From Medusa to minimalism: The collections that shaped London Fashion Week this season

With 41 shows, 25 appointments and presentations, 34 events and the launch of 6 new designer collaborations, it was a fairly busy fall-winter season at this February’s London Fashion Week. Under a renewed executive vision and the leadership of newly appointed British Fashion Council CEO Laura Weir, London continues to exemplify a sense of unabashed creativity and affective community building that is truly unmatched and seminal to the tethering and nurturing of emerging talent.

This season, while designers continued to push the boundaries of their own creative potential and take headlong the challenge of putting out collections that were simultaneously commercially viable, one could sense an eerie feeling of dark romance settling on the community. While big gowns continued dotting collections across the board, their silhouettes seemed pared and the bodices more withered than ripped. Flannel necks were galore—almost daring to imagine the human neck as being in a firm chokehold. Ribbons and bows continued to appear but not as a symbol of innocence but rather a deliberate whimsy necessary to make sense of our current geopolitical uncertainties. Over the course of five days, as I braved the rain, over-caffeinated myself to a point of concern and raged against the city’s ever-unrealiable public transport, here are some of the shows that left a lasting impact on me.
 

CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS’ “WHAT I DON’T KNOW; WHAT IS MY LOCAL; SEMI-NOMADICS”

The last show on the first day of fashion week—and arguably my favourite and most anticipated show of the Fall/ Winter calendar—the Central Saint Martins graduate show has long existed as a launchpad for designers who would go on to reshape fashion’s visual lexicon (Harris Reed, whose runway preceeded the CSM showcase, too is an alumnus and had the honour of showcasing his own graduating collection as part of fashion week more than a decade ago). Taking place in the British Fashion Council NewGen showspace, this year’s runway featured an exhilarating mix of the next generation of designers whose clothes were as provocative as they were stimulating.

Among the eighteen students who presented their six-look collections this year, were also Adya, Kai Ghattaura and Pranjali Menaria. In a collection popping with the ripest shades of lemon yellow and fuchsia pink, Adya’s ‘What I Don’t Know’ was easily one of the most sensuous, wearable, and intellectually stimulating set of clothes I have seen in a while, with a sexiness and utilitarianism that one might associate with an yesteryear Prada. Inspired by American artist Bill Traylor, Adya’s work celebrated a sense of not-knowing filtered through a lens of sensuality borrowed from the style of airhostesses. Menaria on the other hand, with a background in textile development, craft preservation and a brief stint at Indian label péro, had conjured a collection of finely tailored unisex jackets and skirts that paid homage to her Rajasthani roots. There were jackets inspired by the angrakha silhouette with cowboy fringes, and a potli-shaped bag, designed to resemble a blooming flower and strapped onto a knitted length of fabric, used to tie camel saddles. Finally there was Ghattaura, whose ‘Semi-Nomadic’ came at a time when Indian streetwear brands are finally finding their footing on the global map by turning a keen, postcolonial lens on Western streetwear staples. The men wearing his collection were colourful nomads, experimenting with discarded staples of British fashion like the Nike fleece—all the while sporting a modern take on the dhoti that I am dying to wear to the next black tie event I get invited to.

Despite their distinctly different creative visions, by the end one thing was undeniable. These designers were part of a new, emerging vanguard and their uncompromising, authenticity of vision would definitely be one to look out for in the years to come.

ERDEM’S “IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS”

For an independent designer based out of a city as volatile as London, achieving twenty years is no mean feat. But Erdem Moralioglu makes it look easy. As the designer’s eponymous label Erdem presented its 20th anniversary collection within the hallowed halls of Tate Britain, there was a consistent whiff of rousing pride and racing joy in the hearts, breaths and eyes of every friend, fan and family member who joined the designer to celebrate two glorious decades of creative vision fuelled by an unparalleled, and frankly unseen, sense of romantic optimism in today’s day and age.

Titled ‘Imaginary Conversations’, the collection unfolded as a dialogue between every muse who has inspired the designer in the past twenty years — from botanists and ballerinas to queer poets of Victorian and Edwardian England. There were Tudor lace collars (referencing his enduring obsession with late Queen Elizabeth II), bespoke mid-waist denims (a throwback to his graduate collection from the Royal College of Arts), a flowing dress with crini hoops in virginal cream and sensuous black (a call back to his A Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasies), corsets that were less torturous and more a celebration of the female form, knitwork that appeared like running streaks of watercolour from a distance, the house’s signature duster shoes, and bows—as embellishments, as fringes, as hems, and finally as trails.

But even for those unaware of the designer’s archival repertoire of romanticism (something I would definitely dive into for my reimagining of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights), the collection was also a celebration of a house rooted in craft codes that truly make you want to think of the clothes we spend our lives in as art. As the collection walked down before us—romance and utilitarianism steeped in every step—to final musical crescendo of ‘Happy House’ by the Banshees and Siouxsie, one could not help but be convinced of the prowess of an artist at the height of his powers; and one who views his past with a whimsical irreverence leading to a romantic pastiche that’s subversively hopeful.

