photography. Iker Aldama / Jason Lloyd-Evans
After a gloomy and uninspiring summer, London Fashion Week breathed new life into the city over the course of five fashion-filled days as vibrant spring/summer 2025 collections lit up spectators’ eyes. Bora Aksu recognised his late mother and Turkish heritage, Nensi Dojaka made a dazzling return to the runway – and announced an exciting collaboration with Calvin Klein – and just when you thought balletcore was over, Yuhan Wang keeps it going in full force. Here’s a debrief of this season’s best to get you all caught up.
In the sun-soaked gardens of St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, Bora Aksu’s latest collection became one with nature. Celebrating his late mother, Birsen – who, living in Turkey in the 60s, would often design her own clothes to reflect her distinct style – Aksu united her individuality with his Turkish heritage, adding vintage fabrics and bouffant updos into the mix. Dusty pink and cream silk tulle was draped over eyelet lace bodices and drifted down the body, coming into contact with thin pencil skirts, floral fishnet tights, and bow embellishments. Peter pan collars decorated with crocheted flowers, cropped demi-couture blazers, and knitted cardigans added structure alongside the ethereality of the silk chiffon dresses that Aksu has long been known for.
Seeking to evoke the duality of women, Yuhan Wang made powerful female fighters – think Alaia Ali, Jane Couch, and the Fighting Cholitas (a group performing in El Alto) – the subject of her spring/summer collection, ‘The Rose Fist.’ Balancing both the strength of these women with a girly softness, Wang showed silk and supple leather boxing gloves, extreme shoulder padded sports jerseys, and structured moto jackets with Chantilly lace tanks, tutu-inspired poofy skirts, and lace-up ballerina flats. A cornerstone of the brand, 19th-century court shoes, returned with mesh inserts, while 18th-century style lace and nylon panniers were spliced and sewed into jersey numbers-printed sweat shorts… Almost as if a jock and a ballerina had a baby.
Looking to the great American West – and its feisty rodeo girls and glitzy showgirls – designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons of Chopova Lowena reconceived their muses through leather outerwear hardened by metal studs, carabiners, and buckles, and child-like dresses with puffy bubble skirts adorned with large star sequins. The collection, titled ‘Chukaboo’ (a term used in the 1800s to describe a close friend), saw models become fairies, witches, and villains, dressed in Victorian-esque silhouettes accompanied by the new Margaret bag designed in collaboration with Hellmann’s to hold their signature mayonnaise. True to the brand’s spirit, the iconic Carabiner skirt trudged down the runway in its signature melange of plaids, as well as embroidered floral designs, a stark contrast from the gloomy show space below Shoreditch Town Hall.
The Royal Academy Schools, with its tall domed corridors and bright rooms containing casts of full-body and bust sculptures and skeletons encased in glass, served as the perfect location for KENT&CURWEN to show their school-inspired pieces. Emphasising September’s period of transition, creative director Daniel Kearns redefined the brand’s quintessentially British preppy image, deconstructing and transforming it into rebellious (but still classic) designs. Club ties appeared with crisp blazers, but were also tied around the waist and sewn together to create a navy and black strapless midi dress, as the signature rose emblem and archival castle motif found themselves on oversized jackets, rugby shirts, chunky silver necklaces, and scarves.
The Gothic Revival architecture and lofty ceilings of Hansom Hall in the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel brimmed with an electric energy, one that encapsulated fashion’s excitement for the return of Nensi Dojaka after a year’s hiatus. Simone Ashley and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley sat front row, among a slew of editors and influencers, as we all collectively drooled over the draped stretch tulle dresses, ruffled bralettes, and geometric bodices that have become synonymous with the label. Unveiling Nensi Dojaka for Calvin Klein, barely-there sheer balconette bras, corsetry-inspired bodysuits, and knitted dresses were paired alongside structured blazers and micro mini skirts. Cascades of ruffled georgette broke up the harsher lines, manifesting as deliciously flamboyant asymmetrical evening gowns decorated with blossoming flowers and glittering sequins.
Sinead Gorey doesn’t design for the prom queen… Instead, she’s more interested in the anti-heroine who’s a punk party girl at heart. Showing in a gymnasium decorated with metallic pink and silver balloons, streamers, confetti, and a disco ball, models strutted down the catwalk in Gorey’s iconic Haçienda stripes, faux Mongolian fur sleeveless jackets, ribbon criss cross tied bodysuits, and coquette hair bows. School uniform-esque pinstripe button-ups were painted candy floss pink and canary yellow and pushed off the shoulders, low-rise jeans featured a large ‘I heart SG’ printed over the front, and each look was complemented by a pair of Converse – knee-grazers, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, and wedges – and a HMD Skyline smartphone in collaboration with Human Mobile Devices.
While the stripped-back interiors of St. Paul’s Church in the heart of Covent Garden proved to be minimal and unassuming, Marques ‘Almeida’s spring/summer collection was anything but. Evolving from last season, their signature denim and floral brocades found themselves back on the runway, this time inspired by 17th-century Dutch paintings. Baroque dresses were paired with bow-embellished buffalo platform trainers, denim jackets ruched at the shoulder, and florals popped against each other. As it turns out, florals for spring actually are groundbreaking. The historic elements sat perfectly beside contemporary details – think raw hems, Canadian tuxedos, and black monochromatic numbers – creating an effortless harmony between the two.
words. Amber Louise
imagery. Jason Lloyd-Evans (Bora Aksu), Iker Aldama (Bora Aksu), Olu Ogunshakin @ Chris Yates Media (Yuhan Wang), Chopova Lowena, (KENT&CURWEN), Dave Benett (Nensi Dojaka), Sinead Gorey + Chris Yates @ Chris Yates Media (Marques ‘Almeida)
