LFW SS26 Highlights: Sprayground, Mark Fast, Paul Costelloe and more...

The spring/summer 2026 edition of London Fashion Week is in full swing, with standout collections already unveiled by Paul Costelloe, Bora Aksu, and Sprayground. Their early showcases have set the tone for a season bursting with bold statements and fresh perspectives.

This season also marks a significant milestone for British fashion, as Laura Weir makes her debut as CEO of the British Fashion Council. Officially opening LFW this morning, Weir declared the beginning of a new era - one defined by accessibility, cultural relevance, and global impact.

Determined to break down barriers and re-energise the event, Weir is already implementing change: relaxing entry requirements, waiving participation fees, and expanding the spotlight beyond the capital to celebrate the full spectrum of British fashion talent across the country.

TheIndustry.fashion has been on the ground, capturing the buzz, the trends, and the must-see moments from the opening days of London Fashion Week SS26.

VIN + OMI on their 'world-first' textile innovation and striking sustainable showcase

Eco-designers VIN + OMI made a striking return to London Fashion Week with DYSPHORIANA, debuting a "world-first" collaboration with King Charles III. Unveiled last night, the show delivered a powerful and creative reflection of today’s global mood - exploring the widespread chaos and anarchy, and their social and environmental impacts.

As part of their ongoing collaboration with the King, the designers unveiled a sustainable textile innovation - crafted from plant waste sourced at Sandringham. The creation is a lightweight, fine textile made from red-barked dogwood, a woody shrub native to Siberia and China.

The wider collection featured an array of other innovative materials transformed into textiles, such as nettle and wood clippings. Further pushing the boundaries of sustainable fashion, used milk cartons from Sandringham were recycled into a thin, paper-like textile. The Norfolk-based designers also partnered with RAF Brize Norton, art supply giant Daler-Rowney, the British Heart Foundation, and art'otel Hoxton.

Amid great anticipation, Dame Prue Leith also returned to the Vin + Omi catwalk for the fourth time, once again joined by Loose Women regular and journalist Jane Moore, as well as eco advocate Jo Wood.

Sprayground makes its London debut with bold LFW showcase

Cult American travel luggage brand Sprayground made its debut appearance at London Fashion Week. The runway show took place in the iconic Freemasons’ Hall in London, where the new season’s collection appeared to be accessorised with boldly silhouetted outfits of their own.

The austere Art Deco atmosphere sharply juxtaposed the brand’s ‘streetwear attitude’, as seen through the new collection and its matching outfits. The 47 looks were innovative and well-crafted, representing the work of several different designers, each offering their own take on the brand’s increasingly international presence. Among those in attendance at the show were Jack Whitehall and his fiancée, who joined musician Tom King and Lady Victoria.

Sprayground’s iconography was synthesized into wearable garments as models paraded down the catwalk to heavy techno music. ‘Shark Mouth’ artwork became an innovative jacket, while houndstooth leather formed a mermaid-skirted gown.

Sprayground has been part of the British Fashion Council’s City-Wide Celebration campaign and has now launched in Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Fenwick, and Childsplay.

Paul Costelloe brings the Sixties Beverly Hills Barbie to the runway

Irish designer Paul Costelloe transported spectators across the Atlantic for his spring/summer 2026 London Fashion Week show. It was the epitome of his work over the past four decades: An ode to the old heritage, bold and vibrant streets of Rodeo Drive in 1960s Beverly Hills, with the collection fittingly titled ‘Boulevard of Dreams’.

Usually drawing on a subdued palette of pastels or earth tones, this collection was a welcomed contrast to his previous ones, with tangerine and turquoise being focal colours of the collection.

Against a backdrop painted with candy-coloured palm trees, boulevards and convertibles, models walked in sky-blue trapeze minis, butter-yellow twinsets and sherbet-orange cut-out gowns perched on towering pastel platforms.

Even the hair, piled into high bouffants, nodded to an idealised California of the Sixties rather than Carnaby Street - crafted by TONI&GUY Global Creative Director, Cos Sakkas.

Mark Fast celebrates the club aesthetic in wool.

On an especially hot afternoon in Dalston, Mark Fast presented his spring/summer collection which synthesised early 2000s grit in demi couture knitwear. Fast had a singular type of woman in mind when he designed this collection - not the type to stay home.

Beginning the collection with a series matching skirt two pieces, Fast’s knitwear adeptly lent itself to an aesthetic that may soon readily adorn club goers internationally. The collection did not however, feature a bright colour palette as might be expected; Fast instead chose muted peaches, beiges, greens and black to let the silhouettes speak for themselves.

Other looks featured short skirts in velour alongside wool exposed models’ tramp-stamps, becoming a celebration of fun and sensuality. On occasion, Fast juxtaposed the scantily clad models with sheer dark gothic cover-ups adorned with lace frills which only further added to the sexuality on show.

The collection was not only an ode to noughties nostalgia but featured plenty of references to the brand’s knitwear heritage. A boned mini dress was created by intricate cable knit, synching the model at the waist whilst accentuating the bust in equal proportion.

The show sought to celebrate the liberation of the club aesthetic from any sense of shame and rapturously applauded the woman with the audacity to choose the dance floor over dinner.

Oxfam and Vinted present a celebration of second-hand fashion

Pre-loved garments took top billing at London Fashion Week this year, as Oxfam collaborated with Vinted for the second year to showcase the best of what second-hand fashion has to offer in a show entitled "Style for Change".

Alongside a host of stylish celebrities, the subterranean catwalk took place on the opening night of Fashion Week at the Ambika P3 gallery in Marylebone. The show shone a spotlight on sustainable style with the power to change the world. Indeed, every single garment on the runway was second-hand, pulled and styled by thrifting pioneer, Bay Garnett.

What proceeded was iconic representations of fashion through the decades and style heroes - from 1950s swing to a 1990s grunge look. Evidently from Garnett’s undertaking, these clothes were more than a ‘pile of stuff’ but the work of countless weeks of thought and effort. Fortunately for us, however, the entire catwalk is available for purchase on Oxfam’s account on the Vinted site.

Bora Aksu embraces ‘fragile fashion’ with broken doll-inspired collection

The setting of Bora Aksu's SS26 show - a pathway framed by rose bushes rather than a LED-lit catwalk - was the first indication that this would be far from a typical runway presentation. What followed was a procession of cracked-doll-like models in bonnets, harlequin tights and lace caps, pulling together both nursery innocence and adult melancholy.

Aksu’s starting point was his own archive of broken porcelain dolls. "Broken dolls remind me that beauty does not lie in perfection but in the traces of love, time, and survival," he said before the show. "Through this collection, I wanted to create a world where flaws and cracks are celebrated not as weakness, but as strength and beauty."

That idea became the thread for this collection, which transformed fragility into power. Some looks – like a monochrome checked dress layered over black lace tights and harlequin diamonds – evoked Aksu’s signature Victoriana influence. Others were almost regal: a marigold-yellow gown with balloon sleeves and cascading ruffles glowed in the sunlight; a pink scalloped dress shimmered with tiny reflective discs at the hem; a blood-red dress trailed with loose threads and appliquéd hearts.

The palette of the collection was fittingly fragile as well. Colours unfolded like faded keepsakes: powder pinks, soft corals, peaches and powder blues anchored by ghostly whites, shadowy blacks and touches of midnight navy. Meanwhile, the cracked edges and raw seams recalled Aksu’s theme of broken porcelain, but also mirrored the current cultural state of mind: audiences are ready to move beyond polished, Instagram-perfect fashion into something more emotional, even a bit uncanny.