The 6 London Fashion Week AW26 Trends to Shop Now

London has just finished a very fashionable week (don’t forget the Autumn/Winter shows always coincide with the BAFTA Awards, serving double portions of style on the Sunday). And, boy, was there plenty to sink your teeth into trend-wise, from whip-smart tailoring and “nice tops” to slinky cut-outs that showcased the body and sublimely-executed sportswear. These are the six trends you can shop now, and start wearing already.

Sporty (With Spice)

Simone Rocha’s collection included a much-feted collaboration with Adidas, giving the latter’s signature track jackets a taste of the exquisite for AW26. From a teardrop-pearl zip pull to styling them under frocks criss-crossed by ribbon, it’s already the must-buy of autumn.

For her debut on-schedule at London Fashion Week, meanwhile, Selasi’s Ronan Mckenzie raided an unexpected archive for inspiration, that of Walthamstow School for Girls, her alma mater. School-girlish P.E. kits were her material of choice. As she explained in the press release accompanying the show, being a creative is sometimes like competing in a bleep test: “I ran back and forth, back and forth, watching other girls in my class fall away, the heat in my body rising, my lungs getting heavier, it becoming harder and harder to breathe,” she says in the release, drawing a parallel between life then and now. “The last couple of years of being a creative primarily based in London have reminded me of external conditions not aligning with the amount of effort or intention being put in.” While P.E. could be exhausting, it was also energising—and it’s this spirit you should channel into Autumn. Think an uplifting colour palette of primary hues, and twist-on-a-classic sportswear tropes, as you strategise your kit.

Nice Tops

Erdem Moralıoğlu celebrated his brand’s 20th birthday at London Fashion Week, with a starry front row that was heavy on national treasures. The collection was achingly beautiful—a celebration of how fabric and form, treated carefully, can be a thing of wonder—but it also evoked an unlikely ’00s’s outfit formula: the infamous “jeans and a nice top”. The Erdem woman is apparently on board, and will be wearing said pairing (in this case a silk-satin blouse, encrusted and beribboned, along with low-slung jeans) as of Autumn. (Add a heel into the equation for a perfect 10/10).

New Tailoring

Tolu Coker opened LFW, with a specially-designated seat for King Charles III. It was her clothing as storytelling, however, that really stole the show, especially the breath-of-fresh-air tailoring—an acid-bright skirt suit here and sharply tailored jersey there, the latter of which highlighted, “the evolution of one’s wardrobe as they journey through different social-economic circles”. Push your suiting to sublime levels this season, and next, with unexpected shades or whip-smart cuts.

Cut-Outs

Karoline Vitto cleverly reclaimed past narratives for AW26, drawing on the decades most associated with “heroin chic body ideals”, the ’90s and early ’00s. The cut-out became a thing of beauty and celebration, with the doing away with a, “fallacy many of us lived by in previous decades: that we need to fit into the clothes, rather than clothes fitting us”. Whether a keyhole that fastened with the kind of ring you might usually find on swimwear, or slices at either hip, Vitto wasn’t playing a game of peekaboo but celebrating the body.