Opening London Fashion Week is no easy task. But, in the hands of Stefan Cooke, we knew we’d be safe. Teaming up with Mulberry for the show (as well as a capsule collection of 27 unique bags), Stefan Cooke focused on the theme of Away. As they told us in an exclusive preview of the collection, “Away” can mean “lots of different things, ‘going away’ and the idea of techniques and fabrications around holidays, sun bleaching, felting, tedious time-wasting processes. But also in terms of being reductive about the garments and taking things ‘away.'”

The holiday theme was big. The runway began with a leather-studded wool poncho, half reminiscent of both rainy festival style and breezy Mediterranean climes, a versatile dichotomy. The material then transformed into a low-rise skirt that sat precariously on the hips of the male models. Wearing nothing on top, the skirts constantly felt mere centimetres away from SS24’s first major flashing incident, but all went smoothly. If you’re going to meditate on ideas of being reductive about the garments, it’s hard to think of a more effective way of going about it.

A much underutilised material in fashion is foam. Perhaps that makes sense, as a form of plastic every piece of foam we see is going to outlive all of us and then some. But it is somewhat reassuring that future generations will look at the incredible belted foam tops from this season and see that at least we tried to do something fun with the material of doom. Taking inspiration from sun-faded foam fingers, those icons of American sports carried by models, the patterns on these tops were actually bleached by the sun.

The collection’s notable piece was a white t-shirt dress. Not particularly for its construction, but for the huge new ‘SC’ Stefan Cooke logo emblazed over it – a bold advance for the brand, whose name is becoming globally recognisable and renowned.