London will come alive this weekend as all the fashion press descends on the city for London Fashion Week’s FW25 season. Burberry, Simone Rocha, S.S. Daley and Dilara Findikoglu will be some of the biggest shows showing, with a whole host of young brands either making their full debuts or cementing their visions. Plus, with the absence of a London FW25 Menswear schedule last month, there’s a shared vision this season. Here’s a round-up of the shows and events you really shouldn’t miss.

Daniel Fletcher’s debut collection for Mithridate
Despite only being announced as Mithridate’s new creative director less than a month ago, Daniel Fletcher has been working away on his debut collection for the brand since the end of last year. Founded in 2018 by Tina Jiang, Fletcher’s Mithridate promises to be a bridge between the British codes that he made his trademark at Daniel W. Fletcher and the Chinese techniques and fabrications that we have come to associate with Mithridate. So far, we’ve seen the new logo and Alexa Chung-fronted campaign (below), now we’re excited for the big runway reveal.

Mithridate will be showing on Friday, 21st Feb at 11am

The new cohort settle in at Fashion East
One of the highlights of every London Fashion Week (and a pretty good indication of where London fashion is going to go over the new few years), Fashion East will be taking place on Friday in its usual Truman Brewery location with Louther and Nuba returning from last season and Olly Shinder presenting his final collection for the incubator.

It will be a sad occasion saying goodbye to Olly Shinder and his high fashion fetishwear, but Louther and Nuba, both of whom had strong debuts last September, make up a solid new roster. Louther, with its gritty designs and baggy fits, is a fresh take on distinctly London style, whilst Nuba is a multi-heritage take on fashion, blending Afro-Caribbean and West African icons with sleek fashion-forward design.

Fashion East takes place on Friday 21st at 18:00

Paolo Carzana will be the show you don’t want to miss
After luring the likes of Michaela Coel and Cathy Horyn to his back garden in Hackney last year, all eyes will be on what Paolo Carzana is going to do this season. One imagines it’ll be hard to top the world’s fashion press having to shuffle through Carzana’s own house, but having heard the show will take place inside a traditional London pub, it sounds very promising.

Paolo Carzana will show on Sunday 23rd at 20:00

NewGen showcase
The BFC’s NEWGEN programme has always been a central facet of LFW in recent years. On Monday 24th, a whole group of the current NEWGEN cohort are getting together to stage a showcase of their latest collections. Featuring Ancuta Sarca, Johanna Parv, Karoline Vitto, Kazna Asker, Lueder, Masha Popova, Paolo Carzana and Pauline Dujancourt, the designers will be present and willing to take you personally through their new collections.

The NEWGEN Showcase will take place on Monday 24th from 10:30 – 16:00

Two new brands to keep an eye out for
London will always be the hub of emerging fashion brands, a reputation it has cultivated across the fashion industry. The overwhelming majority of brands showcasing in London are less than a decade old, with each season witnessing an increasing number making their schedule debuts. Two young brands that have already caught the eyes of the industry are Kazna Asker and Yaku.

Kazna Asker first gained recognition with her standout graduate collection, which debuted at the Central Saint Martins MA fashion show in 2022. Featuring models wearing hijabs, it was the first time that the hijab featured in a CSM graduate show. Three years later, the British-Yemeni designer who was born and raised in Sheffield, returns to the London schedule with a presentation of her new collection. Last year, she fully recreated her grandmother’s living room in the NEWGEN space. What could this year bring?

Yaku Stapleton claimed the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award for his collection at the 2023 Central Saint Martins MA Fashion Show, propelling him to launch his eponymous brand, Yaku, later that same year. Drawing inspiration from Afrofuturism and the immersive worlds of RPGs, his MA collection brought video game-inspired garments to life on the runway. Now, for his second presentation at London Fashion Week, Yaku is set to present a collection that’ll be from another planet. Literally.

Kazna Asker will show on Sunday 23rd from 10:30 – 12:30; Yaku will show on Monday 24th from 12:30 – 14:30