LFW Fall 2026: The Trends To Know
The London lowdown from your resident fashion analysts.
Reporting from London and Melbourne, Aoife Byrne (Between Friends) and Kayla Marci (Haute Garbage) are longtime friends and collaborators with almost 20 years of combined experience dissecting and analyzing runway trends. For more catwalk content, catch up on our Fall 2026 predictions and the hottest trends from New York!
Friends! Hautties! Those who have not yet subscribed (you can do that below!). Welcome back to our series spotlighting the leading themes from the Big Four cities. This week brings us to London, where countrysidecore got grittier and regal codes reigned supreme.
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★ Modern Royalty
While the royals might be in the spotlight for other, darker reasons (off with his head!), designers at LFW redirected attention towards regal dress codes. Following the Rococo Revival discourse, Sandy Liang kick-started this narrative back in New York, where her collection drew inspiration from one of her favourite films, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. London’s V&A museum is currently hosting an exhibition on the former queen of France, and it was clear that the city’s biggest names also found themselves looking to the iconic and controversial monarch when designing for Fall.
Jacquards, dramatic dress silhouettes and ruff collars took center stage, with the latter ranging from stand-alone lace accessories at Keburia to Burberry’s more modern take in the form of waterfall collars. With funnel necks set to be big in Spring 2026, could the ruff become mainstream down the line? Perhaps. Closer to home, headscarves at Natasha Zinko and equestrian patterns at Conner Ives nodded to the late Queen Elizabeth.
★ Into The Wilderness
A yearning for the great outdoors was a recurring theme in London, but without the Country Club polish seen in New York. Perhaps a reference to unplugging and tech regression undercurrents, there was more of an untamed energy. This was channeled with pelt-like coats and shaggy textures at Burberry and Toga, nodding to primal and prehistoric aesthetics previously explored at Haute Garbage. Looks from Chopova Lowena skewed towards folkloric survivalist, with faux-fur Yeti boots, bonnets, and upcycled knits in mixed plaids and Fair Isle. The key takeaway from this theme is clear - next winter, we’re rugging up, but we’re gonna be a bit feral about it.
★ Coven Core
A dark shadow was cast over London, with shades of black, grey, navy and blood red most prominent. Looks were a mix of The Craft and Interview With A Vampire, with ornate detailing, sheer fabrics, and old-world silhouettes cast into being. Leaning into teen fascination with occultism, slogan and graphic tees enjoyed a revival at LFW (side note: fair play to Oli Clarke, the Central Saint Martin’s student, who sent that Paul Mescal tee down the runway - PR gold!). Meanwhile, Masha Popova delivered a supernatural twist through vampire teeth motifs.
★ Femme Varsity
Sports and femininity continued to intersect with Simone Rocha’s adidas Originals collaboration that expertly combined the designer’s signature girlhood codes - ribbons, rosettes, frills and voluminous sleeves - with track-ready pieces. The three-stripe bloomers will reaffirm the continuation of the micro short hype, while reimaging the adidas Trefoil logo into a bow crest was simply the cherry on top of the already sumptuous cake.
Outside of the obvious pinky and pretty, designers manifested varsity-meets-ladylike influences by mixing sheer fabrics with track pants and adding shape-enhancing seams to loungewear. Conner Ives updated its classic rugby polo with a purple-and-teal colorway styled with a silk skirt - a combo that we can expect to see copied and pasted by influencers in transitional weather.
★ Indie Sleaze Renaissance
The mid-noughties were embodied in the form of Indie Sleaze, with Napoleon jackets, beloved by The Libertines, leading the charge. Skinny scarves, contrast stripes and distressed denim propelled us back to the era (that Aoife very much lived and breathed!) of American Apparel, flash photography and liver damage, serving as a continuation of NYC’s Messy Girl and an antidote to the mid-2020s Clean Girl aesthetic.
While most interpretations felt youthful and Gen Z-coded, Burberry communicated a more grown-up version of Indie Sleaze, aimed at those who were there the first time around. Contemporary furs and luxe leather pants made for the veteran party girl, now in her late 30s, with maybe a kid or two in tow, and on a steady salary (this is the part where we say “in this economy?!”).
★ 80s Icons
Here at Haute Garbage, we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. Fashion is a slut for nostalgia, and designers in London didn’t stray from the tried-and-tested formula of looking back in time. After Indie Sleaze, the 80s were the most referenced decade (though an honorable and much-deserved shout-out needs to go to Tolu Coker’s 60s-inspired skirt suits).
Erdem gave the ugly prom dress a cool girl makeover with off-the-shoulder silhouettes, mashups of satin and taffeta, clashing prints and feather trims - excessive, romantic and optimistic energy with the right amount of “so wrong but so right.” Elsewhere, the 80s were revived through flouncy peplums on party dresses and structured shoulders on blazers, proving influence from this unapologetically bold era isn’t going away quietly.
Now, good readers, we want to hear from you!
Thanks for sticking around. We hope you enjoyed this roundup of London’s major themes. Leave us your thoughts in the comments and feel free to share with friends and loved ones.
Our next stop is Milan, so we’re heading over to Aoife’s house!
Love, Kayla & Aoife x
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Great roundup! I am excited to see the Simone Rocha/adidas partnership and more femme varsity looks become mainstream.
wonderful! typically I stay away from newsletters that talk about fashion weeks until after I write about it (don’t want to be biased!) but i had to read this one :’) didn’t disappoint ❤️ femme varsity is my FAV - thank you and goodnight