“You Can't Fake Talent”—Lulu Kennedy On 25 Years Of Fashion East

Here's a question with two answers: What do the 10 designers Simone Rocha, Jonathan Anderson, Kim Jones, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, Craig Green, Gareth Pugh, Roksanda Ilincic, Nensi Dojaka and Maximilian Davis have in common? You don't need to be a Runway Genius to get the first answer, which is that they are amongst the most successful and stimulating designers to have come out of London in the 21st century. The second answer, however, is a little more niche: they all emerged with the help of the fashion incubator Fashion East.

Tomorrow night, Fashion East returns for its spring 2026 edition. The show will be held at London's Institute of Contemporary Art, and mark the entrée of two new designers, Mayhew and Jacek Gleba, into the 140-something list of up-and-comers Fashion East has given a platform to since its foundation in 2000. Returning designer Nuba will be this season's beneficiary of a further factor in Fashion East's success: the organization tends to offer its chosen talents an at-least three-season opportunity to show under the FE umbrella. Alongside the show, the ICA will also be hosting an retrospective exhibition dedicated to the first quarter-century of Fashion East.

Many people have made significant contributions to the Fashion East story. It could never have existed without the philanthropic instinct and commercial vision of the Zeloof family (more later). Similarly, Topshop in its pomp—when run by Jane Shepherdson—was instrumental in pushing it to the forefront of the London Fashion Week calendar, a role Nike continues today. Insiders past and present including Beth Serota, Sophie Jewes, and the organization's current Head of Projects Raphaelle Moore all deserve their flowers. And then, of course, there are the designers.

The undisputed chief protagonist of Fashion East, however, is Lulu Kennedy. Newcastle-born, Devon-raised, and shaped by formative cameos in Sicily, Ibiza, and Naples, Kennedy rolled up to London in the mid-1990s with no defined direction but a powerful supply of personal energy. In the run-up to tomorrow's big Fashion East birthday show, we checked in with Kennedy at her office in Brick Lane's Truman Brewery to talk through her long and lols-filled history as one of London fashion's leading lightning rods. Below, with many edits, is some of the best of it.