H&M Brings Cinematic Brilliance To London Fashion Week

“We talked about it as a cinematic season,” declared Ann-Sofie Johansson – and H&M staged it like one.

To open London Fashion Week on Thursday night, the brand turned its H&M&YOU&I show into something closer to a film than a runway.

“Every design team was inspired by different movies, and I think that tied everything together,” Johansson, H&M creative advisor and head of womenswear design, told GRAZIA post-show.

The references ran from Wuthering Heights-style historical romance to Japanese noir to the golden age of 1940s Italian cinema – “in the end, a collection that was very much about Sicily,” she said. It’s what let three distinct drops of the A/W26 collection feel like chapters of the same film.

The cinematic ambition was matched by its director. The show was creatively directed by British image-maker Nick Knight CBE through his platform SHOWstudio, staged on a 40-metre runway lined with curved mirrors on one side and a live video installation by artist Karyn Nakamura on the other. It opened with Brazilian ballerina Ingrid Silva, before Alex Consani emerged in cropped ivory jacquard, opening the show.

“As always, we want to do something more than a traditional runway show – something extra,” said Johansson. “It’s about bringing entertainment and fashion together.” True to that, a bespoke SHOWstudio “fashion interactive” generated fashion films in real time as models including Paloma Elsesser, Lila Moss and Karen Elson walked, their digital doubles moving with them.

Then the finale everyone which brought everything together: Labrinth, who produced the show’s entire score, appeared for a surprise live performance of “I Want to Know What Love Is,” teed up by a spoken-word moment from Consani and Archie Renaux.

For Johansson, that closing song was the whole point. “Given the state of the world right now, that’s exactly what we need,” she said. “H&M has always been about diversity – liberating fashion for many people. Fashion is about memories, feelings and emotions.”

The ethos showed in the room, too: among the 700 guests – Tems, Myha’la, Cruz Beckham, Rania Fawaz, Talia Fawaz, Shouq, Julia Hussien,

Twins Habdan and more included – were members of the public, who’d applied for tickets via H&M’s socials.

And in keeping with a show obsessed with the here and now, you don’t have to wait. The first A/W26 womenswear drop and the H&M Atelier menswear line will be available in the Middle East in just a few weeks.