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Merve Bayindir's designs are more than just hats; they are art, architecture, and couture. From the beginning of the business in Turkey and then carrying it to London, Bayindir relishes the challenges of the business, with her craft being her creative playground. Her constant striving for perfection is evident in her work. This past September, I had the pleasure of speaking with Merve online about her journey, ambitions, and creative process.

In our current fashion climate, it feels like we’re entrenched in a gale-force storm of trends and information, not to mention the vast ecological disaster resulting from the fast-fashion industry. Globally, the fast fashion industry produces around 92 million tonnes of textile waste per year. But there’s one teen in South East London holding up an umbrella to this textile tempest: My good friend, Flora Macfarlane. 

On Saturday 20th September, streetwear's best-dressed and most well-versed streamed into 180 Strand, home of the Yaku SS26 show, or shall we say, experience. Everything about the traditional runway show has been reworked and revolutionised by Yaku Stapleton and his team.

Joshua Ewusie, a London-born designer, who brings Ghanaian heritage into a sharp, contemporary focus. A recent Central Saint Martins MA graduate and current designer in residence at The Kings Foundation with CHANEL, Ewusie aims to transform the textures and traditions of West African craft into modern womenswear that celebrates community, culture, and a distinctly London sensibility.

There is always something surreal about an APUJAN show. This season was no different. The Taiwanese label landed back at London Fashion Week with The Extraordinary Voyage of Captain Peach, a surreal retelling of the Japanese folktale Momotaro.

Community, harmony, and ancestry lie at the heart of tribal identity, and these universal values are the core of Ginny Litscher's SS26 collection. Channeling her inspiration from the Native American Plains and the Mongolian Steppes, Litscher reimagines traditional indigenous patterns and palettes, weaving them seamlessly into her contemporary aesthetic.

Each collection was full of soul, passion and artistry, but a collection that caught my eye in particular was Nathan Slate's ‘Mourning’. It was a collection that reexamined the concept of sustainability, leaving the audience with something to reconsider. Needless to say, Slate debuted in London Fashion Week with a statement by bringing a different perspective to the conversation. 

Amid the buzz of London Fashion Week, INFDark SS26 lit up Protein Studios in Shoreditch with their  Spring/Summer 2026 collection. The designer Wei Kuo reimagined the audacious eclecticism of the 1980s for a contemporary audience. Hannah Breen Gibbons and Niki Dribusch cover.

Bacaoco advocates this by presenting a polished collection on the runway, proving that sustainable fashion is more accessible than some think. ‘It's not easy, ’ Bacaoco reveals the challenges that come with her stance, ‘it's very hard to cope because when you’re sustainable they [industry members] said it's expensive - it's not’.

From Taipei to London was a vibrant celebration of Taiwanese culture, staged at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. Spanning everything from garment design to a curated tasting menu by Bao London, the event was commissioned by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture to spotlight the country’s distinctive fashion scene on a global stage.