Irish designers were at the forefront of the 40th anniversary edition of London Fashion Week which concludes today.
From JW Anderson and Simone Rocha to newcomers and old-timers, the spring-summer 2025 collections attested to the endurance of Irish talent in the British capital.
Sunday morning’s JW Anderson show at Old Billingsgate was a rollicking start to the day with a bracing thesis on femininity. Fascinated by the Irish tradition of a girls night out, Anderson was drawn to a tougher attitude.
There was no room for confusion with this sharp, direct outing. The runway was replete with attenuated silhouettes and abbreviated hemlines. There were also playful shapes, like a dress with giant woven loops, spaceship-shaped skirts, hoop skirts, and structured A-line skirts that jutted outwards, that had a thrilling verve.
The sharpness extended to fabrication too: silk satin, leather, and cashmere were the only fabrics; lace and sequins, the only decoration.
In its simplicity, Anderson liberated party dressing.
There was a pervasive lightness at Simone Rocha’s outing at the Old Bailey on Sunday where balletic influences loomed large.
Rocha, whose debut monograph documenting the first decade of her career will be published by Rizzoli next month, recalled her signatures and expanded her offering.
She juxtaposed rarefied aspects of her work like tulle tutus, sensual organza slips, and satin gowns, with tailoring, technical jackets, knitwear, and prints of Irish artist Genieve Figgis’ spectral paintings.
Introducing denim, the most casual fabric in her repertoire thus far, she rendered it with an ornate finish, embellishing jackets and jeans with crystal embellishments.
The level of craftsmanship at Michael Stewart’s Standing Ground show on Saturday afternoon made it abundantly clear why he was the winner of the inaugural Savoir-Faire Award at LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers in Paris last week.
The Clare-born designer will receive €200,000 and one-year mentorship by a team of LVMH experts, in addition to support from an embroidery specialist which will provide him with €50,000 of embellishments for his next collection.
With his technical sleight of hand, Stewart’s hand-draped, hand-beaded jersey column gowns inspired by standing stones in the West of Ireland evoke a monumental serenity. His singular approach to eveningwear witnessed the arrival of leather and velvet for spring/summer 2025.
With the maturity of a legacy name, Stewart could be the future of London fashion.
Throughout London Fashion Week, there are 72 on-schedule designers, 48 catwalk shows, 17 presentations, and 63 events.
On Saturday, Dublin native Daniel Kearns returned to British heritage brand Kent & Curwen, known for designing uniforms for prestige schools and sporting clubs, after a two-year hiatus.
Last year, the company was bought by Guangzhou-based Biem L Fdlkk Garment Co with intentions of repositioning it as a leading heritage brand.
Kearns, whose gilded resumé reads like a list of the most important luxury brands in the world, is a capable designer and breathed new life into a brand in need of resuscitation.
He upended the hallmarks of collegiate style by imparting a sense of British eccentricity and punk. There were graffitied and buttoned-down school shirts, deconstructed rugby shirts, trousers in outsize proportions, and short pleated skirts revealing boxer shorts underneath.
Paul Costelloe, who opened proceedings on Friday morning, has been a fixture of the schedule since its inception 40 years ago. In a rare interview published by Vogue Business ahead of his show, he discussed his career from his humble beginnings to his stint as the personal designer to Diana, Princess of Wales, and his ambitions to become “the Irish Ralph Lauren”.
His collection was everything one has come to expect from Costelloe over the last four decades: saccharine, twee, and flirtatious.
Ultra-feminine to their core, flouncy dresses with ruffle trims and slim tailoring in Irish linen and silk linen tweed, in pastel shades and painterly floral prints evoke springtime in Paris.
Alongside an industry stalwart like Costelloe, there are newcomers like Sinéad O’Dwyer whose vision of femininity is diametrically opposite. On Monday, she will showcase a project with photographer Sharna Osborne that she worked on when she presented her spring/summer 2025 collection shown at Copenhagen Fashion Week in August.
Having won the €50,000 Zalando Visionary Award for challenging the fashion system with her commitments to body positivity (her clothes range from a UK 6-20) and sustainability (she works with responsibly-sourced or deadstock fabrics), O’Dwyer fosters a sense of urgency around representation on the runway and beyond.
To round out proceedings, British prime minister Keir Starmer will host a reception at 10 Downing Street for members of the fashion elite and government ministers to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary and to lay the groundwork for a productive relationship between the sector and the change in government.
