For Spring/Summer 2027, Liverpool-born designer Patrick McDowell presented “Love,” a collection exploring the emotional relationship we build with our clothes and why certain pieces earn a permanent place in our wardrobes.
Staged inside Yeomanry House, a military building in central London, the setting was transformed with wildflowers, running water and a mirrored runway that made the whole thing feel extremely romantic.
Wong Kar-wai’s "In the Mood for Love" provided one of the collection’s major starting points. Its rich reds and greens filtered into McDowell’s palette, while the film’s famously beautiful costumes helped kick-start a wider conversation around clothing, memory and attachment.
The first look was McDowell’s Sylvia jacket, cut from striped silk-wool georgette with a structured peplum waist and decorated with hand-painted silk roses. That was followed by dresses and separates using the same fabric, immediately establishing a softer, fresher mood without losing the sense of occasion that has become central to McDowell’s work.
Roses climbed across tailoring, freesia appliqués nodded to McDowell’s mum’s favourite flower and silhouettes occasionally expanded into shapes that resembled blooms themselves. Familiar signatures returned too, including decorative buttons and sharply constructed tailoring, while collaborations introduced some of the collection’s more playful details. Pandora jewellery was embroidered directly onto garments, and Aspinal of London accessories were worked into the wider romantic world.
There was a noticeable 1930s and ’40s influence running through the collection, especially in the tailoring and cinched silhouettes, while black occasionally cut through the greens, blues and softer tones to stop everything becoming too pretty.
The final look pushed that romanticism to its limit with a strapless wedding dress arriving as a cloud of silk crepe de chine, silk georgette and tulle, complete with a dropped waist and enormous volume. It was also one of the least structured pieces McDowell has ever put on a runway. As Etta James’ “At Last” played, it provided an appropriately sentimental ending.
