LFW SS26 - HI:FI Exhibition

After Maximillian Raynor’s buoyant showcase, the stage shifted to the Shoreditch warehouse next door, where Timisola Shasanya and Ella Douglas stake their claims. The graffiti outside the venue adds to the allure; one knows to expect distinct artistic expression, not necessarily conforming to whatever British designers or the fashion world at large is doing. Little details like location have the ability to separate a good show from a memorable one. The smoke machine working overtime also provided mystique whilst the curtains, the elements laid on the floor all combined to put forth the idea of a cohesive ideology and vision. An artist is successful when their audience can see what they envisioned and seeing the joy on the faces of Timisola and Ella, one can assume it was so. 

menswear by Timisola Shasanya

Timisola’s ‘Runners’ collection greets the audience through the curtains and the massive red sculpture which stands guard so as to signal one’s entry into the rugged terrain of the designer’s mind. Dark tailoring against silks and waxed cotton, each seam recalling Nigeria’s leather workshops and rural Kent’s farmyards. The silhouettes go from the classic coat towards more sensuous and seductive styles. The story unfolds in metaphors made from leather, wool, silk and more to honour her heritage whilst playing around with the dualities of masculine and feminine, rigidity and flexibility, darkness and lightness.

menswear by Timisola Shasanya

Douglas offers an office turned engine bay, where tyre tracks mar couture and drills hum beneath fluorescent glare. Both ask whether garments might carry memory without sinking into nostalgia, and how ritual and repair might share a common tongue.

womenswear by Ella Douglas

Shasanya’s ‘Runners’ feels like a rite of passage disguised as menswear; Barbour and JW Anderson-sponsored wools collapse into stiff collars, while Kano leather and farm-salvaged tarpaulin echo her bicultural upbringing. Pleats soften under coated fabrics, generating tension between deference and defiance, heritage and innovation, that ripples through every tailored suit. Lagos-based shoemakers translate her sketches into footwear that toes the line between tradition and contemporary edge. Jewellery by Vanya Sundari punctuates each look, while Karen Binns’s styling balances stark cuts with unexpected textures.

womenswear by Ella Douglas

Douglas switches the story on its head; giving the viewer a mundane and moody backdrop juxtaposed against bright colours and patterns as well as the shimmering accoutrements employed. The faint smell of hot iron, persistent drumming of drills and the clatter of sparks off metal sheets anchor her subversive narrative, a microwave humming beside a water cooler as if performance art required domestic cues. The classic story of womenswear loaded with concepts which were initially menswear; there was power dressing, corporate core, grit and glamour galore. Her models navigate a desk shoved into a lesbian-owned garage, where glittering embellishments meet grease in a deliberate fusion of function and femininity.

womenswear by Ella Douglas

HI:FI London’s non-profit model invests Hidden Agency’s profits into emerging talent at critical inflection points. Founded to combat the prohibitive costs and competitive pressures facing British designers, HI:FI offers mentorship, studio access and production partnerships precisely when careers hang in the balance. Shasanya and Douglas emerge as its first beneficiaries, their work demonstrating how rigorous support can transform conceptual experiments into runway realities.

menswear by Timisola Shasanya

As London’s spring/summer season accelerates, the gravity of these presentations grows: they are not spectacles but case studies in collaborative possibility. 

When garments carry the weight of memory and defy the gloss of convention, they insist that fashion’s future will combine contextual intelligence with craftsmanship. Shasanya and Douglas arrive as ambassadors of that ethos, rehearsing a runway where every seam and spark matters.