Our top burgeoning brands from London Fashion Week

This London Fashion week was a bit of a quieter one than usual. Of course, the industry big dogs drew in their usual slew of celebrities, but a slightly less packed season meant there was plenty of space to champion smaller brands. Amongst them was a recurring theme of fashion being a force for good. Against a background of declining rights for women and LGBT+ individuals across the pond, Pauline Dujancourt and Nikeen Asar championed female empowerment. Meanwhile, Taiwanese brand RAY CHU headed up genderless clothing. Then, Maximilian Reynor and E.L.V. Denim took the season’s new sustainability requirements to another level — highlighting the climate crisis in their presentations, the brands employed backdrops of futuristic wastelands and energy-saving washing machines respectively. The overall tone? A pessimistically optimistic approach to the future of fashion. 

Maximilian Raynor

Maximilian Raynor graduated from Central Saint Martins back in 2021 and, since then, the Derbyshire-born designer has been running his burgeoning brand from south London. This LFW marked his first ever solo show. Titled ‘The Personification of the Internet’, the presentation explored the future of capitalism and climate decline, set in a wasteland. The collection itself championed texture (think everything from chunky knits to leather), with a palate of earthy tones spanning brown to berry. If Raynor’s recent accolades are anything to go by (he dressed Chappell Roan for her Rolling Stone feature last September), this is going to be the designer’s first show of many.

Pauline Dujancourt 

Another designer who made her LFW debut this season is Pauline Dujancourt. For those who don’t know her already, the Parisian is a graduate of École Duperré, as well as CSM and launched her own brand back in 2022. The London-based designer’s work is largely inspired by domestic customs of knitting and empowering female artisans. Her AW25 show was titled ‘Everything is moving, Nothing feels safe’. Inspired by her late grandmother, the collection included traditional knitting techniques, fleshed out with spidery laces and cables. It’s giving a dark spin on femininity and we’re massive fans.

Tursi

Tursi was a favourite of ours on LFW’s digital schedule. Created by artist and designer Nikole Tursi, the brand is a fusion of millinery and art. Her work has also just been featured in Fontaines D.C.’s “It’s Amazing To Be Young” music video. This fashion week, though, the Argentinia-born designer presented Orácular, which showcased her experimental work (which sits somewhere between wearable sculpture and haute couture), while bringing in themes of spirituality and transformation. Orácular is only the first part of the designer’s Renaissance in Forms series, so there’s way more to come from Tursi.

ASAR

In a world currently laden with bad news, ASAR is all about joy — the joy of being a sexy woman to be precise. The brand started off as a luxury bridal wear brand in 2020, created by Leicestershire-born designer Nikeen Asar when he saw a gap in the market for modern attire. For AW25, though, Asar expanded his eponymous brand into a full evening wear collection. Our Issue 32 cover star, AJ Odudu, actually wore a dress from it to the BAFTAs the other weekend. Inspired by a fusion of the founding designer’s Indian heritage and Hollywood influences, ASAR’s garms are sexy, feminine and colourful. Asar himself is also an absolute sweetheart, and he’s going to launch his debut shoe collection at LFW in September, so stay tuned for that.

RAY CHU

It was the Taiwanese brand’s fourth time at LFW. This time round, the collection was dedicated to nature and, specifically, the blue cypress tree. The gender non-specific collection featured the eponymous designer’s usual motifs of stripes, playful co-ords and vegan leather, making a statement about the beauty of the lasting natural world. The eco-friendly materials the brand used echoed this — they employed innovative sustainable fabrics from Taiwan, such as SECAO fibre, which comes from the cacao plant. The result? Elegant yet modern pret-à-porter with a sustainable and genderless edge.

E.L.V. Denim

Even in ready-to-wear season, the clothes we see on the runways can feel, well, not so wearable. That’s where E.L.V. denim has things down. Starting off with its first pair of jeans in 2018, E.L.V. is now a full-blown denim-wear brand, spanning shirts to evening wear and everything in between — without being OTT. The reason we really love them, though, is they’re completely dedicated to sustainability and only use one hundred percent upcycled materials. They actually teamed up with Samsung Electronics this LFW (the show was set to a backdrop of their energy-saving Series 6 washing machines and dryers) to teach us a lesson about keeping our laundry eco-friendly. We’re here for it.