London Fashion Week’s 40th anniversary felt like the perfect moment for reflection. With a challenging economic climate, struggling brands, and a decline in the image of the week, London’s designers have put their fashion week on the map again. Discover the best of London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025 below. Cover image: courtesy of Nensi Dojaka
LONDON FASHION WEEK SPRING/SUMMER 2025
Jonathan Anderson has become one of the biggest names of London Fashion Week over the years, and this show marks his fifteenth year at the event. In an interview post-show, he emphasized that most fashion weeks are in reflux and that we should use this time to reflect on why they still exist. According to the creative director, people should consider what shows tell instead of just shooting looks by phone and leaving the space as soon as the final model leaves the runway. Unlike his colleagues Victoria Beckham and many others, Anderson won’t be leaving the week. Luckily for the public, there were plenty of shows and collections to look forward to, including Nensi Dojaka, Burberry (the biggest name on the schedule), Puppets & Puppets, Simone Rocha, Sinead O’Dwyer, and Daley (winner of the Queen Elizabeth II prize).
GROUNDBREAKING SHOWS
Simone Rocha was among the most acclaimed London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025 shows. “I’d never be interested in fashion, which defines a look or how someone should feel,” she told Vogue Runway’s pre-show. Her claim was emphasized with The Old Bailey (London’s historic and still operating criminal court) as the backdrop of her show. Choreographers Michael Clark and Pina Bausch heavily influenced the collection, focusing on ballet and tough love. Rocha experimented with juxtaposing styles, shapes, and signatures as always.
KNWLS – a London Fashion Week favorite – showed a glossary of its signature moods, motifs, and
techniques. Reflecting on their own, Alexandre Arsenault and Charlotte Knowles study the sartorial
grammar of their favorite couturiers. Madame Grès’ delicate gathers of crêpe, Azzedine Alaïa’s
generous sculptural forms, John Galliano’s ingenious bias cutting – these masters and their
contributions to fashion’s craft are paid due homage, their historic signatures deftly reimagined
through KNWLS’ future-facing lens.
“I think femininity is about embracing the contrast within us: the balance between softness and strength. Women are the strongest creatures on earth,” Nensi Dojaka explained. The female form anchors the construction of designs: flowers unfurl and bloom as they twist around the body; the fabric is pulled taut when worn. Architectural corsetry and geometric details draw the gaze to the collarbone, the hips, the back. The aesthetics of dance appear discrete yet distinct: balletic drape and flamenco flamboyance reduced to their essence and refined, reimagined. Contrasts appear throughout: bouquets of organza float weightless, while stretch jersey appears as a second skin. Delicate frills blossom across geometric lines, and meticulous leathers and clean-cut trenches devolve into dreamlike georgettes. The language is of tension and release; fluidity and focus of duality embraced and celebrated.
SETTING THE STAGE
Besides some groundbreaking shows, many collections evoked a sense of the new sexy. Moving beyond the (fe)male gaze, this new sexy is unapologetically self-centered. Puppets and Puppets, for example, let the accessories do the talking and strip down the styling. Models walked the runway in simple underwear, focusing on the bags and other accessories. Di Petsa took its sexiness one step further, with three looks consisting of metal nipple covers only. Nensi Dojaka marked every look as lingerie, while Simone Rocha reintroduced the mini skirt. But sexy doesn’t equal naked, and Aaron Esh showed. Models walked the runway wearing leather pants, looking effortless and undone in a very appealing way.
So, entering a new life stage (turning 40) gives a new direction to clothes and London Fashion Week. From Alexander McQueen and John Galliano to Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney, London Fashion Week has gone past its identity of solely being a training ground for emerging designers who leave the city once they make it. Instead, the week showed that entering the mid-age life stage comes with more responsibilities and a sense of being grown-up, and that’s exactly the mood many designers seemed to capture this season – from emerging talent to set-in-stone names.
