Images Courtesy of Joshva Jerry and Rosslyn Photography
FLAIR FASHION AW26:
THE DESIGNERS
THIS SEASON, FLAIR FASHION ONCE AGAIN BROUGHT FORWARD A COHORT OF NEWGEN TALENT, FOUR OF WHICH CAUGHT OUR EYE. ASTHETIK MAGAZINE’S JOSHVA JERRY WENT BEHIND THE CURTAINS AND FOUND OUT MORE BACKSTAGE.
Written by Joshva Jerry
Edited by Gabriel Mealor-Pritchard
Flair Fashion, a platform that promotes the next generation of designers and brands, held yet another diverse showcase during London Fashion Week’s Autumn/Winter 2026 season. From gothic and noir tastes — blended to convey the deeper, darker emotions of its designer — to streetwear crafted by the hopes of a young 19-year-old chasing fashion, along with dreams that were made into artistic designs enabling one to escape reality. It sat as an exhibition of growing creative talent by an emerging cohort of designers. We caught up with four of them after the show.
For Tara Kari, a womenswear designer from Finland, her desire to bring her dreams to life led her to create physical manifestations of said dreams through garments. But unlike typical visions, Kari chose the wild ones. The ones that made her feel like she “absolutely had to make“. The ‘Eye Top’ was one example. In her dream, two eyes were protruding from her chest, leading her to create a garment that featured an optical illusion… quite literally. Another design was the ‘Screw Jacket’, derived from another dream she had that her “body was made from wood and [she] was screwing it back together”. These chaotic thoughts, now observed as fashion, translated an element of authenticity on the runway and truly showcased the potential of working with unrestrained creativity.
Adam Raillard, the previously mentioned 19-year-old designer with a keen eye for streetwear who has “been working 9 to 5 jobs, earning minimum wage, and trying to build up money to invest back into [his] brand,” presented his brand, The Kong is DeAd. Having had only one month to prepare for his debut, the creative found himself having to deal with a restrained timeline, yet still managed to bring a breathtaking collection to the runway. As mentioned, the brand targets the streetwear audience from that young perspective, with Raillard only starting sewing six months ago, one would be unable to distinguish.
Aiming to become "the number one streetwear brand in the world, straight up”, Raillard’s determination resulted in a completed collection that was both original and fresh, demonstrating how, even with constraints, it is possible to chase and achieve goals when you set your mind to it.
Seven Spot Lady Birds, also known as SSLB, is a label whose main work is less about clothing, but rather jewellery. Made using old Chinese embroidery techniques, incorporating intricate decoration, the products pivoted the audience’s focus from the typical collections on the runway to something more delicate and powerful—their embroidered collection of nature and creatures. which included handmade earrings and necklaces that captured the essence of “a dragon and phoenix”. And even though it was their first time on the runway, they were able to perfectly seize the audience’s attention and centre it on the focal point of their brand, the details.
Yet another designer that grabbed the audience’s attention from the start was Noira, as she debuted her pilot collection to a runway audience for the first time. But even with the lack of experience, she was able to skilfully convey a storyline of emotions through each piece in her collection, the final look of which she dedicated to her dear friend who had sadly passed away. Through meticulous design choices, including ensuring each model possessed their own “garment, have their own character, have their own feeling, have their own action”, a narrative emerged that showed the collection as “exhausted, depressed… turned crazy” and then that same narrative ended, by expressing to those feeling similar emotions that they, “will see the light. They will see the dawn,” and with that hope that trickled through the collection, the creative was able to connect with the people … and “heal the people”.
These were the stories of just a few of the designers and brands that showcased their talents, dreams and hopes at Flair Fashion during London Fashion Week. Flair Fashion has successfully shown itself once again as a platform that sources and upholds some of the top emerging talent amongst the new generation, including the other participants who also had their own unique and novel concepts that they brought to the runway, including: Fee Muse, Psy Lau, PODYH, Une Enfant, and Belsize25. See you next season!
