When you’ve been dubbed ‘Rihanna’s favourite designer,’ expectations for your next London Fashion Week show are bound to be high but Jawara Alleyne did not disappoint. For SS25, the designer looked close to home for inspiration, turning to the experiences and cultural identities of people from his native Cayman Islands, aptly titled Island Underground. Delicate draping lies at the centre of Fashion East-alum’s design language as models appeared in garments knotted, twisted and pieced together with safety pins to build conceptual silhouettes. Crocheted dresses arrived in designs reminiscent of fishing nets, t-shirts were nautically striped and the colour palette consisted of vibrant hues in varying shades of orange, blue and red.

On foot, Alleyne debuted an inaugural collaboration with Timberland, completing each look in a nod to the iconic shoes home in the world of hip hop, one which runs adjacent to Caribbean culture. In the accompanying press release, the designer said of his SS25 offering, “I’ve always been inspired by a dare to be different attitude and I wanted this collection to reflect individuals who have inspired me to find my way of doing things… write my own story. Island Underground is [characterised by] individuals who take inspiration from our culture and fuse it with progressive expression, mixing in references that push the culture forward.”