The London Fashion Week SS27 lineup carries more weight than usual this season, with two of fashion’s most storied British houses returning to the city after years abroad, and five designers making their official schedule debuts. It is the kind of programming that makes you pay attention again.
The Houses Coming Home
Mulberry is ending a six-year runway hiatus with creative director Christopher Kane’s debut ready-to-wear collection for the brand. Kane, who founded his eponymous label in 2006 shortly after graduating from Central Saint Martins, was announced as the brand’s creative lead in March 2026. His first collection for the heritage house will reach shops and land online in January 2027. Kane will present on 20 September at 3pm.
The last time Mulberry showed a spring/summer ready-to-wear collection was Johnny Coca’s 2020 season: checks and plaid, trench coats and biker jackets in red, white and blue, chain belts and sequined dresses. A hard act to contextualise, and Kane’s own aesthetic sits at a considerable remove. His work has long embraced themes of fetish and kink, drawing on the otherworldly geometries of outer space and the intricacies of human anatomy. Following the closure of his namesake label, he returned to the fashion spotlight in 2024 through a collaboration with Self-Portrait, revisiting and reinterpreting his SS07 Central Saint Martins graduate collection. ‘It is an honour to join Mulberry, a brand with such a rich British heritage and a deep commitment to craft,’ Kane has said of the appointment. ‘I look forward to working closely with Andrea [Baldo] and the team to create a new chapter of ready-to-wear that celebrates the spirit of Mulberry.’
McQueen has been absent from the London calendar since Sarah Burton’s SS23 show at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Seán McGirr, who assumed the role of creative director in 2024, is overseeing its return, moving the house away from Paris and back to the city where Lee Alexander McQueen first staged his work. Founded in 1993, London was the setting for some of the house’s most ferocious early shows: Highland Rape (AW95), The Birds (SS95), Golden Shower (SS98). Following investment from the Gucci Group, the brand moved its runway shows to Paris in 2001.
McGirr’s tenure has been marked by a determination to honour that raw, searing early energy. His SS26 collection, drawn from the 1973 folk horror film The Wicker Man, revived the bumster: the low-rise trouser silhouette McQueen first introduced in his AW93 graduate collection, Taxi Driver, staged at London’s Ritz Hotel. ‘I wanted to elongate the body, not just show the bum,’ McQueen said of the original. McGirr rendered it in navy wool, adorned with pleated bands and zippers trailing from back to ankle, paired with jackets carrying undone lapels and fringed epaulettes. His SS27 show is on 20 September at 8pm.
Five Debuts Defining the London Fashion Week SS27 Lineup
Alongside those returning houses, the London Fashion Week SS27 lineup introduces five new names, several arriving via the British Fashion Council‘s NewGen programme, in partnership with Pull&Bear.
Swedish designer Petra Fagerström, who launched her label in 2025 one year after graduating from Central Saint Martins, is among the NewGen recipients. Her practice is built around a distinctive lenticular pleating technique: hundreds of individual pleats hand-sewn into place before the fabric is set, producing a shifting, almost animated surface effect. The result sits between structured outerwear and eveningwear, controlled yet subtly undone. Her AW26 collection, After Everything I Did for You, drew from the world of figure-skating prodigies, and she is currently a finalist for the LVMH Prize 2026. She presents on 18 September at 10am.
Francesca Lake, who graduated from Central Saint Martins with a master’s degree in Fashion Design, brings a multidisciplinary practice that moves across garment construction, installation, ceramics, film and prose. Awarded both a BFC Scholarship and the Honorary Daphne Guinness Scholarship, she has built a body of work that balances theatrical maximalism with utilitarian dressing: bubble hems and ruched gowns alongside bomber jackets and cargo trousers. Her tartan designs have been worn by Rihanna in campaigns for Fenty and Puma. Lake presents on 17 September, between 1:30pm and 3:30pm.
Portuguese designer Gui Rosa was personally selected by Alessandro Michele to participate in GucciFest after graduating from Central Saint Martins, where they created a short film and a mini capsule collection within two weeks. Known for crochet cocktail dresses, knitted cowboy boots and sheer embroidered skirts, Rosa crafts each textile from scratch. ‘I’m interested in ways in which I can dismantle and domesticize trademark menswear garments,’ Rosa has said. Rosa presents on 20 September, from 12:30pm to 2:30pm.
The full London Fashion Week SS27 lineup runs from 17 to 21 September, with Kane’s Mulberry debut and McGirr’s McQueen homecoming both falling on the 20th, which, on current evidence, shapes up to be the day worth clearing the diary for.
