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London Fashion Week kicks off today with a continuation of its 40th anniversary celebrations. For Spring/Summer 2025, the British Fashion Council has created a retrospective within the new show space at 180 Studios, complete with a comprehensive timeline of the last four decades of LFW.
“[This season], we will celebrate the creativity, communities and culture that makes the UK unique and consistently the envy of the world. We will wrap up our anniversary with a vibrant line-up of events and activations,” says Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council (BFC). LFW’s 40th anniversary celebrations thus far have acknowledged the city’s past while planting eyes firmly on its future, placing a spotlight on its most exciting young talent. In June, the BFC trialled a new format to celebrate the South Asian, Black and Queer communities with a three-day event consisting mainly of panel talks, events and activities.
The retrospective has been curated by Sarah Mower, Vogue chief critic and BFC ambassador for emerging talent, and Robin Derrick, renowned photographer and creative director. Along with charting the history of LFW, the exhibition will feature a concept bookstore of over 150 rare publications honouring “the visionaries who’ve shaped fashion over the past four decades”, according to Rush.
On Monday, the BFC is hosting a reception at 10 Downing Street to provide “a platform for industry leaders and government officials to discuss the sector’s future”, Rush adds. The celebrations will come to a close with the LFW40 Icons party on Monday night in Kensington, in partnership with Burberry. London is back in party mode, with an array of afterparties from brands including 16Arlington, Nensi Dojaka, Knwls, Chopova Lowena, Harri, Natasha Zinko and Fashion East. Wonderland is hosting a party with Ugg, and there’s also H&M’s event on Thursday night, where Charli XCX and Jamie xx are performing. For the first time this season, LFW’s city-wide celebrations — activities open to the public — are taking place in Manchester and Newcastle, as well as London, in partnership with 1664 Blanc.
This season marks a few changes for London Fashion Week. Firstly, the BFC’s show space, which is offered free of charge to all designers taking part in the Newgen incubation programme, is moving back to 180 Studios for the first time since 2020 (from the Old Selfridges Hotel on Orchard Street). “It’s completely different [designing the set for the 180 space],” says Newgen designer Tolu Coker when I meet her in her studio ahead of the show. The British-Nigerian designer points to photos taken in her late father’s living room on her research board, which have formed part of the inspiration for the collection. The challenge is to recreate the feeling of intimacy in a new space, she says. “You’ve got to really consider what the magic of the experience is, and how you translate that experience. You’re not just problem-solving on the design element, you’re problem-solving on the feel of the physical space.”
Coker is also among the designers who are taking part in the BFC’s Paris showroom, which has been reintroduced for the first time since January 2023. The showroom is available to all BFC Foundation designers at a low cost. Almost all of the 15 current Newgen recipients are taking part: Ancuta Sarca, Charlie Constantinou, Chet Lo, Derrick, Di Petsa, Harri, Johanna Parv, Karoline Vitto, Lueder, Masha Popova, Sinéad O’Dwyer, Coker and Yaku. Two BFC Foundation brands are also involved: Labrum London and ELV Denim.
“[Showrooms] are so helpful to get feedback to go to market and sell your products and survive from your own business,” says Marie Lueder, who founded her namesake brand in 2019 and took part in the showroom two years ago under the BFC’s digital showcase platform DiscoveryLab. She’s looking for buyers from China, North America and Europe in particular. “I have more categories and a bigger collection this time. We’ll just show the best of the best — our favourites — because this year hasn’t been the easiest and [buyers] aren’t taking many risks.”
The ones to watch
While there are a few London regulars missing from the schedule — including Supriya Lele and Molly Goddard — there are plenty of exciting brands to keep an eye out for.
This season will kick off on Thursday night with Harris Reed’s first on-schedule show. The designer typically opens LFW unofficially with an off-schedule show that is known for its star-studded runways and front row. On Friday afternoon, 2022 LVMH Prize winner SS Daley will present his first womenswear show, part of the brand’s expansion following investment from Harry Styles. On Saturday night, press and buyers will have to pick between witnessing Nensi Dojaka’s return after a two-season hiatus or Skepta’s off-schedule Mains show; both are taking place during the 8pm slot, followed by afterparties.
On Sunday, Roksanda Ilinčić will show her namesake brand for the first time since it was acquired by The Brand Group, while on Monday, Burberry’s Daniel Lee will present his fourth runway show for the brand — marking the first under new CEO Joshua Schulman. It is a pivotal time for the British luxury brand, which critics argue should transition to a more accessible positioning and price point.
“This season, the schedule is jam-packed,” says Rush. “I always look forward to Burberry and to see designers such as 16Arlington, Ahluwalia, Chopova Lowena, Erdem, KNWLS, Richard Quinn, Roksanda and Simone Rocha.”
There are also a swath of newcomers this season. Fashion East graduates Standing Ground (who won the first-ever Savoir-Faire LVMH Prize on Tuesday) and Parv are putting on their first solo shows. Vitto’s London debut will also be highly anticipated; the Brazilian designer skipped AW24, but the memory of her SS24 collection still holds strong (she presented her first solo show in Milan under Dolce Gabbana, and tapped Ashley Graham to walk).
Other newcomers include artist-turned-designer Steve O Smith, French knitwear designer Pauline Dujancourt (who was a finalist in this year’s LVMH Prize) and menswear designer Yaku Stapleton (who nabbed the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award at Central Saint Martins).
New York darling Puppets and Puppets will host its debut London presentation. The brand made headlines after founder Carly Mark announced earlier this year that she would halt ready-to-wear and move operations to London.
For Lueder, it’s a homecoming as well as a debut. The Royal Academy of Arts graduate showed digitally at LFW in 2020 under DiscoveryLab, but recently showed her SS25 collection at Berlin Fashion Week. “I got accepted for Newgen five days before I got accepted for Berlin, so I knew from early on that I would be doing two shows,” she tells Vogue Business from her East London studio. Her show on Saturday will be an “evolution” of the Berlin collection, she says. “London gives a more commercial platform. Berlin felt more like being an artist who works in fashion.”
“The BFC Newgen designers always blow me away,” says Rush. She notes that the Newgen criteria has changed, which may be why there are “quite a few debuts” this season. “This year, we have moved away from standard criteria, such as minimum stockists, as a way to ensure that creative businesses with varied business models can showcase at London Fashion Week,” she explains. The shift is notable given that many London brands are still struggling following the closure of Matches. In October, the BFC will publish a report, titled ‘Commercialising Creativity’, to encourage new business models, particularly when it comes to building out a direct-to-consumer channel.
“The industry is rapidly changing, and criteria that were once relevant no longer reflect new ways that designers show and sell their collections,” Rush says. “It felt important to us that the schedule reflects the current environment, supports designers and different stages of business, and continues to showcase the best of fashion talent to an international audience.”
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