LUEDER Opened London Fashion Week AW26 With a Subversive Sex Appeal
by Tia Janowski
LUEDER opened the first full day of the London Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2026 season with force. Presenting their latest collection, Ghosts of My Life, founder Marie Lueder delivered a darker, angrier, and undeniably sexier evolution of the brand.
Set within the concrete, echoing Newgen show space at 180 Strand, the atmosphere felt industrial and charged. Guests clutched complimentary Blank Street coffees as anticipation built. When the show began, LUEDER’s signature fusion of classic tailoring and reimagined sportswear immediately commanded the runway.
Founded in 2019, the London-based label is built around the concept of “mental armour” - meaning Lueder designs garments to shield the body while creating space for expression, individuality, and emotional freedom. The brand continues its mission to destigmatise mental health, advocating for a more holistic fashion industry that supports both its creators and its community. In LUEDER’s world, collaboration and experimentation foster connection. Garments become symbols of protection, resilience, and theatrical self-expression.
Sustainability remains central to the brand’s ethos, demonstrated through the use of organic denim, recycled jersey, and regenerated nylon. The label’s distinctive hybrid language, a blend of sportswear, tailoring and medieval silhouettes, stems from Lueder’s childhood experiences at a medieval summer camp in Hamburg. There, she created costumes with her mother, and that sense of pageantry still lingers in the brand, now sharpened with intention.
Ghosts of My Life draws inspiration from the haunting landscapes of Tobias Spichtig, alongside Mark Fisher’s book, and the collection’s namesake, Ghosts of My Life, which explores hauntology and the persistence of the past. Together, these references construct a world that feels dark, seductive and emotionally charged, where memory, fear and desire collide. This season confronts anger, nostalgia, and vulnerability through the lens of community, mental health, and genderless design.
The colour palette of white, black, red, grey and light blue was bold and assertive. Silhouettes ranged from elongated smock-style shirting with exaggerated hoods to sharply tailored pieces cut with asymmetry and precision. Oversized, boxy proportions reinforce LUEDER’s commitment to fluidity and wearability. A standout piece was the long-sleeved white top emblazoned with the phrase “sorry no budget”, with the hand-painted typography appearing deliberately careless yet knowingly chic.
New techniques also emerged this season. A futuristic, lightweight flocked nylon camouflage, developed in collaboration with an Italian mill, introduced a technical dimension that offset the collection’s emotional references.
Pinstriped suiting, another new addition, paid homage to Lueder’s background in bespoke tailoring. Here, it was reimagined with relaxed irreverence, challenging traditional ideas of formality and structure.
Performance is Integral to LUEDER’S identity, and AW26 reinforced this commitment. Working closely with British music producer and composer Danny Harle, the runway unfolded to an original soundtrack designed to heighten the show’s emotional intensity and communal energy. Casting further reflected the brand’s commitment to community, blending models with musicians and creatives from London’s cultural scene, including Rose McGowan, Lava La Rue and Princess Julia.
As a whole, Ghosts of My Life marks a confident evolution for LUEDER. It has sharpened the brand’s core themes of protection, identity and emotional resilience while pushing further into sensuality and confrontation. Every element, from fabrication to performance, felt intentional. LUEDER delivered fashion as armour, rooted in community and charged with emotional release.