KNWLS AW26
Gallery / 23 images
Charli xcx, Lisa, Saweetie, Amelia Gray, Vittoria Ceretti, Ravyn Lenae, Col the Doll, Anok Yai, Arca, you name it – all the girls love KNWLS. Designer Charlotte Knowles and her partner Alexandre Arsenault have cracked the It-girl code like no other London brand. Since founding their label in 2017, the duo has consistently delivered collections that strike the perfect balance between hot and powerful, and naturally, their AW26 offering is no different.
This season, KNWLS presents its collection via a concept store and lookbook. The store, located inside Covent Garden’s The Painting Rooms, is open until Monday (Feb 23), showcasing the new designs alongside a curated selection of books, artworks and furniture. Meanwhile, the lookbook has been photographed by man of the moment (literally, he directed The Moment), Aidan Zamiri.
The collection, titled BALLISTIC, features KNWLS staples: leather corsetry, coquettish silk intimates, romantic sweetheart necklines and heavy-duty silver buckles. One jacket seems almost Elizabethan, with its exaggerated puffed shoulders and fur ruff (not dissimilar to those Tudor-inspired looks in Martine Rose’s AW26 menswear collection). Interestingly, drivers’ gloves that only cover the fingers seem to be becoming a trend – they showed up at last night’s CSM MA show too – as if half the hand has been dipped in paint.
While KNWLS might have shown its collection with a lookbook this season, London Fashion Week and all its catwalk shows are well underway in the British capital. King Charles made a surprise appearance at Tolu Coker’s show, getting things off to a royal start. We noticed that werewolves are the unexpected trend of the season, plus, we met the independent fashion designers proving that NYFW is far from dead. Keep up with all our London Fashion Week coverage here, or catch up with everything else you missed below.
Just kidding, the actor actually trained at Trinity College Dublin’s Lir Academy, but he did manage to make an appearance on the Central Saint Martins’ MA show catwalk yesterday evening. Graduating designer Oli Clarke grabbed the audience’s attention with a white t-shirt dress that proudly read: PAUL MESCAL. Why? “Honestly, I don’t even know that much about Paul Mescal,” Clarke said in an interview post-show, “there’s all these random references from pop culture, and subconsciously it just really fit.”
The British Fashion Council has announced its 2026 BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund shortlist, featuring Aaron Esh, Clio Peppiatt, Bianca Saunders, KNWLS, ONALAJA and Talia Byre. Supported by Vogue and Burberry, the winner will be awarded £150,000 in funding to help “translate creativity into sustainable commercial success”.
Earlier this week, Balenciaga welcomed not one, not two, but 11 new faces into the fold for its Summer 2026 campaign. Pierpaolo Piccioli has officially expanded the Balenciaga family to include Winona Ryder, Harris Dickinson, Hudson Williams, Labrinth, Loli Bahia and many more.
Kiko Kostadinov has teamed up with ASICS to create a one-of-a-kind Tabi-toed trainer. We’ve seen Tabi heels, Tabi ballet flats, Tabi Mary-Janes, and now the era of the Tabi trainer is upon us, thanks to the Bulgarian designer and ASICS. They’re available now at Kiko Kostadinov’s London store, or globally from Feb 23.