratives of her personal identity and hertigate.
Having personally examined Ahluwalia’s work academically when looking at factors affecting emerging fashion enterprises, this is one show I’m particularly excited to experience in person, as Ahluwalia has continued to rise above the crowd, securing their space as an influential fashion brand.
So what are we expecting for SS27?
For SS27, the question is where that narrative goes next. Ahluwalia has already displayed collections from romantic relationships to friendship and community. What other forms of connection could they explore next? Whatever the subject, we expect research-led storytelling, strong textile development and the collision of tailoring, sportswear and occasion dressing that has become central to the house.
Richard Quinn — Saturday 19 September
Quinn’s recent collections have historically focused on the art of occasion dressing (the practice of selecting and styling an outfit to match the specific formality, time, setting, and dress code of a notable event or social gathering). His AW2026 collection pushed that idea in a different way, contrasting the strictness of highly constructed gowns and corsetry with a futuristic fantasy setting. The result was a vision of “cosmic couture” with formal dressing reimagined for a world far beyond the traditional ballroom.
His SS2026 collection presented 44 highly constructed and embellished looks with a narrow colour palette: moving from black and white into red, fuchsia and pastel. Rather than moving away from glamour as newer trends suggested, Quinn has doubled down on it.
And that makes his SS27 show particularly exciting.
At a time when much of fashion is obsessed with the ‘clean girl aesthetic’, quiet luxury, and minimalism, Quinn continues to argue for fashion as spectacle of creativity and art. His collections remind us that getting dressed should be fun and important.
So what are we expecting for SS27?
We expect drama, elaborate construction and occasionwear pushed beyond convention, but perhaps Quinn may surprise us – continuing to question what modern glamour actually looks like.
McQueen — Sunday 20 September
Few names on the London schedule carry the same weight as McQueen.
This season is particularly special as Seán McGirr will present McQueen’s SS27 collection in London, noting the house’s return to the city. The British Fashion Council has marked the show as one of the key moments for this year’s September’s schedule.
McGirr’s tenure has been more difficult than those of other creative directors as the houses’ founder still remains one of fashion’s most influential figures.
Nevertheless, his recent collections suggest that the designer is becoming increasingly confident in that process of taking up this challenge. His AW2026 collection explored intimacy and voyeurism in a more psychologically driven form of glamour – while his Resort 2026 work drew on images of British aristocratic society and transformed them through sharp tailoring and a distinctly modern attitude.
More recently, McGirr’s Paris presentation for AW2026 was described by The Guardian as ‘one of his strongest collections to date’, with his respects to McQueen’s Widows of Culloden by accompanying them with new interpretations of tailoring and lace on the body.
This is homecoming for the brand.
So what are we expecting for SS27?
For SS27, expect a conversation between British identity, sensuality and the house’s archive—but the real thing to watch will be how far McGirr pushes his own voice and still retain his founder’s legacy.
Burberry — Monday 21 September
And then there is Burberry, fashionably late.
Closing this year’s London Fashion Week on Monday evening, Daniel Lee’s Burberry remains one of the most anticipated fashion shows.
Lee’s recent approach has been deliberately restless. For Spring/Summer 2026, he paid homage to British music culture and 1960s–70s references by incorporating shorter trenches, skinny tailoring, colourful leather, sequins and fringed accessories into the designs. The collection notably reduced the emphasis on the traditional Nova check and conventional trench coat by instead choosing to reinterpret Burberry’s codes through a more directional lens.
For Fall 2026, the mood shifted again. Lee delved into London’s nightlife through a show staged at Old Billingsgate, using Tower Bridge as part of the theatrical setting and bringing a darker, more nocturnal energy to the house, serving as a distinctive shift in the brands aesthetic posititoning.
That constant evolution makes Burberry one of the shows I’m most curious about.
Where does Lee take the house next?
The challenge is no longer proving that Burberry can be modernised. He has already demonstrated that. The question is whether these different cultural references can begin to form a more coherent long-term identity for the house.
With Burberry closing LFW, expect a major production, strong British references and—if Lee’s recent work is anything to go by—a familiar house code viewed through an unexpected lens.
The London shows on our radar
From Susan Fang’s fusion of technology and craft to Ahluwalia’s cultural storytelling, Richard Quinn’s maximalist glamour, McGirr’s ongoing reinvention of McQueen and Daniel Lee’s increasingly experimental Burberry, the common thread of this year’s LFW is reinterpretation.
London has never been at its strongest when it attempts to imitate the rest of the fashion capitals. Its strength is its willingness to experiment.
And with several established British houses returning alongside emerging designers, SS27 could be a particularly interesting season for London to reaffirm exactly that.
For me, the excitement is not simply in seeing the clothes on the runway. It’s in seeing how these designers respond to where fashion is now—and, perhaps more importantly, where they believe it is going next.
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Photo Credits: https://www.showstudio.com/?gallery=1&look=1, https://ahluwalia.world/pages/aw26