Back To The Good Times. Conner Ives AW26

| Design & Culture by Ed

What I love about Conner Ives’s latest collection is how unfussy, unpretentious, and effortless it feels – while remaining absolutely glamorous. The designer drew inspiration from Weimar-era Berlin: a time of freedom and untamed expression, a moment of societal shift, and the rise of a queer community that helped shape modern art. Echoes of the 1920s came alive in Ives’s low-waisted dresses with fringed hems and sleeves, as well as in a phenomenal fur-trimmed silk coat adorned with chinoiserie motifs. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.

ED’s SELECTION:


Conner Ives Appliquéd Stretch-micro Modal Jersey Midi Skirt



Conner Ives Recycled-twill Vest



Conner Ives Jellyfish Asymmetric Ruffled Bamboo-blend Jersey Top



Conner Ives Fluted Checked Cotton-blend Gauze Midi Dress



Conner Ives Ruched Stretch-jersey And Silk Mini Dress

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Thorny. Simone Rocha AW26

| Design & Culture by Ed

The woman on Simone Rocha’s mind this season is someone who has truly lived. She has pushed through thorny rose bushes, crossed rain-soaked moors, and ridden a horse or two – beginning with Enbarr, the all-white horse of Irish mythology, the only means of reaching Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. Yet Rocha’s protagonist does not dwell on the windswept pages of “Wuthering Heights“; she is far more grounded in reality than one might expect. Hence the variations of the MA-1 jacket in olive nylon, layered over rosette- and ribbon-trimmed dresses. A harness-evoking crinoline functions as armour, while the red tracksuit from the Adidas collaboration becomes a kind of modern hauberk. The collection’s “pretty” flourishes, set against a shaggy, almost animalistic roughness, imbue Rocha’s proposition with palpable tension and intrigue. Her signature of sorts.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The Narcissist. THEVXLLEY AW26

| Design & Culture by Ed

Creatives like Daniel Del Valle remind us why London Fashion Week – even at its weakest – still matters. The 2026 LVMH Prize semi-finalist and founder of THEVXLLEY does not call himself a designer, nor does he classify his brainchild as a fashion brand in the traditional sense. His latest work, “The Narcissist”, is a collection of wearable art that has been three years in the making.

A former florist, Del Valle drew on the world of fleeting beauty to create body-morphing garments: monumental porcelain vases were transformed into bodices; delicate cropped sweaters and tops were bound with branches or burst forth with bouquets; an artisanal T-shirt was crafted from a literal mosaic depicting blooming tulips; and a hand-painted dress adorned with ornate orbs evolved into a three-dimensional tableau vivant. When flowers were not integrated into the wearable vases, they shot out from the models’ heels, were strapped to their feet, and trailed behind them in a scatter of petals.

There was something profoundly heart-wrenching about the collection – so fragile, yet so defiant. At a time when everything in London can feel calculated and commercial, THEVXLLEY rekindles the spirit of dreamlike experimentation that defined the great fashion conceptualists of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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