Ned Sims turned up to walk Aaron Esh’s spring 2026 show today in a ripped white T-shirt. Esh threw an impeccably tailored, silk-piped suit jacket over the tee and sent Sims down the runway. “I think that gave him the energy to walk how he did,” said Esh. The spasming soundtrack—ricocheting from Merseyside rapper EsDeeKid to California electroclash, and London underground duo bassvictim—probably helped too, setting the scene in the several years-shuttered Hackney nightclub Oval Space. Lights flickered, fashion students and London kids spectated from the periphery, models looked like they’d emerged from the smoking area fug propelled by some salacious gossip.
The setting and music, the people present, and the clothes seen all mattered to Esh. “I want to show the customer, the world, the fashion world, journalists… whoever it is, that we can operate on a particular level,” Esh related backstage amid a press scrum, phantom arms penetrating sporadically to hug him congratulations. “If this was my first show for a house, I wouldn’t do anything different.” Esh skipped last season, giving himself and his team the space to get deeper, more meticulous, and worked once again with stylist Katy England. “Even six months ago, we couldn’t have done this,” he said.
Tailoring was inspired by old London craftsmanship and 1930s couture, with the collection largely focused on menswear signatures. “But it’s not a gender thing,” said Esh. “It’s a wardrobe thing.” Women and men walked the runway in suede field jackets (one in a brilliant strike of marmalade) and a spectrum of close to very close-fitting leather pants. Military shirts featured covered buttons, and lacquered leather and satin accent diaphanous shirts and seamless tuxedo trousers. Four bespoke suits were made in collaboration with Savile Row tailor Charlie Allen, cut in Highbury, North London. Sensuality abounded as much in the sinewy knit sweaters and satin Harrington jackets as the bias-cut, twisted neck jersey dresses. This season also featured Esh’s first shoes, made with Zara—a suite of boots for 5AM stomps home from the after-party.
Couture techniques were articulated through Esh’s London lens. Black feathers were made not of ostrich from chiffon, splaying from a gray coat’s lapels, and a tweed herringbone jacket was studded and spangled with large black sequins that were all hand cut. Jacket patterns were hand basted, embroidered per panel, and sewn together: “exactly how they’d do it at Chanel,” said Esh. “These pieces, to me, are the first real couture things we’ve made by hand, never touching a machine.”
These were clothes in reverence and revolt, exacting but not effete. They captured the moxie of Esh and his friends. “There’s something to say about fashion in London right now,” said the designer. “I think the reality of [this collection] cuts through the bullshit, repetitive, Instagram, Paris Fashion Week, see it and forget about it next week thing,” he added. “This is a real wardrobe worn by real people, inspired by the kids who are out there with music that’s loud.”