Paul Costelloe nods to 1960s, broken dolls inspire Bora Aksu at London Fashion Week

LONDON: Irish designer Paul Costelloe took fashionistas back to 1960s California while Turkish-born Bora Aksu celebrated cracks and imperfections at London Fashion Week on Friday.

Setting the scene on Rodeo Drive in 1967, Costelloe opened his “Boulevard of Dreams” spring-summer 2026 presentation with short feminine creations in pale pink, yellow and blue. There were jackets with pointy collars or bows, embellished minis and shift dresses. All were paired with matching platform shoes.

Models wore floral and frilly designs that nodded to 1960s fashion, including plenty of short dresses as well as cut-out gowns.
“It’s a very happy collection. It very much reflects California in the late sixties,” Costelloe told Reuters. “The inspiration has been from the ‘Valley of the Dolls’… It’s very much West Coast of America and it’s very chic, very fresh, very exciting.”

Aksu said that this season he turned to his own collection of broken dolls for inspiration.

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Models wore dresses embellished with layers, embroidery and plenty of lace trimmings.

Aksu put frills on sleeves, large shiny sequins on skirts and see-through gloves and intricate florals on frocks.

The looks were layered: tiered dresses or jackets over long blouses that hung over skirts. Models also wore bonnet hats tied under the neck and adorned with bows or sequins.

“I feel like we are like the dolls… we have… our hearts broken or we go through things. But… we still kind of survive and then it becomes part of us,” Aksu told Reuters.

“With the dolls, with all these cracks and defects, I was thinking, I want to keep this and I bring it to… life again. So it’s not about covering their cracks but it’s about embracing them.”

London Fashion Week, which kicked off on Thursday evening and runs until Monday, is the second leg of the spring-summer 2026 catwalk calendar, which began in New York and then heads to Milan and Paris.

On the programme are 157 designers and organisations, including 50 catwalk shows and a mix of emerging as well as established designers like Erdem, Roksanda and fashion giant Burberry.