London Fashion Week NEWGEN: LUEDER’s AW26 “Ghosts of My Life” Links Mental Armour to Genderless Design

LUEDER debuted its Autumn/Winter 2026 chapter “Ghosts of My Life” at London Fashion Week NEWGEN, using fashion to examine fear, anger and nostalgia through themes of mental health, community and genderless self-expression.

The brand’s concept of Mental Armour anchors the collection—clothing designed to offer emotional resilience alongside physical confidence. AW26 continues LUEDER’s long-term focus on destigmatising mental health, advocating for an industry that supports its makers and the people who connect through the work.

Influences include Tobias Spichtig’s haunting painterly worlds, the film Powder, and cultural theorist Mark Fisher, whose book Ghosts of My Life explores hauntology and the way the past continues to shape the present. The result is a tense, seductive universe where memory and desire sit close to dread.

LUEDER describes this season as sharper, angrier and sexier—a response to a world marked by uncertainty, where creativity and experimentation become radical. Small motifs and textures carry the message: newness as method, collaboration as community.

Technically, LUEDER’s pattern cutting remains a signature, aimed at creating a bespoke sensation within ready-to-wear. AW26 also introduces pinstriped suiting for the first time, referencing the designer’s background in bespoke tailoring, but deliberately stripped of traditional formality and reconstructed in a casual, subversive register. A futuristic, lightweight flocked nylon camouflage, developed with an Italian mill, adds contrast to the collection’s emotional and ornamental language.

Sound was built into the show’s identity through a collaboration with Danny Harle, who produced an original soundtrack ahead of his debut standalone album in February. Harle’s work—known through collaborations with Dua Lipa, PinkPantheress and Caroline Polachek—reinforced the show’s intensity.

Casting extended LUEDER’s community focus, combining models with musicians and creatives from London’s scene, including Lava La Rue, Rose McGowan and Princess Julia.