There was a lot riding on this London Fashion Week. A shaky retail landscape (RIP Matches) left a handful of young brands in, to put it bluntly, a financial hole, while the outlook for the biggest name on the schedule – Burberry – hasn’t looked much brighter of late. “London is about to show that it’s resilient,” said Steven Stokey-Daley prior to the spring/summer 2025 season. “Forward motion and creativity and new ideas prevail – we have to think like that.”
Creativity – and late nights – did indeed prevail. We have Harry Styles and his mullet to thank for drawing international attention to the line-up on day one, after he flew in and out of the city to see the first womenswear presentation from SS Daley, in which he holds a minority stake. From then, it was a high-octane exploration of what British fashion means today – from mayo and chips to sexy smalls – as the likes of Standing Ground, Johanna Parv and Paolo Carzana staged their first solo shows, and talent incubator Fashion East welcomed a new class (hi Nuba; you too, Loutre!) to nurture. Nensi Dojaka returned to the runway with a Calvin Klein collection of spliced-and-diced lingerie, and Chopova Lowena pumped up Friday night with its annual LFW moment, featuring a clutch of fabulous cameos from within the Vogue family.
Away from the headline acts, there were quieter moments of synchronicity across the board, as designers mined similar pools of references for what turned out to be some of their most personal collections to date. From sex to carnations, androgynous artists to home comforts, here are the key themes that played out during London Fashion Week spring/summer 2025.
Let’s talk about sex, baby
“I want everyone to feel very hot and steamy after seeing this,” said 16Arlington’s Marco Capaldo, whose journey to his sparkly, lily-printed knickers came via Pedro Almodóvar, specifically the Spanish colourist’s film, The Skin I Live In, and its peppy Pantones. “I know it sounds clichéd, but I felt like all of a sudden I was facing the sun, and so the woman that I’m designing for is facing that sun,” he added of bringing back a sense of levity and sex appeal after seasons inspired by more sinister David Lynchian undertones.
Simone Rocha, too, was feeling flirtatious on her quest to shock the hallowed halls of the Old Bailey with a dance-inspired collection that felt “performative, playful and provocative”. Cue crystal carnations (inspired by the legendary Pina Bausch show Nelken) creeping up big pants as “lady gardens”, and placed artfully over breasts as her take on nipple pasties.
When creating her see-now-buy-now Calvin Klein X Nensi Dojaka underwear capsule, the Albanian partywear favourite kept returning to the words “inclusive”, “empowering”, “femininity” and “sensuality”. It would have been particularly empowering to see Dojaka’s “idea of putting it on women of different backgrounds and different shapes” translated on the runway, but Jill Kortleve certainly did a good job of selling this ’90s CK-inspired edit funnelled through a modern London lens.