HANGOVER CHIC

At London Fashion Week, Sinead Gorey served up her latest collection with fast food and cigarettes. It seems like the new trend is about owning the walk of shame,

- Olivia Petter

Nothing is less fashionable than a walk of shame. Chances are, your hair is in disarray and smells like an ashtray. On top of that, you’ve not slept a wink. Think hooded, tired eyes with an overall visage that’s at best pallid and at worst severely sunken. Then there’s your outfit: laddered tights, someone else’s jacket, and a slinky top that’s completely at odds with 7am commuter attire.

Suffice to say, it’s not the most obvious aesthetic to serve as inspiration for designers at London Fashion Week. And yet, it was exactly that for Sinead Gorey, whose autumn/winter 2025 collection was a homage to the morning after the night before: it was literally titled “Walk of Shame”. According to the show notes, it proposed “a way of dressing that only surfaces during the wee hours” defined by “accidental elegance” and looks that are more thrown together than carefully assembled.

This was clear from the offset, as guests sat down to find bespoke KFC bags on their seats, each filled with a £10 “chicken cheque”. As the show kicked off in the depths of a car park beneath Oxford Circus to a thrumming soundtrack spearheaded by electronic duo Bicep, the mood was instantly one of underground – and after-hours – subversion.

Playfulness was amplified by way of the red lipstick kiss-marks several models had dotted across their chests.