London’s Power Disruptors: Meet The Designers You Need To Know Who Are Changing The Game
These home-grown designers are charting a new course in fashion, working in fresh and innovative ways. Isobel Van Dyke documents their rise.
Foday Dumbuya
Inside Labrum London’s compact central-London studio, lookbook images are plastered onto walls, bright patterns light up the room and several bottles of Guinness decorate the shelves. Founder and creative director Foday Dumbuya’s four-year-old son Idris, sippy cup in hand, curiously observes as his dad is photographed by the ELLE team.
Though the concept of a photo-shoot might be new to his son, Dumbuya, 43, has grown well accustomed to press in the decade since launching the label. After working at DKNY and Nike, the designer founded Labrum in 2014 and has spent the past 10 years using fashion as a tool for education. Having grown up in Sierra Leone, Cyprus and London, Dumbuya celebrates West African culture by telling stories through fabric. The brand’s tagline – 'Designed By An Immigrant' – was chosen to inspire others and act as proof that if Dumbuya could do it, they can too. He’s also one of the few designers who has successfully melded the worlds of sport and fashion, in anticipation of the two colliding more officially for LVMH’s sponsorship of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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Last September, Labrum made history by choosing Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium as its show venue (Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice was a model). 'Arsenal was like, 'This is brilliant',' says Dumbuya, beaming. 'We’re talking about the Premier League! The crème de la crème! I was really surprised that they went with the idea – I didn’t even think we could pull it off until [the models] were walking through the tunnel. I’m still trying to piece together where we go next, because it doesn’t get any bigger than taking your brand to your childhood football club.'
Before Labrum scored on home turf at Arsenal, the brand supported Sierra Leone at last year’s summer Olympics, designing the team kit in collaboration with Adidas. It was a huge moment for Dumbuya but, less than two weeks later and before he had any time to reflect, he was straight into planning the September show. After a decade of persistence and determination, 2024 was Labrum’s biggest yet – an achievement, considering Dumbuya was honoured by King Charles with the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design the previous year. What would he tell himself if he could go back to day one? 'Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes a while to grow a brand. Be patient.'
So, how exactly will Dumbuya top last year? Well, he’s about to reveal a major project with Abbey Road Studios, plus there’s more in store from the brand’s collaboration with Guinness. He’s also currently working on an exhibition opening at 180 Studios in April, celebrating the work of immigrants. With so much happening all the time, it’s important to Dumbuya that he remembers his goal: 'Being big or being superstars isn’t what drives us. What drives us is thinking, 'How do we bring our stories to life, and how far can we get them to travel?''
Aaron Esh
Some designers are consumed by fashion. Not by the industry itself, but by clothes, concepts and creativity. Aaron Esh is one of those people. Despite his studio sometimes feeling like a Michelin-starred kitchen during service, the 34-year-old designer accepts that the intense pressure comes with being able to do what he loves. 'Why would anyone want to be a chef?' Esh asks. 'Because they love food. I have no idea what I’d do if not fashion. My life is devoted to this practice.'
Esh has been obsessed with creating clothes since he first enrolled at the London College of Fashion a decade ago. He barely knew how to sew, though he realised he wasn’t destined for a life in front of a computer, having initially studied graphic design at Central Saint Martins. After graduating from LCF in 2019, Esh scored a place on CSM’s menswear MA course, and quickly captured the industry’s attention with his six-look graduate collection, which softened and subverted traditional men’s clothing.
Despite his roots in menswear, Esh immediately blurred the lines between women’s and men’s clothing with his debut catwalk show, held at Tate Modern. He is also determined to present collections on his terms, and is skipping the next season, because he refuses to present anything that is rushed or not ready.
After officially establishing his namesake label in 2022, Esh was invited to show as part of the British Fashion Council’s Newgen initiative, and he has also been awarded a scholarship to the Sarabande Foundation, a scheme set up by the late designer Alexander McQueen to support 'creative and visionary talent'. He works from his Sarabande studio in Haggerston, east London, just around the corner from where his dad was born. It’s one of the reasons, Esh explains, why his work so closely reflects his roots and surroundings.
