London Fashion Week returns this year, beginning on Thursday 15th February and finishing on February 20th. This season marks a milestone for the event, as LFW celebrates its 40 year anniversary. The last few years has seen designers navigating a pandemic, Brexit and rising costs. But February's shows will champion the UK's most exciting design talent across both men's and womenswear, including Burberry, 16Arlington, Roksanda, Emilia Wickstead, Ahluwalia, Erdem, JW Anderson, Richard Quinn, Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard and many more.
What we're excited about
While we're always looking forward to seeing the new collections of more established names like Roksanda, Erdem, Simone Rocha, Richard Quinn and Molly Goddard, all of whom are presenting their shows on Saturday 17th February 2024, the joy of London Fashion Week is that there is a wealth of fresh talent on display, too.
There's NEWGEN names like Conner Ives, Saul Nash and Paolo Carzana; the latter two specialise in menswear, too. There's also Sinéad O'Dwyer, who has transformed body dysmorphia into an artform, exploring our relationship with the female form and rallying against the idea of sample sizes. Chet Lo, too, will be showing on Friday 16th February, fresh from the success of his first high street collaboration with Charles & Keith.
Tolu Coker is another NEWGEN designer to get excited about. The British-Nigerian is only 27 and staged her debut show last September – to rapturous applause. That collection was a celebration of Yoruba culture – one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria – and was one of the most exciting shows we'd seen for a while.
There's also the likes of 16Arlington, who last year won the coveted BFC /Vogue Designer Fashion Fund prize, as well as JW Anderson, Emilia Wickstead and Burberry.
Can you buy tickets for London Fashion Week?
Usually, no. But this season, you can buy tickets to a new exhibition celebrating 30 years of NEWGEN, the British Fashion Council initiative that supports the best emerging fashion design talent and aims to build global, high-end brands of the future. NEWGEN's alumni makes for an impressive list of designers, including Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Ahluwalia, JW Anderson, Molly Goddard, Simone Rocha, Tolu Coker, Wales Bonner and many more.
Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion is on at London's Design Museum, sponsored by Alexander McQueen, and is 'the most wide-ranging surveys of contemporary fashion culture ever staged in the UK, offering an unprecedented look at how careers in fashion are forged, and the multitude of opportunities London’s fashion scene offers young creatives.'