Defiant dancing, gothic motifs and eco-minded designs close out London Fashion Week | Canada Voices

London has always featured the most adventurous and cheeky collections of any of the four big fashion weeks. It’s where Alexander McQueen thrilled audiences with his audacious designs, and where the iconic, pink-haired grande dame of quirky maximalism, Zandra Rhodes, has made her home.

At Ashish’s runway show at 180 The Strand on Monday, Rhodes could be seen in the front row, seated beside the equally exotically coiffed singer Beth Ditto. A fitting audience, considering designer Ashish Gupta’s penchant for bodacious streetwear and evening pieces.

Both were on display at his show, which was just the kind of jubilant tonic weary fashion-week attendees needed. The label’s hallmark Technicolor sequined looks appeared alongside fluffy outerwear and sheer, gauzy garments.

As part of the colourful presentation, a diverse assemblage of models writhed, twerked, sashayed and twirled around the bare-bones venue to a soundtrack of trip hop group Massive Attack and a smattering of disco hits.

The music was a nod to some of the issues Gupta holds most dear – notably, queer liberation. Despite his love of pomp, he isn’t one to shy away from politically charged sentiments; his spring 2026 collection is titled “Fresh hell,” and one model wore a T-shirt brandishing the slogan “Fashion not fascism.”

Watching the catwalkers defiantly dance to the throbbing music in high-vis attire brought tears to my eyes. It was a vision of electrifying freedom, and the crowd’s cheers signalled its support. One doesn’t typically encounter such hoopla at the end of a runway presentation, but it was welcome and entirely deserved.

The scene was more subdued at the gorgeous St. Marylebone Parish Church, where emerging designer Kyle Ho made his fashion-week debut.

Ho, who had pianist Tom Donald accompany the models as they walked between the pews, drew influence from surrealist and gothic motifs. Some models wore stark white human heart brooches that were like something out of Dali’s oeuvre, and the final look featured an elaborate funereal headpiece adorned with faux black birds made by milliner Katherine Elizabeth.

Ho also looked to London’s dandy culture and its tailoring-with-a-twist trope in the creation of his sensual yet smart suiting pieces. Notably, each piece was hand-made using surplus luxury fabrics through the Institute of Positive Fashion’s Low Carbon Transition Programme and required more than 100 hours to craft. The effect of this thoughtful approach to design was achingly beautiful to behold.

Ho is one of several up-and-coming designers to watch this season, another being Pauline Dujancourt. Her show also included themes of sorrow and strength, as well as bird motifs. Dujancourt cited Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull as the inspiration for her spring 2026 collection, noting in the press release that she identified deeply with the character of Nina and her resilience (the designer worked through her grief after losing a close friend).

She was also thinking about the shape of a bird with its wings folded while designing the pieces. Those gentle curves were translated into a visual feast of ethereal tulle and knitted textiles, rendered in a sombre palette of black and navy blue with punctuations of cobalt, lavender, white and cream, conjuring an ultimate feeling of hope.

Dujancourt, who was one of eight finalists for the illustrious LVMH Prize last year, received support in the making of her collection as a designer-in-residence at the Paul Smith Foundation – Smith being another stalwart of the London fashion scene. I spotted him at the show of another young designer, Paolo Carzana, who’s also a beneficiary of Smith’s foundation.

Like his peers, Carzana has caught the attention of editors and buyers with his mindful production practice and ability to create captivating worlds through his designs.

His latest collection combines punk and shipwreck glamour in alluringly ramshackle draping. The looks – all made from plant-based, organic, recycled and repurposed materials and plant dyes that the designer concocts himself – were exactingly styled. Some ensembles were further enhanced with headwear by Nasir Mazhar.

As a testament to Carzana’s eco-minded material use, the designer’s work is part of a new exhibition on sustainability at London’s Barbican Centre. Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion examines practices like upcycling and distressing and features pieces by notable London-based creatives like Hussein Chalayan and the late Vivienne Westwood.

Another newly opened exhibition, Material World at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, shares similar concerns. It explores the possibilities of using plants and fungi in the creation of fashion garments and accessories, with boundary-breaking designs from students at the London College of Fashion, UAL.

Standouts include a suit made of seaweed by Jessie Von Curry and Vega Hertel and speculative biodegradable knit garments by Beth Williams. The shows are further proof that London remains the place to be for creatives who are resolutely forging their own paths.