THE PATHOJEN PROJECT AW26 IS SHANE PRESTON'S LOVE LETTER TO THE LONDON GIRL

Reda Belhadfa attends The Pathojen Project, London Fashion Week's final — and most gloriously defiant — event of the season.

Isn’t it all so tragic? The ever-chugging steamroller of post-modernity has so oft and so violently bereft us of ornamentation, that we are left standing naked, alone and afraid, simply clad in some God awful skinny jeans and an ill fitting t-shirt. But this article isn’t about Demna or the horror show he put on in Milan. No, this article is about rakish dandyism, fashion for the female flaneur (flaneuse, if you will permit) and a new and promising hold out for self-expression and the joys of dress up.

Photography courtesy of Adam Pietraszewski

Yes, I speak of course of The Pathojen Project, LFW’s newest (and last scheduled) event of the season. Brought to us by designer and scene darling Shane Preston, frequently known as Princess Pathojen, their first collection is a true genesis, a birth in the winter, in beautifully garish technicolour and deliciously queer. Produced by Solana Talenti and Tommy Loveday, the show, as well as the guest list, was monumental in scale. Cartoon devils, ghostly apparitions and machinemensch graced the runway in a counter-cultural affirmation of fun and beauty. 

Photography courtesy of Adam Pietraszewski

The casting felt very queer, well, it was, as was the invite list, a veritable who’s who of the London trans and queer high society, the fashionable, the tragic beauties and, as is often the case in my experience, the musically inclined. In summation, the only arbiters of culture I ever want to hear from. The ever elusive and always ever so hot scene, so to speak. Every look was different, very unique each from the other, and yet all so delicately stitched together by this invisible thread. 

The whole show was set to live ambient sets, the walks choreographed, each model a beautiful, young-lady Frankenstein held together by opulent gowns and layers of chiffon, taffeta and fur, like mythical beasts pulled from pages of imaginary fables, taking delicate and tentative steps down a winding runway. Coming in dyads, triads, or as singular apparitions, each opulent, in that way only that certain special kind of London girl can truly be, decorative, telling a story of life in our post-2000 victorian capital. A show truly grounded in our time and place.

Photography courtesy of Adam Pietraszewski

The whole experience, from the staging to the show to the pieces to the night club venue, were very non-traditional, but I’d expect nothing less from the non-traditional crowd. The garments were no exception to this, each one was fashion and art, part gown, part ensemble, part performance piece, not made to be easily worn, lightly consumed or ever replicated. A girl in a Pathojen Project piece shall never bump into herself on the way to the market or at a dinner party. The Pathojen girl is meant to be that singular anomaly, one could never mistake her for another, nor does she fear cheap facsimiles, she is assured in her dignity and elegance.

Photography courtesy of Adam Pietraszewski

Of these society ladies, the last to walk, as well as the headliner of the afterparty (if you want a favourable review, have a fun after-party — it is essential to the journalistic process, I assure you) was the quintessential Pathojen girl, and friend of mine and the magazines’, Sissy Misfit, herself an industry darling in her own right. And with a live show featuring new music, one can say with some certainty The Pathojen Project was the perfect way to cap off London Fashion Week 2026. Pulling together a first show with this ambitious of a scale was no small feat, and I know I speak for many when I say we wait to see what Preston has in store for next season with bated breath.

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Reda Belhadfa is a London-based script writer and critic.