LFW AW25 Highlights: Erdem, Conner Ives, Simone Rocha and more...


As London Vogue Week involves a detailed, extra designers have taken to the catwalk to showcase their autumn/winter 2025 collections. 

Simone Rocha channelled teenage angst, whereas Conner Ives dissected the American dream and Erdem spotlighted artist Kaye Donachie’s. TheIndustry.style shares its last highlights from a number of the latest exhibits.

Simone Rocha channelled teenage angst for her excessive school-inspired assortment

Simone Rocha’s AW25 assortment dives into the rebellious world of college days. Impressed by The Tortoise and The Hare, it blends nostalgia and reminiscence with a dose of sweet sixteen angst. The Irish designer, who took a retrospective take a look at her faculty years, performed into the drama of adolescence, setting the tone by blasting a teenage angst-themed playlist.

The AW25 assortment is a mixture of highschool stereotypes from jocks and nerds to goths and even headmistresses that roam the hallways. In distinction, the fluffy rabbit companions provide a smooth and kooky distinction to the more durable parts like bike chain belts, S&M-inspired harnesses and biker jackets that have been reimagined as puff-sleeve clothes or navy greatcoats.

However in fact, Rocha added her signature splash of romanticism through denim jackets and duffel coats embellished with beads. In the meantime, rugby shirts have been softened with ruffles. The runway present was a window into these hazy, desire-filled moments of youth – a mirrored image on how the previous shapes who we’re right now.

Erdem brings artist Kaye Donachie’s work to style in elegant AW25 assortment

London-based designer Erdem has collaborated with artist Kaye Donachie for autumn/winter 2025, taking inspiration from her technique of “portray with poetic license to file a personality from the previous”. Donachie’s portraits are usually not literal depictions however abstractions and moods, based mostly on analysis and intuition.

The gathering is fashioned of archetypal female silhouettes – from sculpted and mid-length clothes to cropped jackets and jumpers – the place Donachie’s artworks are juxtaposed and amplified. 

Key appears embrace a slashed neckline column costume with portrait in hand-embroidered organza appliqué and a fitted bodice in bonded canvas, hand-painted by Kaye Donachie, to a tailor-made jacket worn with a sculpted full skirt and a skeletal corset costume.

Emilia Wickstead brings again pillbox hats with a group impressed by Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds

Emilia Wickstead introduced pillbox hats to the runway at London Vogue Week, probably ushering in a brand new hat pattern for the 12 months. The New Zealand-born designer’s assortment regarded to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds (1963) for inspiration, significantly visionary costume designer Edith Head, alongside its solid together with the magnetic American actress Tippi Hedren.

Held on the Saatchi Gallery in South West London, the present kicked off with the movie’s staccato string soundtrack flooding the room, as fashions strode onto the runway with energy and objective.

The gathering didn’t stray removed from Wickstead’s type maxim, with utilitarian cuts, Sixties shift clothes and mod-style skirts. She stored her deal with the preppy aspect of the Nineteen Sixties, reminiscent of knitwear flung over shoulders and modest clothes paired with pillbox hats. The eveningwear screamed previous Hollywood glamour, with floor-length shawls, scooped necklines and doll-like empire strains.

The appears additionally featured color blocking, consistent with the monochromatic type of the Sixties. Plus, the usage of equipment was juxtaposed with pillbox hats paired with cargo boots and the palette impartial that includes taupe, pale pinks and mint.

Conner Ives dissected the American dream along with his satirical present

Conner Ives placed on a present titled ‘American Tragedies’ – a layered present that merges satire, nostalgia and glamour to dissect the contradictions of the American Dream. The present opened with a playful toast to the “Women Who Lunch” – effortlessly lounging in caftans whereas planning their subsequent brunch – setting the tone for a group that balances absurdity with pointed commentary.

Standout moments got here within the type of surprising particulars: cummerbunds on ladies, pom-poms bouncing cheerfully on neck scarves and the ever-present affect of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. The gathering showcased over-the-top items like large, daring hats and vintage-inspired night put on that really feel each timeless and utterly ridiculous. It’s a playful tackle escapism, with every outfit performing as a wink to the previous, however just a bit too overdone to be taken severely.

The present was a celebration of extra, but additionally a pointy critique of its vacancy – utilizing style not simply as an escape, however as a lens to mirror on the absurdities of our time. It’s showtime, people.

Tolu Coker explores the intersection of spirituality, group and id by means of costume

British-Nigerian style and textiles designer Tolu Coker launched her eponymous model in 2018. This season, she presents ‘ORI – Upon Reflection’. Drawing inspiration from Yoruba spirituality – “a metaphysical idea signifying one’s non secular instinct, future, and the essence of self” – the AW25 assortment explores costume as ritual, as reminiscence, and as an extension of self.

Every garment is imbued with reminiscence, emotion, and significance, urging wearers to mirror on the deeper meanings behind what they select to put on.  She embraces the construction of uniformity, considering how costume codes evolve throughout generations and geographies whereas retaining root codes. As a part of this, the gathering pays homage to the flowing white clothes of Aladura church buildings from Lagos to London, the ceremonial costume of Candomblé, Lucumí, and Santería throughout Brazil and Cuba, and the ritual apparel of Black non secular traditions in Louisiana and Haiti.

The affect of traditional European tailoring is woven all through, shaping the dialogue between ceremonial and the day by day, the sacred and the structured. This interaction extends to cloth selections, the place deadstock wools and gaberdines turn out to be supplies of deeper exploration, whereas tartans, poplins, and crisp collars nod to quintessentially British sartorial codes, drawing upon the designer’s London roots. The gathering serves as each a tribute to ancestral legacies and a imaginative and prescient for a extra considerate, linked future in style.