Taking previous seasons as the point of departure for the next seems to be something of a theme in London at the moment. It makes sense; for the city’s independent designers, there’s more than enough to keep their minds occupied without having to rack their brains to come up with a novel collection. For Charlie Constantinou, however, that’s always been an intrinsic part of his creative process. “The starting point was the end of last season,” he explains of his fall 2025 collection—or, in his brand’s verbiage, collection 4.5. “Generally, with my practice, it’s very much continually evolving.”
He built on his prior exploration of the extreme heat of the desert and flipped things into night mode, contemplating the temperature drops that turn sandy expanses like the Kalahari and the Sahara from open-air furnaces to fridges in a matter of hours. That was most clearly conveyed by the collection’s color story—colors being a particular strong suit of Constantinou, who’s cultish fan base fawns over the brand’s exquisitely mottled cold-dyed jerseys and zingy ripstop nylons. This season, the tonal spectrum ran from dusty gray and sun-bleached yellows, to icy blues and mauves, and back to rich ochres, oranges, and earth hues.
Perhaps the most impressive facet of the collection, though, was the evident investment in genuinely fascinating textile developments. What looked like glossy vinyl outerwear pieces were in fact constructed from featherlight jersey that had undergone a special screen-printing process that “builds a kind of thickness to it, so it maintains a level of drape but is far more durable,” Constantinou explained. Meanwhile, sculpturally ribbed lemon and charcoal knits came in dense, elasticated mohair and cotton.
The leather items were the real winners, though. The result of a partnership with Ecco Leather and London-based talent-incubation platform 1 Granary, leather jackets and trousers were bonded with marbled raw silk to create pieces that had the look and feel of rugged woven cloth, while perforated hides that had the visual texture of stretch mesh became a pair of wide-leg teal pants with techy zip detailing. It marked a significant point of elevation for Constantinou, rounding out his most successful collection so far.
