The Kurator’s SS/26 London Fashion Week Round-up

London Fashion Week returned with a sense of ceremony and reinvention. The city’s designers stepped into its most resonant spaces - from baroque halls to brutalist towers, and reshaped them into temporary theatres of identity, memory and play. SS26 was not about chasing recognition but about testing how far heritage, femininity and craft can stretch when placed under a modern lens.

Simone Rocha

At Mansion House, Simone Rocha staged Disgruntled Debutante, a collection that unravelled the rituals of girlhood. Organza crinolines and pressed satin flowers were paired with cagoules, pillowcase bags and even duvet-like coats. Vinyl trapped blossoms as if caught in amber; hoop skirts trailed under practical outerwear. The tension between fragility and armour gave the collection its charge. Rocha’s latest Crocs collaboration - the pearl-studded ballerina platform - underlined her instinct for pulling the everyday into couture’s orbit. 

Erdem

At the British Museum, Erdem Moralıoğlu conjured a séance of fashion, drawing on the strange visions of Hélène Smith, the 19th-century medium who dreamed herself into past lives. The clothes carried that sense of duality - strict corsetry and pannier skirts offset by lace as delicate as smoke, tailored jackets softened with frills, antique textiles collaged with raw edges. Colours whispered rather than shouted: creams, moss greens, the sudden flare of ruby or chartreuse. The result was a collection both haunted and alive, a wardrobe for women who exist across centuries at once. 

Roksanda

Marking 20 years in fashion, Roksanda Ilinčić presented a collection steeped in sculptural reference. Silhouettes curved like carved stone, cut-outs exposed deliberate voids, and bold swathes of satin and silk echoed brushstrokes. The palette was rich but controlled: oranges ochres, and soft chalks that gave weight to the drama. The collection felt less like an anniversary retrospective and more like an artist pushing her vocabulary into new territory. 

Burberry

Daniel Lee closed the week with Burberry’s return to Perks Field at Kensington Palace Gardens, a dirt-floored tent painted sky-blue and lined with anticipation. The collection riffed on British music culture - part festival, part night-out, part heritage. Crochet dresses swayed like banners, fringed jackets skimmed the ground, tartans and checks were cut lean, while trenches arrived reimagined in metallic finishes and vivid acid tones. Skinny scarves and gleaming hardware sharpened the mood. It was a Burberry that felt both familiar and restless, steeped in tradition yet pulsing with the beat of something defiantly youthful. 

Malone Souliers

High above London at Space House, Malone Souliers unveiled shoes and handbags with a quiet assuredness. Slingbacks in croc-embossed leather, satin sandals dotted with polka, boots in supple suede - all set within a circular space softened by clusters of white blooms. The references to the late 1960s and early 1970s were clear in the shapes and palette, yet the finish was firmly modern. The collection spoke of elegance that doesn’t shout but endures.

Noon by Noor

At Somerset House, Noon by Noor presented Mirage, a study in light and transience. Silhouettes floated in cotton-silk voiles and gauzy chiffons, cut in robes, trenches and wide-leg trousers that caught the air with every step. Colours shifted like heat haze: desert khaki, pale gold, sand, cherry blossom pink. Details were precise - hand-knotted belts, pintuck panels, appliqué textures - the sort of craftsmanship visible only up close. The effect was understated and lasting, as if clothing could carry the shimmer of memory.