Designers Steve O Smith and Yuhan Wang debuted their latest collections during London Fashion Week, showcasing distinct approaches to wearable art and surrealist design.

London Fashion Week featured contrasting presentations from designers Steve O Smith and Yuhan Wang. Smith debuted his first-ever show at the Royal Academy’s historic life drawing studio, while Wang presented a collection centered on the surreal imagery of sleep and boudoir attire.

Steve O Smith’s Living Drawings

Steve O Smith presented his Spring 2027 collection in the Royal Academy’s Georgian auditorium, where he framed the show as a lecture. Smith’s process involves translating his hand-drawn sketches into garments through fabric appliqué, embroidery, and embellishment. He described each made-to-order, one-of-a-kind piece as a drawing in its own right. While his earlier work was rooted in black-and-white drawings inspired by George Grosz, this season marked a shift into color. Smith utilized red, cobalt, and Prussian blue inks, drawing inspiration from Fauvist artist André Derain. The collection gained visibility following a custom red dress created for Chioma Nnadi for the Met Gala, and Smith noted a positive response from clients seeking his bespoke, hand-made designs.

Yuhan Wang’s Surrealist Reverie

Yuhan Wang’s runway show explored the theme of "the strangeness to the moments before sleep," featuring models emerging from a stack of mattresses. The collection reimagined boudoir attire with surrealist distortions, incorporating household objects such as compacts, combs, and a cup and saucer attached to a satin blouse. Wang utilized unconventional construction techniques to create a sense of disorder, including off-the-shoulder camisoles with twisted corsetry and lace slips featuring asymmetrical wadding at the shoulders and hips. The presentation aimed to evoke a "hazily skewed" dreamlike state, blending traditional lingerie aesthetics with unexpected, dislocated silhouettes.