TheIndustry.fashion has rounded up the seven key trends to emerge from London Fashion Week SS27, as British fashion heavyweights McQueen and Mulberry returned to the schedule alongside a host of unexpected runway moments.

Sky blue

• A light, almost powdery shade of blue appeared across collections including Erdem, Patrick McDowell, Talia Byre, Bora Aksu and Paul Costelloe, moving between sharply cut tailoring, translucent fabrics and romantic dresses. The colour functioned as both a grounding shade and a delicate accent throughout the week.

The business-casual blazer

• Fitted and strongly structured tailoring returned across the schedule, with fashion’s ongoing love affair with past decades showing little sign of slowing. McQueen presented elongated suiting with exaggerated shoulders and high, narrow waists, including three bespoke menswear looks made with Savile Row tailor Huntsman. Paul Costelloe revisited the shoulder pads and pussy-bow blouses of the house’s 1980s archive, while Roksanda loosened the formula through oversized coats, wide-leg trousers and pinstripes.

Appliqué flowers

• Rather than relying on traditional floral prints, designers turned flowers into three-dimensional surface treatments and sculptural motifs. At Burberry, delicate floral embellishments appeared across a powder-blue organza trench coat. Simone Rocha scaled her signature roses up dramatically, framing faces and covering the upper body. McQueen placed acid floral prints across reflective organza and allowed embroidered and jacquard blooms to fade into sheer fabrics. Vin + Omi covered a sheer white gown in hundreds of three-dimensional flowers made from recycled plastic, while KNWLS pressed crushed roses onto bullhide dresses, skirts and clutches.

Fringe and loose threads

• Frayed hems, exposed seams and distressed fabrics returned across the SS27 schedule, pushed beyond a straightforward grunge revival. Roksanda’s collection, inspired by Françoise Grossen’s braided and knotted rope sculptures, covered garments in loose threads and added shaggy fringed scarves and accessories to oversized tailoring. KNWLS explored torn lace, sliced denim and slips hanging from waistbands and hems, making garments appear to be unravelling mid-dress. Fringing also appeared at Labrum, Maximilian Raynor, Mark Fast and Erdem, among others.

Underwear as outerwear

• Underwear as outerwear became one of LFW’s clearest tools for exploring exposure and vulnerability this season. At Simone Rocha, sheer floral dresses revealed red underwear whilst briefs decorated with fabric roses were paired with a cream jacket and enormous floral collar. Yuhan Wang layered lingerie beneath striped polo jersey, paired lace stockings with boxer shorts and stacked briefs in lace, check cotton and jersey. The idea also crossed into the commercial end of the schedule, with Marks & Spencer drawing on its lingerie heritage for camisoles, lace bodies and underwear-as-outerwear looks in its first-ever LFW runway show.

High-low skirts

• The high-low skirt - cut shorter at the front and longer at the back - returned following an appearance at Michael Kors during New York Fashion Week. In London, McQueen, Patrick McDowell and Mithridate each used the uneven hemline to bring movement and drama to skirts and dresses, ranging from relatively restrained asymmetric midis to more theatrical shapes.

Acidic green

• At the opposite end of the palette from powder blue, acidic green cut through several collections. McQueen folded washed neon shades into a collection built on contrasts between religious imagery and underground London. Roksanda moved from black, ivory and chocolate brown into lime green, turquoise, yellow and hot pink, often combining several brights in one look. The colour also appeared at Ahluwalia, Erdem and Patrick McDowell. Chopova Lowena supplied the week’s most surreal interpretation: a tiny dog carried down the runway in a bright green inflatable coat.

For more information, visit theindustry.fashion.