Sandwiched among ready-to-wear mini dresses, skirts and bold graphic shirts, Ray Chu’s SS26 offering reimagines autumnal couture with a flair rooted in spectacle and purpose. 

One of the show’s most arresting pieces took the archetype of a slouched collared shirt and transformed it into a red gem-soaked gown. Buttons created the framework of the skirt, opening into a slip that caught the air with each step. It was a piece that married ornament with movement, echoing themes Ray Chu explored last season in his SS25 collection, which drew on botanical forms and sustainability through woven tech-organic hybrids. Another striking look used pearlescent white fabric draped across the chest then rising into a hood, its back emblazoned with the very graphics from the collection’s invitation in an interplay of garment and narrative.

Menswear anchored much of the show’s resonance. Favourite looks included sharply tailored white shorts patterned with golden crosses, and a shirt that met in a triangular swoop across the chest, lapels defining angles, the neckline tied in an almost ceremonial knot. It’s structural work at its best: evoking both rigidity and fluid drape.

There were quieter interludes: a simple form-fitting maxiskirt here, a graphic T-shirt there. These looks were less showstopping, yet essential in balancing the more ambitious pieces. Overall, Ray Chu’s SS26 kept the momentum from his previous London Fashion Week seasons, where he consistently wove sustainability, body positivity and clever material choices into bold narratives. The fusion of adornment and cut; the poetic hooded forms and golden details; the tension between ready-to-wear and statement piece. This is a designer continuing to stretch boundaries without losing coherence.

Words By: Anya Duncan
Images Courtesy: Dyelog PR