London Fashion Week · AW26 · 19–23 February 2026
CultMag Fashion: The Best Looks & Most Anticipated Runways
Five days. Dozens of shows. Here are the ones that mattered.
London Fashion Week AW26 arrived with something to prove — and proved it. From a royal front-row debut to a ghost story in Georgian England, craft over spectacle was the season’s defining statement.
Show of the Week
Tolu Coker — Survivor’s Remorse
King Charles III took a front-row seat at LFW for the first time, lending Tolu Coker’s show the ceremonial weight it deserved. Inspired by the North Kensington neighbourhood where she grew up, the collection threaded her British-Nigerian-Yoruba identity through sharp tailoring, heritage fabrics and vibrant colour. Little Simz performed live; Manolo Blahnik shod every model. It was a graduation from talent to authority.
Maximalism Is Alive
Harris Reed — The Bridal Debut
Reed unveiled his debut bridal collection alongside his trademark sculptural glamour — and the fashion press was unanimous: why hadn’t this happened sooner? Gender-fluid, theatrical and unapologetically exuberant, Reed turned the aisle into a runway and made it feel inevitable. Maximalism, it turns out, is very much alive and walking down the aisle.
Season’s Most Ambitious
Simone Rocha — Celtic Mythology at Alexandra Palace
Drawing on the Celtic otherworld of Tír na nÓg and the photographic legacy of Pony Kids, Rocha sent 500 guests to Alexandra Palace for LFW’s most ambitious evening. An Adidas collaboration grounded sheer gowns and lace-trimmed corsetry in the present tense. The tension between the rough and the refined, between sport and ceremony — this is Rocha’s genius, and this season it hit its peak.
Twenty Years at LFW
Erdem — The Institution Show
Erdem Moralioglu marked two decades on the LFW schedule at Tate Britain — and the choice of venue was the argument: he belongs in a national institution. Rather than a retrospective, AW26 was a “creative mashup”: richly embellished gowns, bra tops with expertly-cut denim, high ruffled necklines, historical references shot through with contemporary urgency. Narrative dressing at its most mastered.
The Industry’s Best Incubator
Fashion East — Manor Place, South London
Fashion East abandoned Shoreditch’s Old Truman Brewery for Manor Place — a 19th-century swimming bath transformed into a community skate park by Palace Skateboards and Nike. Three designers; three genuinely distinct visions. This is the show where alumni like Simone Rocha, JW Anderson and Craig Green started. The next name on that list was in the room this week. The question is only which one.
“London isn’t trying to outshine Paris or Milan. It’s doing something more interesting — being entirely, defiantly itself.”
LFW AW26 · February 2026
Three Trends That Defined the Season
Minimalism with Drama
London, often seen as the eccentric of the Big Four, leaned clean and sculptural this season — but with moments of pure theatre. Joseph set the template: slick silhouettes punctuated by sweeping luxe texture.
Historical Dress, Modern Lens
From Bora Aksu’s 18th-century ghost story to Erdem’s Elizabethan collars and Chopova Lowena’s Regency ruffles, designers looked back two centuries and returned with something urgent.
Bridal Reimagined
Harris Reed’s debut bridal collection was the headline, but the wedding-dress energy ran through the whole week. LFW AW26 was, as one editor put it, “rippling with bridal moments that made me feel sad I’m already married.”