HEADER IMAGES Chris Yates courtesy of Purple PR
Under the chandeliers of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, fashion’s rhetoric of democratisation materialised beyond metaphor. The industry loves to gesture towards openness, with some diversified casting choices and free-to-view livestreams, but the mechanics of the runway format remain stubbornly visual. Shows are choreographed to be watched, with their finest details often only visible for mere moments as it stomps past you in moody low lighting and behind countless phone screens. The real question is no longer whether fashion believes in inclusion, but how willing it is to redesign itself to accommodate it.
At Chet Lo’s AW26 show, inclusion was engineered into the format itself. For its third year on the London Fashion Week schedule, Hackney-based non-profit Hair & Care returned with its Making Fashion Accessible programme, delivering its ninth accessible show and third in collaboration with Lo. Founded by hairstylist Anna Cofone, the organisation has spent the past two years developing a practical framework to open runway spaces to blind and low-vision audiences. This season, that framework intersected naturally with Lo’s own focus on gathering, shared space and cultural visibility.
Earlier in the week, Hair & Care invited guests into Lo’s studio for an intimate Touch Tour before the main event. Fabrics were handled, fastenings examined, with Lo’s sculptural spikes and dramatic silhouettes traced by hand. The designer spoke directly about his inspiration and construction choices, collapsing the usual distance between the designer and his audience. In an industry where even sighted guests rarely encounter a collection beyond a fleeting catwalk glance, the intimacy was striking.
“As someone who is visually impaired, you get used to feeling like certain moments aren’t designed for you,” says Vix Seffens, a visually impaired brand strategist who attended the Touch Tour. “What Hair & Care are doing flips that on its head. Through the Touch Tour, meeting the designer, and feeling the fabrics, the experience becomes incredibly rich, arguably more layered than what many sighted guests receive. It’s not just about access, it’s about expanding the experience. It’s exciting to see designers like Chet Lo embracing it.”
As someone who is visually impaired, you get used to feeling like certain moments aren’t designed for you. What Hair & Care are doing flips that on its head. Through the Touch Tour, meeting the designer, and feeling the fabrics, the experience becomes incredibly rich, arguably more layered than what many sighted guests receive.
Vix Seffens
Nineteen-year-old Evie, attending through the charity Victa, which supports blind and partially sighted young people across the UK, spoke about what that access means at a formative stage. “I have loved fashion since I was six,” she says. “I like how you can tell people’s personalities by how they dress.” For the studio visit, she wore a dress she made herself, transforming a bedsheet into a cocktail silhouette with a corset top. “Textures, patterns and colours all play a role in how I style myself. I like experimenting.” For a young designer-in-the-making, it was a reminder that fashion’s most powerful currency lies not in exclusivity, but in exchange.
On Saturday evening, Lo’s collection Night Market unfolded with cinematic intensity. Drawing on the energy of Hong Kong’s evening bazaars, the show channelled the density and intimacy of streets where vendors, lovers and strangers jostle together. Having taken his boyfriend on his first trip to Hong Kong, Lo rediscovered his home through a new lens. “There was one moment I really fell in love with,” he recalls of visiting a ladies’ market in Mong Kok with his partner. “You can buy anything there, from iPhone chargers to food to beautiful fabrics. Usually, I would be running in and out, but this time I looked around and really took it in through his lens.” Lo adds that they spent much of the trip huddled under an umbrella, which became a point of storytelling in the collection.
In Night Market, spiked parasols paid homage to this moment. Elsewhere, dramatic feathered garments and eyewear referenced the expressive traditions of Chinese opera. The palette moved through charcoal, emerald, crimson and maroon, echoing the contrast of streetlight and shadow, and Lo’s signature spiked merino knitwear balanced structural sharpness with softness.. Taking cues from In the Mood for Love and Fallen Angels by Wong Kar-wai, the collection carried a demi-couture sensibility that turned romantic memory into theatre.
The Night Market’s inclusivity extended beyond the catwalk. In collaboration with Red Flagged, founded by Ed Lee, the show space included market stalls spotlighting Asian creatives from across London. “Red Flagged is a community organisation to connect and bring together the Asian creative diaspora,” Lee explains. “We felt there was a lack of collectivism within our communities, so we want to bring everyone together. We want to represent, but also uplift.” For the show, the platform curated an eclectic line-up of makers, from independent fashion labels to candle brands, jewellers, photographers and fine artists. “Chet has been a huge champion for the Asian creative diaspora, and we’re grateful for how he’s sharing his platform.”
I lost my eyesight 13 years ago. I always say that I lived in a body I didn’t recognise for years and years because the beauty industry shut me out, and all my favourite things that I used to love, I could no longer love through no fault of my own. Hair & Care opened up the world for me again.
Lucy Edwards
While the market stalls expanded cultural participation, Hair & Care ensured the runway itself was accessible by design. Blind and low vision guests listened to live audio descriptions through Philips Sound’s H8000E headphones, with narration precisely timed to each model’s walk. Colours, cuts and textures were articulated with care, ensuring no nuance slipped past unnoticed.
“Audio has always been central to how we make fashion accessible, but having the right technology behind it makes a real difference,” says Cofone. “Partnering with Philips Sound represents a meaningful step forward, not only in the quality of the experience for our guests, but in what it signals about the industry’s commitment to inclusion. Accessibility isn’t just a responsibility. It enables a more creative and immersive way of experiencing fashion.”
That immersive experience resonates far beyond a single show. Lucy Edwards, who previously made history walking for Sinead O’Dwyer at Copenhagen Fashion Week during one of Hair & Care’s accessible runways, reflects on what that access means. “I lost my eyesight 13 years ago. I always say that I lived in a body I didn’t recognise for years and years because the beauty industry shut me out, and all my favourite things that I used to love, I could no longer love through no fault of my own. Hair & Care opened up the world for me again. Knowing the different trends and what’s coming up on the runways at London Fashion Week makes me feel so happy and included. I’ve felt my sense of self come back.”
Fashion so often views inclusion as symbolic, but at Night Market, widening access did not dilute the collection. Rather, it deepened it. Lo understands how to build a world and extend it outward. His knitwear, with its sculptural, three-dimensional surfaces, does not rely solely on sight; it insists on touch, texture and proximity. When the runway is built to include those historically excluded, the experience gains depth and clarity, strengthening rather than fragmenting the shared moment. Democratisation, then, is less about representation and more about participation.
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