By Varnika Thukral

London Fashion Week celebrated its 40th anniversary, as the streets bustled with designs, models and enthusiasts alike. With this historic milestone, London, the cultural leading capital of fashion and platforming is here for it all. With bigger brands strutting their way into Fall/Winter shows as well as red carpets, The W joined the bash in their style by sharing a toast to the artistic processes and emergent designers on Sunday, 15th September with The W Fashion Week 2024. Not just with a platform, but a huzzah to those rising.

Megabrand tends to take the spotlight when it comes to promotion, displays and celebrity sponsorships, and it happens quite frequently that the limelight rarely falls on the up-and-coming designers. While the capital leads the game in fashion, it still falls short in this aspect. Despite the city’s cosmopolitan reputation, the fashion and beauty scenes tend to lack diversity. Many such brands with culture and innovation embedded in their designs never make the cut or a list of the top five hundred or ten. By working together with retailers, organizers, volunteers from all over the world, community organizations and industry leaders, The W Fashion Week steps in to close the disparity and get the wheels churning. 

Phadria Antoinette Prendergast, the Editor-In-Chief at The W, assembles a group of skilled enthusiasts alongside fashion technicians to curate a platform hosting international and national companies to recognition. Highlighting under-representative, alternative and underprivileged talent, The W Fashion Week is dedicated to elevating the visibility of marginalized voices that are remodeling structures, redefining color schemes, and reinventing creativity and style. This year, a cohort of 28 designers—ten more than 2023—from six different countries hit The W’s runway at Mercedes-Benz World to amaze the public with their craftsmanship. 

Boasting a star-studded group of attendees, this year’s line-up at W Fashion Week was modern, futuristic and fluid in appeal. From concrete streetwear to metallic silhouettes, if you’re looking for a statement outfit in this spectator crowd, look anywhere and everywhere. From Prendergast herself—who was wearing Diesel and Prada—to TV personalities like Jasmine Johnson and Love Island-winner Josh Oyinsan, influencers like Balia Adare and Anisa Farah, entrepreneurs like Diamante Dawn Laiva and Samantha Harding, athletes like Wyse and Ollie Hassell-Collins, and models like Josh Legrove and Mataya Sweeting, everyone interpreted fashion in their element. Solidifying their presence and game at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, in London, amongst an audience of five hundred, the brands took to the stage in all glory and glam.

2024 became the biggest year yet for The W Fashion Week, with numbers rising from eighteen to almost thirty designers and brands from all over the globe showcasing their collections and body of work for a total of 193 looks. Be it streetwear, evening drapes, athleisure, or accessories, Fashion Week was here for the challenge and so were the designers who accepted it. Liam Brandon Murray, DETARON Couture, Prudence Young, Zhania Studio, MOUF, Iman Grine, Blu Reign, Confidence by Grace, Shauna Courtney, DEFIED + Zoe Hoop Jewelry, Upsycle, Soixantethree, Gangsterus, Travel Infinite, MURMAID, HAUL, Bonifique, Bav Tailor, Rainbow Dropz, Voglia Swim, Matthew Joseph, Anko + Karina Immanuel, and ZastaStudio + ITELE are the few prominent names which made their way to people’s hearts.

With such large numbers on display, The W Fashion Show 2024 had something from everyone. Brands like Bonifique and Voglia Swimwear showed sportswear and athleisure, while Prudence Young, Zhania Studio, ZastaStudio turned heads with their avant-garde and experimental designs. Bav Tailor’s collection was inspired by holistic practices, but they weren’t the only ones tapping into their heritage: Iman Grine blended modern trends with traditional elements of Moroccan culture. Matthew Joseph reflected on societal pressures through his collection No Space to Breathe while brands like Everyday Fit, MOUF, Blu Reign, Detaron Couture, Travel Infinite, Soixantethree, MURMAID, HAUL, and Gangsterus stretched the boundaries of street style and innovation. Both Anko and DEFIED showed their debut collections, the former making a case for modern minimalism and the latter tapping into 1980s nostalgia, while Shauna Courtney and Confidence by Grace showed the perfect capsule wardrobe for the modern woman. Rainbow Dropz and Upsycle brought us back to the 2020 trends of bold crochet creations and upcycled denim. Footwear was provided by ITELE, jewelry by Zoe Hoop Jewelry, and accessories by Karina Immanuel. 

The runway reflected many of the trends we’ve been seeing during this Fashion Month so far. In particular, when it comes to colors and textures, the collections adhered and added their take on the naturally narrow way to interpretation to widen the scope of the trends. Muted earthy shades and jewel tones were the predominant color spectrum for the almost 200 looks from couture to streetwear: muddy greens and browns, mustard and lemon yellows, desaturated blues and pinks spanned designers and collections. Texture play was another standout feature of many designers’ works: tactile pieces in fuzzy, rugged, distressed, and scaly materials added a sensory feel to the runway. With an overarching desire to incorporate an earthy and natural feel into the garments, designers and curators made use of various color combinations and texture samples to their accord for delivering the beauty of nature as they interpret it.  

Backed by a team of meticulous assistants, editors, stylists, make-up artists, socials and digital groups, stewards as well as the magazine’s staff, the runway was powered by a collective effort of those remote and offline, enthusiasts and/or participants. Until the next cycle, the next arena and the next theme, the magazine bids you well and invites you to hail the art of fashion as an art, diversified. Not gate-kept.