Five Shows You Might Have Missed at London Fashion Week
From Sports Banger’s acid rave to Nicholas Daley’s rock show and Richard Quinn’s dominatrixes.
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London Fashion Week was back in full force this season, dominated by physical shows that welcomed friends, family and a few famous faces as well. Recent seasons focused on digital presentations, showcasing a breadth of talent coming together to create short films that combined fashion with the arts and music, resulting in work that reached a wider audience than traditional fashion weeks.
However, LFW Fall/Winter 2022 was a return to form, and this season felt like a real occasion. Many brought drama, opulence and exaggerated moments of grandeur – it was a celebration of not just fashion and talent, but a spotlight on what makes the industry so special.
HYPEBEAST has highlighted its favorite shows from London Fashion Week over the last few days. Notably, we championed digital presentations from Martine Rose and Bethany Williams, while physical shows from Daniel W. Fletcher, Stefan Cooke, Robyn Lynch, Saul Nash, S.S.DALEY and AHLUWALIA were all on-schedule standouts.
But London Fashion Week brought much more than that. Here are HYPEBEAST’s favorite shows that you might have missed.
Nicholas Daley
Nicholas Daley
Nicholas Daley
Nicholas Daley
Fashion designers often draw from life experiences to build their collections, but rarely does a designer invite you to live in the moment with them. Designer Nicholas Daley took this approach, taking over East London’s Colour Factory with a performance from the multi-instrumentalist Wu-Lu, who along with a band, modeled the new collection. It makes perfect sense to throw a party as your collection debut, and to kick off LFW, Daley presented an array that combined his Jamaican and Scottish heritage and blended it with his love for music, the arts, and family. His signature hats were knitted by his mom, tweed checks came together on ponchos, and a fringed belted jacket touched on artisanal Japanese references that frequent his collections as well as this season’s rock ‘n’ roll vibe.
Richard Quinn
Isidore Montag/Gorunway.com
Isidore Montag/Gorunway.com
Isidore Montag/Gorunway.com
You know Richard Quinn for creating viral moments such as Cardi B’s bodysuit and the rapper’s green Tellytubby ensemble. However, as floral as the British designer’s work is, his collections are not made for wallflowers. Quinn was in full bloom this fashion week, and while his signature codes made a frequent appearance, it was the more daring looks that stole the show, and perhaps the week.
Leather-clad models held chandeliers, drag queen Violet Chachki got in her dominatrix attire to lead a latex-laden pup, and hats covered the eyes like a glamorous balaclava. Richard Quinn isn’t your average designer, and many of us aren’t likely to ever wear a piece, but his references go further than you’d first imagine – this season, a flight jacket was turned into a satin green dress and many of the looks were awkwardly pinched and subverted traditional ideas of sex, something that appeared in more casual works by Robyn Lynch, Stefan Cooke, and even Raf Simons.
Maximilian Davis
Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com
Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com
Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com
Presented during Fashion East’s show alongside Chet Lo and Jawara Alleyne, rising star Maximilian Davis continued to shine for Fall 2022. After a stellar show last year, HYPEBEAST named Davis as one of the best emerging Black designers of 2022 and he’s also been nominated for the LVMH Prize, so there was a lot riding on this year’s showcase. It was typical of the young designer: provocative and rebellious, but still wearable. For example, a patent leather biker jacket is mildly tuned with a snatched belted waist, while an evangelical white dress was contrasted with hand-painted thorns. Suits were executed with genderless proportions, covering the chest and lapels with satin and exaggerating the shoulders, while strategically-placed knots and rope showed that sometimes simple is best.
Molly Goddard
Alessandro Lucioni/Gorunway.com
Alessandro Lucioni/Gorunway.com
Alessandro Lucioni/Gorunway.com
By now it should be known that Molly Goddard is no longer just a womenswear designer. Last September’s SS22 “baby clothes”-inspired collection cemented Goddard as one to watch in menswear, and FW22 confirmed this. Delivering a mishmash of partywear and cozy essentials, and some pieces that combined the two, Goddard’s boys wore double-breasted Kent blazers with slouchy pants, lush knits in pops of ruby red and fuchsia, as well as kitsch bedtime storybook-inspired tops paired with zip-up cardigans and ruffled bags. It’s a softer side to menswear, but don’t disregard it as not being fun.
Sports Banger
Ollie Grove/Courtesy Of Sports Banger
Ollie Grove/Courtesy Of Sports Banger
Ollie Grove/Courtesy Of Sports Banger
Fashion shows are one of two things: they’re either short and sweet, punchy and backed by a techno beat, or they’re something of a performance. Sports Banger, though, eschews both in favor of doing what it does best: throwing a rave. Injected with acid house, the show was hedonistic and nostalgic, taking show-goers back to the days of bootleg merch and paraphernalia being paraded in warehouse basements – only here, accessories such as whistles made a chainmail dress, inspired by Paco Rabanne.
A collaboration with Lucozade also made an appearance, but it was the bootlegging that Sports Banger is known for that made this the most energetic show of the week. An inflatable helter-skelter snaked around a model’s body with knock-off Tommy Hilfiger branding nodding to Sports Banger’s founder Jonny, while casualwear played off Absolut vodka. Rounding out the show was the brand’s twist on a couture show’s final look; traditionally what would be a bridal look was subverted as a clownish faux Chanel party piece, made from fake Chanel-branded toilet seat covers. If you’re going to close LFW, this is how you do it.
