If there was an award for the most atmospheric and thematically apt venue at London Fashion Week this season, the Knwls space would certainly be up there. At their show tonight, designers Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault were given the run of the old Central Saint Martins building in Holborn, which has laid dormant since 2011, the former classrooms collecting dust. As a soundtrack of krautrock and Swedish grunge began blasting from the speakers, flakes of crumbling plaster were shaken from the ceiling as if a sleeping giant was reawakening. And while it was the Charing Cross campus down the road that technically played host to the school’s legendary fashion program (of which Knowles and Arsenault are also graduates, although they studied there after the college moved to its shiny new campus in King’s Cross), there was still a sense of the specters of fashion history returning to haunt its corridors once again.
This was not least due to Knowles’s and Arsenault’s willingness to pay homage to some of their heroes, many of whom once studied in the now-cobwebbed rooms they showed in—at a preview appointment, they reeled off a list from Azzedine Alaïa to John Galliano. “We were looking at what fashion used to be, and what it became when we started, and where it’s now going—and where we want to go with it,” said Arsenault. Added Knowles, “It feels like a very elegant space. And this season feels quite elegant to me.”
Elegant it was, but it still retained that signature high-octane Knwls energy and grit. Models strutted and vamped and twirled in an initial series of looks that showcased the duo’s remarkable corsetry skills—warping treated leathers into artfully cinched and strapped waists, or taking gray terry tracksuits and transforming them into cropped hoodies and swishy, high-waisted pants—as well as their deft hand for a bias cut, whether in delicately-printed slip dresses with tendrils of fabric fluttering behind as the models walked, or a series of more ladylike gowns, including one that was embroidered with floral beading. (But still sheer: this is the Knwls woman, after all.)
As for that sense of elegance? There was the playful touch of a series of helmet-like leather fascinators, hovering over models’ heads like a beetle’s carapace. (The hats were made by the legendary milliner Stephen Jones, who came backstage last season to introduce himself to the designers and let them know he was a fan of their work.) Elsewhere, the duo found themselves looking back to the golden age of couture, with jackets featuring generously proportioned shoulders that referenced Balenciaga’s cocoon coat, or gathered crepe dresses that took their cues from Madame Grès. “It’s a twist on her style, though,” Arsenault cautioned, lest we take the comparison too literally. “It’s in washed fabrics, and tight and revealing, and done with liquid jerseys and florals and spliced-up dresses and these Alaia-inspired hooded dresses, so it’s more of a twist on her style.”
In a final nod to the fashion greats there was a bridal look to close the show—but once again seen sideways, through the Knwls lens. With the boning of the corset constructed by Knowles herself, it was an object lesson in the questions the pair have been considering about how to take their reverence for fashion history and bring it into the future. The techniques to make the wedding dress may be centuries old, but with its lingerie-inspired details and the Tencel fabric train that trailed behind it, this was very much a wedding dress for the 2025 bride. “I think last season we tried to make it feel more mature in a very literal way, by keeping the styling very pared-back,” Knowles added. “So this season, we wanted to take that energy and make it feel more rich, and full. To go back to what Knwls is all about, with the layering and the detail and the sensuality to it.” On that, they firmly succeeded.
