The best shows at London Fashion Week, from Burberry to Simone Rocha

Creativity is certainly the word that comes to mind at London Fashion Week. The diversity and global outlook of the designers showing in London are pretty much unparalleled: from someone quintessentially British like Richard Quinn, who held an intimate show that harked back to the golden age of haute couture, to rising creators hailing from Asia, the Middle East and beyond who proudly call London home, such as New Zealand-born Emilia Wickstead, known for her female-friendly clothes.

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“I feel that London is still the global city in spite of us leaving the EU, which makes us very sorry,” says Rush. “It is incredibly diverse and the best place to start a new brand. And because of colleges attracting international students, that talent stays in London and there’s a great ecosystem to develop.

“I think it’s been 30 years that we’ve supported emerging talent, and it’s great to see those designers who started in London and are now creative directors [of luxury brands] like Kim Jones, Stuart Vevers, Jonathan Anderson, who still shows at London Fashion Week.”

Here are five shows that caught our eye.

Erdem

Canadian-born, London-based, British-Turkish designer Erdem Moralioglu is the ultimate romantic, so it’s no surprise that the late opera singer Maria Callas was the Erdem founder’s muse for autumn/winter 2024.

Born in the US, Callas was of Greek descent and best known for her performance as Medea, the Greek anti-heroine she played on stage and in a film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Moralioglu celebrated Callas’ “Greekness” with a dramatic show, aptly held in an ancient Greek gallery at the British Museum. Opera coats, cocoon jackets and separates embellished with ostrich feathers vied for attention with pyjama sets and printed cocktail dresses. References ranged from Salvatore Fiume’s set designs for La Scala opera house in Milan to Italian composer Gioachino Rossini.

Molly Goddard

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Aside from all that tulle and all those ruffles, the show also featured vintage-inspired shirts with a cowgirl vibe paired with denim trousers or polka dot skirts, and beautiful rose-embellished knitwear – a category that the designer has been developing with success.

Simone Rocha

This collection was the final part of a trilogy that started with the spring/summer 2024 show and then continued with a blockbuster gig as guest designer for Jean Paul Gaultier’s latest couture range.

Models walked along the pews clad in black nylon dresses and parkas, angelic tulle confections, lace-up corsets and tailoring with faux fur panels. Some of them carried stuffed animals, which lightened the mood or made things even more sinister, depending on how you see it.

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JW Anderson

Founded in 2008, JW – as industry insiders refer to it – started out in menswear, but Anderson blurred the line between genders from day one, long before androgyny in fashion was a thing.

Burberry

For his third show, Lee moved away from the darker palette of his two previous collections with a line-up of looks in natural hues that played to Burberry’s strength: outerwear meant for the great outdoors.

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Models, some of them carrying umbrellas, walked down a runway of fake grass clad in leather trenches, shearling jackets, coats with faux fur trims and duffel coats. The men’s looks had a luxe swagger reminiscent of 90s and 2000s hip hop – the camel coats and the check trousers with zip cut-outs looked just fabulous. The womenswear was a pure celebration of all things British and a nice throwback to Burberry’s heyday under the creative direction of Christopher Bailey.

Plenty of girls will want to wear those sequinned dresses nonchalantly worn beneath aviator jackets while those statement dresses in fringed knitwear will delight fashion editors and stylists.

The casting – a who’s who of British top models ranging from Karen Elson to Lily Cole, Lily Donaldson and Naomi Campbell – was another homage to Britain and so was the music, which featured songs from the late Amy Winehouse.

While Lee’s accessories are still a work in progress, with this collection the designer has defined – and refined – his vision of Burberry as the ultimate British luxury brand – a promising development at a time of major changes, and great scrutiny, for a brand that represents so much for Great Britain and the world.