RAW MANGO’S “IT’S NOT ABOUT THE FLOWER”

After more than a decade of building one of the most unapologetically craft-forward brands of the country, that truly celebrated the country’s maximalist, plural spirit, through a colourful, design-first sense of restraint, Sanjay Garg and Raw Mango were ready to take on the world. But even as the excitement for Garg’s London debut coursed through my body, I couldn’t help but imagine how the undiluted vision of a purist like him, would translate on a runway and market like London. And as always, Garg did not disappoint.

‘It’s not about the Flower’ took the maestro’s long established house codes—a constant innovation of textiles, a layered understanding of embroidery traditions, and a minimal approach to silhouettes—and pushed them further. For this collection, Garg turned his gaze away from the f lower and onto the garland—a uniting force in the subcontinent that connects the most disparate of human souls by being universally exchanged on all occasions of joy and sorrow, celebration and mourning.

This sentiment, poetic at best and political at its least, translated on the runway in the form of translucent black saris embroidered with chanderi mogras, balloon skirts hemmed with layers of Kanjeevaram florets, and barebreasted models in jasmine garlands as the only piece of clothing on their frames. Not to forget, rolled handbags resembling garland sacks, and transparent glass shoes that give the impression of walking mid-air.

Converting an Indian imagination for a global runway is not an easy task; every artist has their own singular, oftentimes monolithic version of the subcontinent’s culture. But in the midst of an overwhelming understanding of the country as a maximalist whirlwind of glitzy brocades and shocking hues of yellow and pink, it was refreshing to see a bona fide designer pare things down to an austere minimalism that unfortunately we often forget is also an integral part of our cultural fabric.

DI PETSA’S “MEDUSA’S LOVER”

After the wet and sandy universe of her Spring/Summer showcase last September, Greek designer Dimitra Petsa returned to London Fashion Week to stage her second independent show as a designer—after consistently showcasing as part of the British Fashion Council’s NewGen cohort. Petsa, whose last collection showed heavy signs of utilitarian and commercial pieces over the designer’s staple of wet-look dresses and bridal gowns, this time leaned into the myth of the chthonic monster Medusa.

Turned into a furious, raging avatar comprising snakes for locks and a stare that could turn anyone into stone after being raped by Poseidon in the temple of Athena, the myth of Medusa has been a long enduring cultural currency for female autonomy and rage. The latter’s transformative power being something Petsa—an eternal poetess and muse of womanhood—self admittedly resonated with herself as she continues to take her eponymous label beyond the niche of custom pieces and bridal offerings into a wider, more commercial client space.

Taking place in the Apollo’s Muse bar of Mayfair’s Bacchanalia, the collection was an array of saucy, off-shoulder minidresses, sheer black gowns that resembled negligees and cropped leather corset tops, shorts slinking their way down the catwalk, and striking sultry poses. While I longed for the slogan-embossed T-shirt dresses and denim suits that she introduced last season, there was much joy to be had from a stunning gray skirt suit of bamboo knit fabric, seven incredibly masterful menswear pieces, and a final statement black leather wet look gown. I, for sure, cannot wait for next season to come sooner.

170 YEARS OF BURBERRY

For all the sunny warmth that lies in the royal parks of the square mile—where so many people of varying demographics sprawl and wade their way through Austen romances—there is a flirty, sensuous, dark romance that lies unshakeably at the very heart of London’s nightlife.

For Burberry’s 170th year, creative director Daniel Lee tapped into this very spirit by unveiling a collection at Old Billingsgate, with a dramatic Tower Bridge-inspired runway set and a semi-flooding catwalk. A sharp departure from the house’s previous seasons taking inspiration from the countryside, the collection arose from the brand’s 1970s campaign imagery and London nightlife, bringing the runway alive with characters rooted in an urban realism. The show featured the brand’s signature coats, boiler suits, bombers, hoods, and evening wear underneath trenches in leather, voluminous fur, dramatic fringe, and moody sequins—blending tailored edginess with restrained sensuality. There were plenty of Nova checks and trenchcoats—a significantly high number of them imagined in leather—with blouson versions of the same paired with shawl collars. Not to mention a stunning parka—in midnight blue and maroon—with a map of the City of London reproduced on it, unearthed from the house’s own archives.

Deeply reminiscent of its Prorsum days, the brand finally appeared to find its footing in a design language that no longer wants to chase concepts and instead just settle into doing what it does best: sell an idea of Britishness that is enduring and seductively appealing to a younger consumer base.

IMAGES: COURTESY THE BRANDS; ARTWORK BY TRUSHIETA NARINGREKAR

This article first appeared in the March 2026 issue of Harper's Bazaar India 

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