One of biggest strengths of London Fashion Week is the British Fashion Council's commitment to championing young designers. It's why the Fashion East showcase is continuously billed as a season highlight, presenting names like Martine Rose, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Claire Barrow, Simone Rocha, and countless others.
Recently there's been much discussion about how difficult it can be for emerging designers to thrive, with Puppets and Puppets bowing out of New York Fashion Week, but it's heartening to know that across the Atlantic there's still a culture that supports designers on the rise.
So who are some of the names you should be watching as the 40th year of London Fashion Week kicks off? For Fall 2024, we've selected eight designers to familiarise yourself with, who have been invited to present as part of the NEWGEN initiative. Admittedly, there are those on the lineup – Feben, Di Petsa, Connor Ives, Chet Lo, Sinéad O'Dwyer, Yuhan Wang – who you may already be familiar with. Which is why we've dug deeper. Below, we've listed the brands we're excited to hear from this season.
Paolo Carzana
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Sustainability is the foundation of Welsh designer Paolo Carzana's namesake label. Garments are handcrafted using repurposed, recycled, plant-based, and organic textiles to juxtapose strength and frailty. The designer debuted his first collection during the Spring 2023 season of London Fashion Week. We love the whipped quality of his clothes.
Derrick
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Central Saint Martins graduate Luke Derrick taps into England's tailoring heritage with fresh eyes, creating menswear that is reverent of the past but daring enough to push ahead. His clothes are generated to be elegant but effortless, finding a line between old world masculinity and dainty modernity.
Feben
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For Feben Vemmenby, there is no single identity that encompasses her – born in North Korea to an Ethiopian mum, raised in Sweden, and working in London – and the clothes reflect her sprawling perspective. After garnering a reputation from her work as a costume designer for Beyoncé's Black is King visual album and with a Fashion MA from Central Saint Martins under her belt, we picture big things for this designer, whose clothes are original and curious.
Sinéad O’Dwyer
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Sinéad O'Dwyer powers through walls and excuses that would leave bodies beyond sample size excluded from fashion. Her clothes put the body first, investigating new or inspired methods of garment-making – think: silicone moulding, stretch and innovating pattern-making – to expand the possibilities of ready-to-wear. As a result, the Irish designer delivers clothes that are sensual and versatile.
Aaron Esh
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Sexy and dishevelled, nothing is ever quite as it seems when you're dealing with an Aaron Esh collection. The Central Saint Martins graduate creates menswear with haute couture techniques and an irreverent attitude as his tools of choice. Esh proves that menswear can be playful and flirty, and deal with it?
Ancuta Sarka
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Ancuta Sarka will be bringing big circular energy to London Fashion Week Fall 2024. The Romanian-born, London-based designer has built a reputation for her kitten heels, mules and boots that repurpose and upcycle deadstock trainers. She made her LFW debut in 2019 via the Fashion East showcase, and her designs have been worn by Bella Hadid, Rihanna, Doja Cat and more.
Bora Aksu
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Worn by the likes of Zendaya, Elle Fanning, and Sienna Miller, Bora Aksu has secured NEWGEN funding for eight consecutive seasons and has recently experienced a significant interest in Asia. The Turkish designer's clothing will appeal to anyone observing the coquette wave, with its voluminous, layered and frilly take on femininity.
Tolu Coker
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British-Nigerian designer Tolu Coker first launched her eponymous label in 2018, and at its heart is a social and political consciousness. For Coker, fashion like her art, can be a vehicle for powerful social change. In 2019, she travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to design a collection in honour of the lives of women survivors of rape through war violence; in 2020, she teamed up with the charity Choose Love, creating a special t-shirt design in lieu of a collection, the proceeds of which went to grassroots projects in aid of migrants and refugees globally.
Images: @paolocarzano @feben.x
