The Biggest Thing at London Fashion Week? Small Brands
At London Fashion Week, the biggest sound came from the smallest designers. Indie brands made the most of the seasonal void left by a relative of household names, pumping up the volume with armfuls of intent.
Yes, JW Anderson and Burberry were both in attendance this year, offering solid Spring/Summer 2025 collections abundant with their own forms of intrigue. Great pants at Burberry! Beautiful accessorizing at JWA!
But you already have expectations for these titans. It's the ground-up surprises that engendered the week's best looks and most momentous moments.
Part of this is an extension of the shifting norms at fashion week — runway shows are so expensive and so exclusive that designers just as often utilize them to go viral as they do to actually showcase clothing.
But there was a nice balance at London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, held from September 12-17.
Aaron Esh's Jaguar-supported presentation, for instance, offered nothing but uncomplicatedly excellent garments. This is fashion undistilled, all clean lines and pared-back palette. Beautiful.
Similarly classy? S.S.Daley's debut womenswear line, demonstrative of the LVMH Prize winner's skill in translating his quintessentially British design cues across genders.
And a handful of young Fashion East designers, including the swiftly evolving LOUTRE, offered concise collections of creatively commercial clothing. The vision was there but it was restrained in the most complimentary sense.
And then there were the spectacles.
Di Petsa put together a theatrical showcase with costumes as glorious as anything off-Broadway while buzzy Chopova Lowena leaned into hype with deliciously flashy iterations of its signature Y2K maximalism, all anchored by a soon-to-be-huge sneaker.
It wasn't the only label leveraging household names in sportswear to great effect: Ukraine-to-UK designer Masha Popova underscored the craft inherent to her Y2K inclinations with DIY adidas shoes.
And then there was the abrupt Mowalola presentation that was as much about the event itself as the clothes.
The British designer and DJ sent out cloned models scurrying around on all fours wearing barely-there bodysuits and skirts, all the while club music blared pop and circumstance.
Like most fashion shows these days, you really had to be there.
But such is the state of fashion in contemporary times, when a viral video or celebrity cosign is just as (or even more) likely to boost sales than any on-calendar showcase.
These days, it really doesn't matter how much you drop on a runway show if no one's paying attention. And, what with our ultra-cluttered feeds, who really is?
This is rough because fashion week (and the surrounding market weeks) remain the best way to get your work in front of the viewing public, creating a timely spotlight for otherwise undersung talent. And that's not even getting into the massive undertaking that is the organization of a fashion show.
So, a salute to the indie designers who resolutely infused personality and purpose into London Fashion Week SS25.
The effort does not go unappreciated.
