Marks & Spencer joins the official schedule, eBay brings a pre-loved show, and Roper Penberthy asks whether anyone can still tell the front row from the queue at Pret
London Fashion Week Returns in September With a Sandwich-Shop Centenary and a Runway You Can Buy From
Marks & Spencer joins the official schedule, eBay brings a pre-loved show, and Roper Penberthy asks whether anyone can still tell the front row from the queue at Pret
By Roper Penberthy, fashion and style correspondent, London
The Schedule, Provisionally
I have sat through enough London Fashion Weeks to know that the official schedule is the only honest document the industry produces, and even that is provisional. The Industry Fashion reports that the September 2026 edition runs from 17 to 21 September, with the usual British names: Burberry, Barbour, Emilia Wickstead, Erdem, Harris Reed, Richard Quinn, Roksanda and Simone Rocha. McQueen shows menswear and womenswear for SS27 and Mulberry is on the list too.
The report names three BFC NEWGEN debutants, Francesca Lake, Gui Rosa and Petra Fagerstrom, and says Fashion East returns after further British Fashion Council investment in its talent scheme. If you want to know where the next decade of London fashion is coming from, it is rarely the big house with the champagne. It is the person with a rail of samples and a train ticket.
New Faces at Old Houses
There are two changes at the top of the bill. Sean McGirr makes his London debut at McQueen, and Christopher Kane, Mulberry’s new Creative Director, presents his first collection for the brand. A debut is an anxious thing to watch. The collection has to say who the designer is and who the house still is, and the audience has to pretend it can tell the difference from the seat.
I have always thought that a first collection is a letter of introduction. It asks the buyers and the press for a hearing, and it is judged, as all letters of introduction are, partly on its handwriting.
The High Street Takes a Seat
The surprise on the schedule is Marks & Spencer, which makes its debut on the official calendar with its first exclusive runway collection in its centenary year. The report says it is a see now, buy now show, for womenswear and menswear, which means that the audience can purchase what it has just watched. This is either the future of fashion or the oldest idea in shopping, namely that you should be able to take the thing home.
There is a good deal to say for it. A runway show has always been an expensive way of telling a few hundred people what the rest of us will be offered in a diluted version six months later. A collection that is on sale the moment the last model leaves the catwalk shortens the distance between a hem and a till. It also reminds us that the British public spends a great deal on clothes it can find in a department store, and that the clothes in question are not always in the Marais.
A sandwich, a knitted cardigan and a perfectly cut coat have lived under the same corporate roof for a century. It is good to see them admit to being related.
Pre-Loved on the Catwalk
The report also says eBay returns with its Endless Runway pre-loved show, shoppable through eBay Live, and that H&M will work with Nick Knight and SHOWstudio on a new take on the runway format. Selfridges will feature participating brands in store and offer a curated edit of British designers. Put these together and the schedule looks less like a fashion calendar than a map of how clothes now move: new, nearly new, secondhand, filmed, and streamed. On the secondhand side, Retail Week reported in February 2026 that Vinted has become the UK’s third-largest fashion retailer, with more than 17 million UK customers.
I do not think the old guard should sneer. An evening dress that has been worn once is not a lesser object. It is an object with a story, and London has never been short of those.
What the British Fashion Council Says
Laura Weir, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, is quoted in the release as saying, “This season marks an exciting moment for London Fashion Week.” She adds that “This schedule reflects the confidence and momentum of British fashion today.”
Press releases are written to be quoted and I do not hold that against them. The test of confidence in fashion is not what an executive says in a release. It is whether young designers can afford a studio in the capital, and whether a shopper in Croydon will pay for a British coat. The report says nothing on either, and no ticketing details are given, so I will watch what happens after the show, not before it.
A Note on the Front Row
At my first fashion week I was told that the way to find the important people was to look for the ones who were not looking at the clothes. I have found this to be true. The front row is a seating plan, an economic map and a social weather chart all at once.
This year, with a high-street retailer, a resale platform and a sportswear giant on the same schedule, the map has become more interesting. There will be people in the audience who have never bought a luxury handbag and who spend sensibly on good coats. They are the market, and I hope someone seats them well.
Dress, as ever, for the weather. London in September is capable of anything.
A Note From the Comic Press
Comic writers work the same news cycle from another angle. A recent run of dispatches on a property slump in Cebu shows the form: Manila News on slow condominium sales in Cebu, the London Prat on British pensioners asked for referees and a letter from the vicar (at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on an Ohio realtor whose showings now last two hours. Each is anchored to a real market story and uses exaggeration openly. More is at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about wardrobes and a property market.
For the lighter side of the news, there is always NewsThump.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/