One of the central questions to Esh’s work is: 'How real is this to me and to the people that I know?' with everything he does. For the spring/summer 2025 show (his third ever), he brought characters you’d meet on a night out in Hackney to London Fashion Week: slinky silhouettes, draped halternecks and the perfect pair of leather trousers all marched down the catwalk to the sound of Primal Scream. The band’s singer Bobby Gillespie sat in the front row, supporting his wife Katy England, the legendary stylist – and McQueen’s former right hand – who worked on the collection, as well as his son Lux Gillespie, who walked in the show.
Though his clothes may be some of the most glamorous coming out of London right now, Esh doesn’t design for ‘the upper-class person that fashion historically has been aimed at'. As he puts it: 'I love Chanel, but I don’t know anyone who owns a wardrobe full of Chanel.'
He cites the Belgian designer Raf Simons as one of his greatest sources of inspiration, recalling how Simons would observe skaters in Paris and put their 'holey, sh*tty jumpers' on the catwalk. 'That, to me, was fashion. Just a kid on the street wearing clothes in a certain way.'
Esh hasn’t had a break in five years and, despite skipping this season’s shows, he’s still working tirelessly towards September. Would he ever consider joining a major brand? 'I don’t want to work somewhere to make commercial clothes, to hit some sort of target in Q4,' he says. He would only think about working for another company 'if the heritage was so inspiring that you’d be able to do so much with it'. Maybe one day he’ll be lured by a big name, but perhaps not. Regardless, fashion is a certainty of Esh’s future. 'I’ve done seven years at school – I could’ve been a doctor, but I’m really good at making dresses and cutting a jacket.'
Priya Ahluwalia
A woman of many talents, Ahluwalia is a fashion designer, a film-maker, a consultant and, crucially, a businesswoman. 'I’ve always wanted to own a business,' she tells me, leaning over her huge desk, which is covered with colour-co-ordinated highlighters and post-its. Ahluwalia is part of a cohort of young designers who recognise the importance of mastering the business side of fashion at the outset. It’s worth noting that I first met her at a conference for hopeful entrepreneurs.
'When I decided to launch my own brand, there wasn’t much there that was speaking to me or the people I knew, in terms of luxury. I felt as if the Global South was excluded from the conversation. And I thought, 'I know I have something new to bring to the table.'' Since launching her eponymous brand in 2018, the 32-year-old Tooting-born designer has stayed true to that initial goal, and drawing on her Nigerian Indian heritage in particular. Her work outside fashion in the world of film also adds another dimension to her role as a designer; in 2022, she signed to Black Dog Films production company, part of the Ridley Scott Creative Group.
As well as bringing a fresh perspective, Ahluwalia is one of London’s leaders in sustainable fashion, working exclusively with vintage and deadstock fabrics. Her shows, often held early in the morning, are joyful and energetic enough to cure any mid-fashion-week hangover. What makes an Ahluwalia show? 'I often pull references and inspiration from the South Asian and Black diaspora, but it’s always filtered through my lived experience of being a Londoner,' she says.
Ahluwalia is another recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, which she was awarded back in 2021. At the end of 2024, much to her surprise, she received her first British Fashion Award for New Establishment Menswear. 'I really wasn’t expecting it at all,' she says. 'I was totally shocked. We don’t do these things for the awards, but it’s always nice to win.'
When I ask which trailblazers she takes inspiration from, she lists only other women: Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Miuccia Prada. 'Fashion is heavily female below the C-suite, but most people who actually own brands or are in the C-suite are men. There are hardly any female creative directors of luxury houses.' At the time of writing, out of the 12 clothing brands owned by LVMH – the world’s largest luxury-goods group that counts Louis Vuitton, Dior and Loewe among its stable of brands – only four have female creative directors. At its rival group Kering, which owns six labels including Gucci and Saint Laurent, there are none. 'When the system is rigged like that, I can’t help but be inspired by women.'
As for what comes next, there’s a whole world of plans. 'I can see the Ahluwalia living-room. An Ahluwalia restaurant. The Ahluwalia menu, the food…' The Ahluwalia list goes on.
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