Each season, we break down everything you need to know about the new collections in The Fashion Week Cheat Sheet. After speaking to the designers about their inspiration, their hero pieces, the faces on the catwalk and the names on the front row, we present your complete guide to autumn/winter 2025.
Erdem Moralıoğlu capped off a full day of shows on Sunday evening with a catwalk presentation at the British Museum where he unveiled a collection created in collaboration with the British artist Kaye Donachie.
"There’s a collective desire for escapism in fashion right now, a longing for something that transports us," Moralıoğlu told us ahead of the show. "Kaye’s paintings evoke this mood, exploring reality and imagination, and hopefully will resonate with my audience."
Donachie was a contemporary of Moralıoğlu's from his time at the Royal College of Art. Having long respected her work, they reconnected when he commissioned her to paint a portrait of his late mother, eventually coming together on the idea for a collaborative project.
Together, they created a collection that explores the imaginary conversation between artist and subject – and it might just be his most modern yet.
Theme and inspiration
"We both attended the Royal College of Art and I have always been incredibly inspired by her method of painting," the designer tells us of Donachie. "Her portraits are never literal depictions but are abstract and based on research and instinct. I wanted to explore an imaginary conversation between artist and subject, capturing the shadows and souls of Kaye’s artworks – portraits of women unknown."
He paid tribute to her work with many of the prints and textures – his mother's portrait, as well as others of Donachie's, were printed onto beautiful flowing dresses, as well as coats and skirts, while he embraced texture in the beautiful ballgowns, inspired by focussed-in elements of her work. There were also floral references aplenty (this is Erdem after all) in the form of stitched blooms on leather dresses and painterly floral skirt suits.
Hero pieces
"One hero piece in the collection is a couture sculpted strapless dress covered in hand-frayed ribbon work, lifted from zoomed-in areas of Kaye’s paintings creating something quite forensic and abstract," he explains of one of his favourite designs. "And then the Bloom Bag has been reimagined, hand-painted by Kaye to create an incredibly special and unique piece. The organic shape of the body creates a soft, malleable canvas for Kaye’s painterly portraits."
The setting
The designer returned to the British Museum once again this season, but moved inside, having shown outside in September. "It feels very fitting to showcase the collection in a space rich with art, both old and new," Moralıoğlu told us of the decision to host there.
Who was there?
Keeley Hawes, Katherine Waterston and Ramla Ali were among the names to sit front row.
