SUSAN Fang has always designed with the conviction that clothing can hold emotion – for Spring/ Summer 2026, she makes that belief literal.
Staged in the lush futurism of the Barbican’s Conservatory, the show unfolded as a vision of 5202 narrated by Nasus (Susan backwards) – an 11-year-old dreamer from Fang’s imagined future, where people dissolve into the universe once they reach 100: homes float like donuts, AI harmonises with nature, and clothing becomes a vessel of sensation.
The garments themselves feel alive. Feather embroidery faded like pastel memories between layers of organza, while digital-coded prints and mushroom-inspired smocking blurred nature with mathematics. The “air-puzzle” technique turned coral-like fragments into petal-shaped volumes that shift when the body moves, while “air-flowers”- crafted with Fang’s mother – bloomed across dresses in tulle and print, built row by row like living organisms.
Accessories are grown through computational ecosystems devised by Fang’s husband, Orelio De Jonghe, pushed further still: fungi-like bags, coral-formed dresses, eyewear where mushrooms literally sprouted across the gaze.
This season, more than ever before, collaboration underscored the LFW shows. Nike’s prismatic lace and bubble-beaded sneakers recalled joyful childhood memories, Melissa’s cherry blossom rubber ballerinas danced between love and futurism, while Rockfish offered furry boots and bows that belonged to a parallel fairytale.
Between Penhaligon’s perfumed air, steel pan music, and Kat Colling‘s live performance, Fang was able to conjure a world that seemed impossibly peaceful and yet urgently present in the moment – a beautiful pause to remind us of the power of vulnerability.
by Imogen Clark